HC 125

Q125. What is the fourth petition?

Give us this day our daily bread. That is: Provide us with all our bodily needs so that we may acknowledge that Thou art the only fountain of all good, and that our care and labour, and also Thy gifts, cannot do us any good without Thy blessing. Grant therefore that we may withdraw our trust from all creatures, and place it only in Thee.

Proof texts

• Ps. 104:27-30 — [27] These all look to you, to give them their food in due season. [28] When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things. [29] When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. [30] When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.
• Ps. 145:15-16 — [15] The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. [16] You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing.
• Matt. 6:25-34 — [25] “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? [26] Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? [27] And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? [28] And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, [29] yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. [30] But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? [31] Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ [32] For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. [33] But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. [34] “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
• Acts 14:17 — [17] Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.”
• Acts 17:25 — [25] nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
• Jas. 1:17 — [17] Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
• Deut. 8:3 — [3] And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
• Ps. 37:16 — [16] Better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked.
• Ps. 127:1-2 — [1] Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. [2] It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.
• 1 Cor. 15:58 — [58] Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
• Ps. 55:22 — [22] Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.
• Ps. 62:11 — [11] Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God,
• Ps. 146 — [1] Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD, O my soul! [2] I will praise the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. [3] Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. [4] When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish. [5] Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, [6] who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever; [7] who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free; [8] the LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous. [9] The LORD watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. [10] The LORD will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the LORD!
• Jer. 17:5-8 — [5] Thus says the LORD: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD. [6] He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. [7] “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. [8] He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
• Heb. 13:5-6 — [5] Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” [6] So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”

For discussion

1. The Assembly cited Ps. 104:27-30 in support of this answer. Read it in context — how does it bear on what is claimed here?
2. 15 passages are cited here. Which does the most work, and is anything claimed that the proofs do not obviously carry?
3. WSC Q98 treats the same ground. What does it add, and why might it put things differently?
4. WLC Q178 treats the same ground. What does it add, and why might it put things differently?

Read alongside

WSC Q98 · WLC Q178