Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Thy kingdom come. The kingdom of God is that moral and spiritual kingdom which the God of grace is setting up in this fallen world, whose subjects consist of as many as have been brought into hearty subjection to His gracious sceptre, and of which His Son Jesus is the glorious Head. In the inward reality of it, this kingdom existed ever since there were men who "walked with God" (Genesis 5:24), and "waited for His salvation" (Genesis 49:18); who were "continually with Him, holden by His right hand" (Psalms 73:23), who, even in the valley of the shadow of death feared no evil, when He was with them (Psalms 23:4). When Messiah Himself appeared, it was, as a visible kingdom, "at hand." His death laid the deep foundations of it-His ascension on high, "leading captivity captive and receiving gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious, that the Lord God might dwell among them," and the Pentecostal effusion of the Spirit, by which those gifts for men descended upon the rebellious, and the Lord God was beheld, in the persons of thousands upon the thousands "dwelling" among men-was a glorious "coming" of this kingdom. But it is still to come, and this petition, "Thy kingdom come," must not cease to ascend so long as one subject of it remains to be brought in. But does not this prayer stretch further forward-to "the glory to be revealed," or that stage of the kingdom called "the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ"? (2 Peter 1:11). Not directly, perhaps, since the petition that follows this - "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven" - would then bring us back to this present state of imperfection. Still, the mind refuses to be so bounded by stages and degrees, and in the act of praying "Thy kingdom come," it irresistibly stretches the wings of its faith, and longing, and joyous expectation out to the final and glorious consummation of the kingdom of God.
THIRD PETITION:
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven - or, as the same words are rendered in Luke, 'as in heaven, so upon earth'-as cheerfully, as constantly, as perfectly. But some will ask, Will this ever be? We answer, If the "new heavens and new earth" are to be just our present material system purified by fire and transfigured, of course it will. But we incline to think that the aspiration which we are taught in this beautiful petition to breathe forth has no direct reference to any such organic fulfillment and is only the spontaneous and resistless longing of the renewed soul-put into words-to see the whole inhabited earth in entire conformity to the will of God It asks not if ever it shall be-or if ever it can be-in order to pray this prayer. It must have its holy yearnings breathed forth, and this is just the bold yet simple expression of them. Nor is the Old Testament without prayers which come very near to this, (Psalms 7:9; Psalms 67:1-7; Psalms 72:19, etc.)
FOURTH PETITION: