The Hidden Psychology Inside the Lord’s Prayer

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]It's different than just adore me for who I am, but rather do and it's even talks about that here. Do good things and believe true things. That's what I'm commanding you to do.

[00:00:10]And curious that it doesn't use the word love and you know, like you don't see that literally sitting right on the surface of the prayer.

[00:00:20]But the fact that it uses the term father or speaks about the will or heaven things like that.

[00:00:26]>> Yeah. It It It's in there.

[00:00:28]Let's talk about the daily bread cuz the next line is give us this day our daily bread.

[00:00:33]Swedenborg says the following. Everyone can see that goodness and truth are a person's genuine food. Anyone deprived of them is dead, not living.

[00:00:45]Talking with angels about the memory of the past and resulting worries about the future, I learned that the deeper and more perfect angels are, the less they care about the past or think about the future.

[00:00:58]That is why they are happy.

[00:01:00]From moment to moment they said, the Lord shows them what to think and supplies them with blessings and happiness so that they are free of worries and cares. This is what is meant in an inner sense by receiving manna from heaven daily, by the daily ration of bread mentioned in the Lord's prayer, and by being forbidden to worry about what we will eat or drink or how we will be clothed. Mhm.

[00:01:24]That's really really beautiful. Okay.

[00:01:27]>> Really really beautiful.

[00:01:28]>> we're going to another attitude to to say to the Lord in this give us our bread today.

[00:01:36]That's about trusting in the That's nice.

[00:01:41]>> It It's giving you uh this is the psychological lens through which you should view the trajectory of your life or or through which you should assess the threat levels of the future.

[00:01:56]And it's sort of saying, "Feed me now."

[00:02:01]You know, it's a very different spirit than that. It's the the emphasis on the on the day and in the Greek of one of the prayers it says, "Each day, every day, you know, give us our daily bread every day." And and uh the other one says, "Today."

[00:02:18]Um That's That's beautiful. It's And that that sense of just, "Hey, I just picture the angels being in this state where they are so far into trusting this whole thing.

[00:02:30]Oh, I heard you got to the speech tonight. What are you going to talk about?"

[00:02:35]I'll I'll I'll say whatever comes to mind, you know.

[00:02:38]Yeah.

[00:02:39]>> I'm I'm not I'm not fretting about it. I I know what the purpose is and it'll it'll come. It'll be good.

[00:02:48]Give us this day our daily bread is is essentially saying, "Live in the present moment."

[00:02:54]And but it's not it's a little more sophisticated than that because it's saying uh goodness and truth. You like basically, "I know that you will provide me with what I need today." With the good things and the true things that I need today.

[00:03:11]That's a little different than just whatever happens happens. Yeah, yeah.

[00:03:15]That's right. And the association that Swedenborg makes there, which is great, with the manna, this sort of mystical bread that would appear uh for the children of Israel and and feed them, sustain them when they're in the wilderness, um suggests that it's bread from heaven. And Jesus says, "I'm the bread."

[00:03:37]Doesn't he come down from heaven? And and and so that idea of heavenly bread it might take Swedenborg to tell us it well, it's talking about goodness and truth, but you can see that there's something beautiful that comes down from heaven that you're praying for that's of divine origin.

[00:03:58]You know, and it's not as simple as saying, "Look, I'm I'm starving, you know, feed me physical food."

[00:04:05]This is talking about a kind of spiritual food that you can even get when when you're hungry. Like like it's it's separate from from the issue of physical food.

[00:04:15]>> Yeah.

[00:04:16]Tell me if I'm wrong about this, but it seems to me like so you have the the the literal sense of the Bible.

[00:04:24]And then Swedenborg comes along and says, [clears throat] "Guess what, you guys?

[00:04:28]There is, by divine design, within this text these deeper layers of meaning that we'll just simplify it by there's a literal sense, but there's also a spiritual sense.

[00:04:40]So, within the external things it's describing, there's internal stuff. Is it true that the spiritual sense is really just making is just the psychological sense. Like this the the mind, your thoughts and feelings sense. If we go back and look at what this has been doing in the prayer so far, it's like, "Our Father who art in heaven."

