Benediction “For Yours Is The Kingdom And The Power And The Glory Forever. Amen.”
Benediction
“For yours is the kingdom and the power
and the glory forever. Amen.”
For centuries, Christian congregations praying the Lord’s Prayer have concluded with this benediction, and it is a fitting way to end such a wonderful prayer. Without it, our praying would begin with the Father and end with the devil. We would be moving from heaven to hell in a very short time, and that kind of liturgy is far from edifying. The benediction enables us to begin with the Lord, continue with the Lord, and end with the Lord.
However, scholars tell us that this benediction is not part of the original text and that it was probably added when churches began to pray the Lord’s Prayer together in public worship. In the Didache, a second-century local church manual, it reads, “For thine is the power and the glory forever.” Other manuscripts of Matthew’s Gospel have different versions or no benediction at all.
Just because this benediction is not part of the original text doesn’t mean that using it is a sin or that the benediction itself teaches heresy. It’s generally agreed that the benediction is based on the words of David in 1 Chronicles 29 when he commissioned his son Solomon to build the temple.
Praise be to you, LORD, the God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and to give strength to all. Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.
1 Chronicles 29:10–13
The phrases “the kingdom” and “the power and the glory” are found here in David’s magnificent expression of worship, as well as the phrase “from everlasting to everlasting.” It’s likely that the benediction in Matthew 6:13 was born out of this womb of inspired Scripture and therefore may be used by God’s people today.
The statement “the kingdom and the power and the glory forever” is a poetical way of saying “your powerful glorious eternal kingdom,” and it reminds us that our heavenly Father is wonderful beyond description. We can pray to him and praise him from grateful hearts, because prayer and praise go together. We open the Lord’s Prayer with “Hallowed be your name,” and we close it with “For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.” True worship involves praise wrapped in prayer. That’s the best way to keep our praying from being selfish.
The benediction begins with the word for , which suggests that it is an argument for this prayer and a defense of prayer itself. It says to us, “Prayer is reasonable.” Why should we ask for these blessings? Because our God has willed to give them to those who ask and he is able to do what he wills. If he is King, he has power, and he reveals his glory to us by answering prayer. Satan wants to convince us that prayer is a waste of time, but the Word of God and our own Christian experience assure us that prayer is the key to God’s treasury of grace.
The Lord’s Prayer reveals to us what our God is like, and this should encourage us to pray. He is a Father who loves us and a King who reigns in heaven and works on earth. He provides our daily needs and forgives our sins. He guides us as we do his will and protects and delivers when the enemy attacks. Why should we worry or be afraid?
But the prayer not only reveals truth about God; it reveals truth about God’s children. We are part of a glorious family (“our Father”) that transcends time and space and one day will be gathered in heaven. Our sins are forgiven, and we have the blessed hope of sharing in Christ’s promised kingdom. We depend on our Father to feed us and to lead us as we seek his will and obey it. Praying this prayer should remind us of our own needs (not our greeds!) and our Father’s gracious provision. Above all else, it reminds us that all the glory belongs to the Lord, and that we should never ask the Father for anything that does not glorify him.
The phrase “yours is the kingdom” acknowledges that the Lord is in control and we must yield to his will. The command “Be still, and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10) literally means, “Take your hands off. Relax!” We are too prone to tell the Father what to do and to start manipulating circumstances to suit ourselves, when we should submit to him because the kingdom is his. At times we walk by sight and wonder if God is at work at all, but this posture is both foolish and dangerous. Imagine how disturbed Mary and Martha were when Jesus delayed arriving at Bethany when their brother Lazarus was so sick. Our Lord waited so long that Lazarus died; but when Jesus raised him from the dead, it brought more glory to God than if he had simply healed him, and many people trusted Christ as a result.
When I was in confirmation class, I was taught that Jesus was a Prophet when he was on earth, he is a Priest now in heaven, and he will be King when he returns; but this is faulty theology. Today in heaven he is the King-Priest, a priest on a throne! Because he is a priest, he has sympathy for his people. And because he is a king, he has sovereignty to work on their behalf. For his people, his throne is a throne of grace, not a throne of judgment. “The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all” (Ps. 103:19).
We must not minimize the phrase “and the power,” for there are kings and queens who reign but cannot rule because they have no power or authority. They are primarily figureheads, symbols of an ancient kingdom that help to “glue” things together. Our God is not like that. The angel Gabriel proclaimed to Mary, “For no word from God will ever fail” (Luke 1:37). And Jesus himself told his disciples that “all things are possible with God” (Mark 10:27). He has power! We see evidence of it in the world around us as well as in the functioning of our own bodies. The Word records what God did through the lives of believing people—Hebrews 11 is a good example—and challenges us to trust him to do in and through us that which will glorify him. “Very truly I tell you,” said Jesus, “all who have faith in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:12–13). What an encouragement to people who pray!
