The Lord's Prayer, line by line

For Thine Is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory

Petition 8 of 8 · Matthew 6:13 · The Lord's Prayer

The prayer ends where it began, with God. The closing doxology hands back to the Father the kingdom we prayed would come, the power to answer our requests, and the glory of it all, for ever. It is the church's great Amen, and we note honestly that this ending has a particular place in the history of the text.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.Matthew 6:13 (KJV)

Ending where we began

The prayer opened with God, our Father in heaven, and it closes with God, whose is the kingdom, the power, and the glory. In between we have brought all our needs, for bread and pardon and protection, and now, having asked, we lift our eyes once more from ourselves to him. It is the most fitting of endings, a return to worship after the asking is done.

This closing is a doxology, a giving of glory, and it lands like the great Amen of the whole prayer. Having prayed thy kingdom come, we now confess thine is the kingdom. Having asked God to act, we now praise the power by which he acts. Having sought that his name be hallowed, we ascribe to him the glory. The prayer's requests are gathered up and offered back as praise.

What the words mean

Thine is the kingdom answers our earlier petition and grounds it. We asked the kingdom to come; now we confess it is already his. The reign we long for belongs to God by right, and because it is his, our prayer for its coming is sure to be answered. We are not asking him to seize what is not his but to make manifest what is already his own.

And the power means that God is able. It is one thing to ask; it is another to know the One we ask can do it. Having made our requests, we rest them on the almighty power of God, for whom nothing is too hard. The confession steadies faith: the God who hears is the God who can.

And the glory means that the end of it all is God's honor, not ours. Every answered prayer, every gift of bread and pardon and rescue, redounds finally to his glory. For ever stretches the whole confession into eternity: not for a season but without end, his is the kingdom and the power and the glory. And Amen sets our seal on it, an old word meaning truly, so be it, let it stand. It is faith's signature at the foot of the prayer, saying we mean every word and trust God to hear.

An honest note on the text

Faithfulness requires a clear word here. This closing doxology, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever, Amen, stands in the King James Version and in the Byzantine, or Majority, Greek text from which it was translated, and it has been prayed by Christians for many centuries. Yet it is absent from the earliest manuscripts we now possess, and for that reason many modern translations place it in a footnote or omit it, and it does not appear in Luke's version of the prayer at all.

How the traditions treat it differs, and each does so in good conscience. Many Protestant churches, following the King James text, pray the doxology as part of the prayer. The Roman Catholic tradition has historically ended the prayer at deliver us from evil and treats the doxology as a separate acclamation. The Eastern Orthodox churches include it. None of this is cause for alarm. The words themselves are entirely true and thoroughly biblical, drawn from the ancient praise of King David, who prayed, thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory. To pray them is to pray Scripture, and to end our prayer as God's people have long ended their prayers, in praise.

What it teaches about God, and about us

About God it teaches that he is King, mighty, and glorious, and that these are his for ever. The doxology is a burst of confidence in who God is, the sure ground on which all our asking rests. We can pray boldly because the kingdom, the power, and the glory are his.

About us it teaches that prayer should end in praise, and that our requests find their proper place only when they are surrounded by God's glory. We came asking; we leave adoring. The doxology lifts us out of ourselves and our needs and sets us again before the greatness of God, which is exactly where a praying heart is meant to rest.

A common misunderstanding

Some, learning that the doxology is not in the oldest manuscripts, conclude it must be false or a mere addition to be discarded with suspicion. But its words are true and biblical, and the church has prayed them for ages. The honest thing is neither to hide the textual history nor to be troubled by it, but to know it, and to pray the doxology gladly as the fitting, Scripture-shaped close it has long been.

Others rush through the ending as an empty formula, a way of signalling that the prayer is over. But it is not filler; it is the summit. Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory is worth slowing down for, for it turns our asking into worship and leaves us, as every prayer should, gazing at God.

How to pray this line

Let it become praise, not merely a sign-off. Having brought your requests, deliberately turn your eyes back to God and mean the words: yours, Lord, is the kingdom, yours the power, yours the glory. Rest your prayers on his kingship and might, and offer the whole of it to his honor.

And say the Amen from the heart. Do not let it slide off the tongue out of habit. It is your yes to everything you have prayed, your trust that the Father has heard, your confidence that his kingdom will come and his will be done. End, as the prayer ends, with your eyes on God and your heart at rest in him.

The heart of the gospel here

The kingdom, the power, and the glory are the Father's, and they are displayed above all in his Son. The kingdom comes in Jesus the King. The power of God is shown most fully not in thunder but in a cross and an empty tomb, the power that raised Christ from the dead. And the glory of God shines in the face of Jesus Christ, in whom we have seen the Father. So the doxology is not an abstraction; it points straight to Christ, in whom the kingdom, the power, and the glory are made known and made ours.

One day the prayer will be answered in full. The kingdom will have come, the will of God will be done on earth as in heaven, and the whole redeemed family will stand before the throne and cry that blessing and honor and glory and power be to him that sits upon it, and to the Lamb, for ever and ever. The doxology we pray now is a rehearsal of that everlasting song. To say thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever, Amen, is to join, even today, the praise that will never end.

The other petitions and more: Our Father which art in heaven · Hallowed be thy name · Thy kingdom come · Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven · Give us this day our daily bread · And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors · And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil · The whole prayer · How to pray · Prayer