[00:05:06]Which sounds like a person divine person out there in far away place. Yes.

[00:05:12]>> Actually turns out to be uh you know, love uh the the divine love and how it dwells with us.

[00:05:22]Right? Um "Hallowed be thy name" is, you know, seek and believe the truth. Which it it's all activities that happen anytime in in your mind. Right?

[00:05:32]>> In your mind. Right. Is that right?

[00:05:33]Yeah. As as the it says in the Old Testament, this is not far off that you have to go across the sea to go get it.

[00:05:40]It's right it's right in in you.

[00:05:44]So, that's interesting. I feel like if if you had to summarize, what what do you mean Swedenborg? There's a spiritual sense. He would say there's the external sense of the Bible where it describes wars and travels and food and environment.

[00:06:01]But then the internal sense is about the mind it's about what happens in your in your consciousness.

[00:06:08]Yes, and there's a fundamental kind of universality.

[00:06:15]You know, when you're reading about Joshua doing this in this particular story that's that's a person and there's some other people at a specific spot on the planet at a specific time period and here's what happened. But the universality of the spiritual meaning is that it's stuff we all we all have.

[00:06:39]A will and an intellect we there's goodness and truth the thoughts and feelings. You know, this is the world we all live in.

[00:06:48]This is who we are.

[00:06:50]We move on to and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

[00:06:55]This is from Swedenborg's divine providence. A popular misconception is that when sins have been forgiven, they are also set aside.

[00:07:04]When the sequence is sequence is reversed though, it is true. When sins have been set aside, they are forgiven.

[00:07:11]Repentance must precede forgiveness and apart from repentance, there is no forgiveness.

[00:07:17]That is why the Lord told his disciples to preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins and why John preached the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The Lord forgives everyone's sins. He does not accuse us or keep score.

[00:07:32]However, he cannot take our sins away except by the laws of his divine providence.

[00:07:38]For when Peter asked him how many times he should forgive someone who had sinned against him, whether seven was enough.

[00:07:44]He said that Peter should forgive not seven times but 70 * 7 times.

[00:07:49]What does this tell us about the Lord who is mercy itself? Mhm.

[00:07:54]That's a beautiful emphasis on what a great little summary of how repentance fits in with forgiveness.

[00:08:01]And so, the Lord's just radiating this blanket forgiveness.

[00:08:06]But, if we don't go through the process, there's there's rules of how that works to lay these things aside.

[00:08:14]And until we we do that, we don't you know, we don't get that benefit in the same way cuz that still clings to us, that issue. We haven't sort of shaken it off. And it's got the idea, again, of community that we we forgive others, right? Yeah.

[00:08:30]>> Like, you know, forgive us, we're we're forgiving others. So, there's such a beautiful sense of community throughout the prayer. What I like about Swedenborg's uh description of forgiveness of and sins and stuff is it shifts the the danger frame from the danger is God being upset with you Mhm. to the danger is the actual bad behavior itself.

[00:08:56]So, Yes, right. That's good.

[00:08:59]>> cuz it ends I've seen skits about this which is like the only the only reason why people are get getting in big trouble by God that he's going to send them into hell and all this stuff is like, if you could just let that go, God, we'd all be fine.

[00:09:14]Like, if you weren't so like wound up about this stuff, everything would be fine.

[00:09:21]Whereas, what this is saying is uh the anger of God is not a factor. This is You're talking about a being of infinite love and infinite wisdom. He's not going to get triggered. It's He He's cool. He's fine. He's got this under control.

[00:09:35]That's not the issue. He sees all the mitigating factors and the circumstances and all that. So, like that's not the issue.

[00:09:43]It's not that he's mad at you. The issue is though, the things that are flagged as sins are do so because they genuinely are destructive to human life. Yes. So >> concept.

[00:09:59]>> You can't if you're saying you know, forgive us our debts, it's like well Yeah, I'm not I'm not mad at you, but if you don't stop doing that stuff, I can't I can't I can't remove the damage of the actions.

[00:10:15]>> Yeah, I I can't cancel the consequences to your own spirit. Yeah. Of a life devoted to, you know, cruelty and revenge or whatever it might be.