Let’s be careful not to limit the demonstration of God’s power to physical healing or the provision of material needs, because we need his power for overcoming the enemy, building character, and using our gifts and abilities to accomplish his will on earth. Jesus told us that, no matter how hard we try, apart from him we can do nothing (John 15:5). From writing a letter to preaching a sermon to performing an appendectomy, believers need the power of God. Only through the power of God will our ministry bring glory to God. As Paul extols in Ephesians 3:20–21, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
That brings us to the next part of our benediction.
“For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory . . .”
The Scriptures emphasize the fact that humanity is sinful and fragile and has no lasting glory. “All people are like grass, and all human faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever” (Isa. 40:6–8).
I have four thick books in my library titled Who Was Who, published years ago by the same people who publish the well-known Who’s Who series. The first volume begins with 1607 and the last one goes up to 1960. Occasionally I leaf through one of these volumes and look at the biographies of famous people, very few of whom I recognize. In their day, these people blossomed and attracted attention, but then their blossoms fell and their lives withered. Now they are remembered by only a few historians and other antiquarian specialists. Each time I walk into my library I see those four books and am reminded that my life is fragile and transient; only the Lord can make anything lasting out of it. “The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever” (1 John 2:17).
The kingdom belongs to God, the power belongs to God, and all the glory belongs to God. But everyone who has trusted Jesus Christ also belongs to God! Our Father wants to use our witness to bring others into the kingdom, to introduce them to the power of God that can change lives. Ephesians 3:20 points out that God’s power works in us— ordinary people—and not just in the apostles. No doubt you have noticed that some television advertising includes a small line that reads, “This is a paid endorsement.” Our witness for Christ is a “paid endorsement,” because we have been “bought with a price,” the blood of Jesus Christ. In fact, the price is a part of our witness!
God’s power is available to us if we truly seek to do his will and glorify his name.
There is an awesomeness about the word forever—“the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.” Even though we often pray about material and physical things that don’t last forever, we are still dealing with the things of eternity that do last forever. Our prayers involve the will and the glory of our eternal God, and they are marked forever. God is the eternal King, and his kingdom is “an everlasting kingdom” (Ps. 145:13). Prayer is not a waste of time; it is the best way to gain victory over time and invest in eternity. God has “set eternity in the human heart” (Eccles. 3:11), which helps to explain why unsaved people are dissatisfied with life. As they see family members and friends die, and as familiar landmarks crumble and organizations come and go, they crave permanence, but there is none. There can be no satisfaction or peace except in Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God.
In Jesus we have eternal life, which is not simply “endless life,” for lost souls in hell will exist endlessly. No, eternal life is the very life of God that is imparted to us when we trust Christ. While hell is an endless death, heaven is the experience of God’s life forever. Possessing eternal life on earth now means living “days of heaven upon earth” (Deut. 11:21 KJV). Defining eternity is hard enough; comprehending it is even more difficult. “Time out of mind” says one dictionary, and another says “duration of time without beginning or ending.” Because God is eternal, he had no beginning and will have no ending. “God dwells in eternity,” wrote A. W. Tozer, “but time dwells in him.”32 We are a part of eternity because we have received eternal life—God’s life—through faith in Jesus Christ. Eternal life dwells in us, and the Holy Spirit gives us a foretaste of heaven as we yield to him.
The Christian life is built on the eternal. The eternal God is our refuge (Deut. 33:27), and we rest on his eternal Word (Ps. 119:89). We will share in eternal glory (1 Peter 5:10) that far outweighs the burdens we carry today (2 Cor. 4:17). Each child of God will have a glorious new body, “an eternal house in heaven” (2 Cor. 5:1). We have an eternal inheritance that can never fade away (Heb. 9:15). All these blessings and much more are ours because we possess eternal life in Jesus Christ.
Consider the word forever. We will enjoy God’s house— heaven—forever (Ps. 23:6). God’s love endures forever (Psalm 136). He is faithful forever (Ps. 146:6). If we have been faithful, we will receive a crown that will last forever (1 Cor. 9:25). Through Jesus Christ, we have been “made perfect forever” (Heb. 10:14). God’s Word stands forever (1 Peter 1:25).
Interestingly, in the New Testament epistles the word amen is linked with the words glory and forever a number of times (Rom. 11:36; Gal. 1:5; Eph. 3:21; Phil. 4:20; 1 Tim. 1:17; 2 Tim. 4:18; Heb. 13:21; 1 Peter 4:11 and 5:11; 2 Peter 3:18; Jude 25). Read these verses and meditate on them. As you do, rejoice in the fact that God’s people are a part of eternity and will enjoy it forever!