[00:10:26]And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

[00:10:32]Swedenborg says in Secrets of Heaven, I was given the opportunity to perceive angels' ideas on the following words in the Lord's Prayer. Do not lead us into crisis, but free us from evil. The good spirits nearest me discarded crisis and evil by a certain way of thinking perceptible to me. Mhm. They rejected those ideas so thoroughly that what remained was purely angelic.

[00:10:54]Specifically, what was left was goodness without a hint of crisis or evil. In this way, the literal meaning died away completely.

[00:11:03]The first steps of the process was to form countless ideas of this goodness.

[00:11:09]How something beneficial comes of our affliction and yet the affliction arises out of us and our evil which contains its own penalty. Attached to these ideas was a kind of indignation that anyone should think that crises and their evils come from anywhere else and that anyone should think about evil when thinking about the Lord. These ideas were purified as they rose higher and higher.

[00:11:31]Their journey upward was represented by the discarding of certain elements.

[00:11:35]These elements were discarded in a manner and with a speed that are impossible to express until the ideas finally passed into an area of thought that was shadowy to me.

[00:11:45]Then they were in heaven, where the angels think only of the Lord's goodness in thoughts that are ineffable.

[00:11:53]Bet you didn't think I was about to say that. I did not.

[00:11:55]>> That's a left turn.

[00:11:56]>> No, that was quite a turn there. That was I got a little bit of >> Um Yeah, the G forces went up there. The um and uh it made me think of a centrifuge.

[00:12:08]I don't know why, but just the idea that things spin and then the things that are heavier kind of you know, are just just separated out.

[00:12:17]This is how they in in the lab, isn't this a lot of how they separate out different molecules or things like that?

[00:12:23]Because uh things that have more weight just shoot out to the sides and and so what an amazing thought that that cuz I know it's a phrase that some people really get stuck on.

[00:12:36]Cuz they say, "Don't lead us into temptation." And yet this whole idea of temptation is seems really important.

[00:12:41]Uh James, doesn't he say, "Oh, count it all joy when you go through diverse temptations because you know, this this will improve you." And Swedenborg says, "Oh, yes, it's an important part of how you really get reborn is going through this." So, why would you say, "Don't lead us into it?" Yeah.

[00:12:59]>> And then it seems like does it mean but deliver us from evil, but bracket do whatever you have to do to deliver us from evil. Yes. You know, cuz I Yes, we don't want to go through suffering, but if we have to, the main goal is to be delivered from evil. And part of it simply shifts the it's pleading with the Lord. Again, it's acknowledging that the Lord has power Yeah. over over evil and and over our suffering.

[00:13:31]>> [snorts] >> So, I was thinking about what it does in here is it says, "Hey, look, if you think that God is causing problems in your life, but really" How does he say it? It's It's really your own evil which causes those things. And you can get um And rightfully so, triggered that oh, this is just like religion is telling everyone that they're bad >> Yeah. and shameful and that that's damaging. That's one of the chief products.

[00:13:58]>> That's one of the chief products.

[00:13:59]>> of the one of the So, selling points. I would yeah, that can definitely be abused and especially when it's just a blanket at like you're always guilty no matter what. Like original sin. You doesn't matter what you did or didn't do or or sometimes you'll see it, you know, in like these like YouTube evangelists or like, "Well, did you ever lie once? If you ever lied once, then you have fallen short of the kingdom of God." Like this sort of like moral absurdity.

[00:14:25]So, yeah, sure, that's not good.

[00:14:28]However, if you look at outside that context, when there actually is the actual power of acknowledging your role in the problem. So, if you think about like couples therapy, you're going to go there cuz you're you're trying to you're you're like you're married and you're having some problems and you go there.

[00:14:51]Is it or isn't it a good thing when you realize, "Oh, I've been doing that which makes things worse." Like oh, some of the like if if if you go in if you're a seasoned therapist and a couple comes in and one or both of them are like, "Well, there's your problem right there.