C. S. Lewis wrote in The Four Loves, “All that is not eternal is eternally out of date.”33 We Christians are often called “old-fashioned” or “not with it” or “outdated” by people who don’t know Christ, when actually it is our accusers who are out of date ! Because we share in God’s eternal life, the passage of time takes nothing away from us that really is essential. “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16). “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18). Like the patriarchs of old, we live above the perishable by focusing on the eternal (Heb. 11:16).
“Aim at heaven,” wrote C. S. Lewis, “and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.”34
There are three words that Christian people throughout this world understand and use: Jesus (“Savior”), hallelujah (“praise the Lord”), and amen (“may it be so” or “may it come true”). Since Old Testament days, God’s people have used the word amen as a response of faith and confidence to prayers, sermons, testimonies, and even songs. At Mount Ebal, where Moses led the nation of Israel in accepting God’s covenant, they responded by saying “Amen!” to each blessing or curse (see Deuteronomy 27). Paul used amen five times as he wrote his letter to the Romans (1:25; 9:5; 11:36; 15:33; 16:27), and the apostle John wrote amen eight times in the book of Revelation (1:6, 7; 3:14; 5:14; 7:12; 19:4; 22:20, 21). Those verses are worth studying. In the early church, it was expected that worshipers would be led by the Spirit to praise God and say “Amen!” as they understood the Word being shared (1 Cor. 14:13–17).
Saying “Amen” in a service can be overdone. A well-known Bible teacher, now in heaven, was teaching at a conference, and a man sitting in the balcony kept shouting “Amen!” in response to almost every sentence the speaker uttered. The preacher, wearied of these distractions and interruptions, looked up at the man and said, “My brother, the Holy Spirit is a dove, not a hoot owl.” That solved the problem. However, our problem today is just the opposite. Too many worshipers remain silent when they ought to express their faith more enthusiastically (without becoming hoot owls).
Over the centuries, Christian congregations have prayed the Lord’s Prayer together and ended with a united “Amen.” The word itself comes from the Hebrew and means “to lean on something strong to steady yourself.” The image is one of a pilgrim leaning on his staff, or a person being protected and held up by a friend. Amen is related to words like believe, trust, faithful, certain, reliable. When we say “Amen!” to a preacher’s statement, we’re saying “Let it be so!” We’re committing ourselves to the truth we just heard, and we want others to join us in this commitment.
The first occurrence of amen in the Bible is in Genesis 15:6: “Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” Literally the verse says, “Abram said ‘Amen’ to the Lord.” The “amen” was his faith response to the promises of God in verses 1–5 (see Rom. 4:3, Gal. 3:6, and James 2:23). Abram was saying to the Lord, “Let it be so! May it come true!” He was affirming his confidence that God’s promises were right and dependable and he didn’t have to worry.
A “first cousin” of the Hebrew word amen is emet, which means “truth.” “He who is blessed in the earth will be blessed by the God of truth; and he who swears in the earth will swear by the God of truth” (Isa. 65:16 NASB). In this verse, the Lord could be called “the God of the amen.” To emphasize a statement, Jesus sometimes prefaced it with “Verily, verily” or “Truly, truly” (e.g., John 1:51; 5:19, 24, 25; 6:26, 32, 47). His words could very well be translated “Amen, amen.”
One of the names of Jesus is “the Amen” (Rev. 3:14). Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 1:20 help us understand and apply this name: “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God.” The promises the Father has given to his people, he first gave to his Son, and the Father will never violate those promises ! When by faith we say “Amen!” to a promise and claim it in the name of Jesus, that promise will be honored to the glory of God. As we abide in Christ, the Spirit shows us the promises in the Word that we need. We claim these promises by faith when we say “Amen!” through Jesus Christ, because Jesus is the Father’s “Amen” to every promise that we need. The deeper we go into the Scriptures, the better we get to know our Savior and the promises we have in him. Like Abraham, we must hear God’s promise and say “Amen!” to it as we claim it for ourselves.
Jesus Christ is the Father’s Amen to us and guarantees each promise. He is also the Amen for us as he intercedes for us before the throne. But even more, Jesus is God’s Amen in us through the Holy Spirit, teaching us, assuring us, and enabling us to say “Amen” to our Lord’s “Yes” in Christ (2 Cor. 1:20). We enjoy all these privileges as we pray and fellowship with God.
As unbelievable as it sounds, here on earth we are sharing in eternity! That’s why the words kingdom, power, glory, forever, and amen are so important. They help us to take inventory so we can make sure we are “on praying ground.”
Kingdom—Am I a faithful child and servant of the King?
Power—Am I depending on his power as I serve him?
Glory—Is my motive only to glorify Jesus Christ?
Forever—Do I live with eternity’s values in view?
Amen— Am I walking by faith and saying “Amen!” to his promises?
If we can answer “yes” to the above questions, then we are privileged to share in eternity as we pray.