[00:15:10]That's the problem. I've just been doing this good and this good and this good and there's your problem." Now, that's not impossible, but as a red flag. As like the It's very likely that you are not understanding your contribution to this and how difficult is it to ever get anywhere unless you like to in the in the therapeutic setting you realizing the problems that you are contributing that is more precious than gold to the the goal. So that's I would that's how I would see this here which is like oh, understanding here's here's what I bring to this uh that's going to let me move forward and let God do kind of the surgery to get those things out of me. And same thing I'm thinking about you know, isn't that what you love somebody their life is being torn apart by addiction until they decide they want help and that they are a problem. Then you you can do anything won't do anything. It's a lot of um effort you can pour in and just have your heart broken kind of thing because it it just doesn't move forward. There's there's another agenda going on.

[00:16:25]The prayer ends with for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

[00:16:31]Swedenborg writes that thine is the kingdom the power and the glory means divine truth from God alone. It is all It is also said power and glory because divine truth has all power and glory.

[00:16:44]Yes, right.

[00:16:46]So there you get kingdom coming back.

[00:16:48]Kingdom is a is a truth word Swedenborg says glory is a truth word as well and power is the power that love has through truth. So it's interesting that you would end with those three things that are kind of on the on the truth side. I don't know if I'm making a lick of sense but >> well and you were talking before about the the as in heaven so upon the earth. I bet if you looked at it in detail, it's like that's capping up something that there's a there's a there's a logic like a structure that there's a completeness to it.

[00:17:26]And there's an acknowledgement of like the all those things are yours.

[00:17:32]You know, it's it's the Lord's kingdom, you know, yours is the power, yours is the glory.

[00:17:38]We human beings we tend to sort of like it's my power my glory, you know, and there's something good about the the humility in the prayer to admit that.

[00:17:50]If you think of it too as what did we define God as like what are the characteristics of God? It's this universal love and universal truth.

[00:18:00]That's who God is. You can Swedenborg does say it's very important to think of God like a person. This is absolutely a being with a will and a mind even if they're expansive and infinite. But if you think of God basically representing the common good.

[00:18:17]Then you have all of human problematic orientation in a nutshell because to say this is all about me, this is my kingdom, and my power, and glory versus this is all about the human race, that's the root of all evil and and all you know, damaging behavior is to put self at the center when obviously there's this larger thing going on. And if I can just geek out on Greek for a second. Greek geek, let's do it.

[00:18:47]The first half of the prayer has this great little rhythm to it. It says and that su means yours. So, I guess they do to onama it must be holy the name yours.

[00:19:05]You know, the will that must be done is yours. The kingdom that must come is yours. So, in a certain way the the Greek emphasizes the your will is the one that needs to be done. Your kingdom is the one that needs to come, not not mine, kind of thing.

[00:19:20]Your your name needs to be holy. Don't worry about my name. You know.

[00:19:24]Can you say that again? The No, I mean I just mean the Greek part. I get what you mean, but I never heard this in my life.

[00:19:29]So, one more time.

[00:19:30]>> Hagiasthito to onoma sou. Eltheto he basileia sou. Genetheto to thelema sou.

[00:19:36]Hos en ourano kai epi ges. And that last bit is as in heaven, so upon the earth.

[00:19:40]It's almost got the same rhythm to it.

[00:19:42]Okay, so I'm hoping somebody up there can clip that and make it into a song, right? Put a put a beat behind it.

[00:19:49]That is That's awesome. And and yeah, that So, I never thought about that that that's in the language there. That's great. And so, as that proves, there's so much in there. We're just scratching the surface here. Swedenborg alludes to this.

[00:20:04]He says, "When the Lord's Prayer is being said, which embraces all heavenly and spiritual things within it, so much can be poured into every least detail that heaven itself is not great enough to contain it all. And this, of course, depending on the capacity and use of each individual."

[00:20:21]So, again, where do you find anywhere Christianity or outside Christianity where a position of such importance and the reasons for it is assigned to this bit of text? Yeah. And you would think if it if it really is true that there's a god out there and that god has some kind of providence where god is to whatever extent inter- intervening in human affairs. Yep. And wouldn't it then make sense that if god directly asked people to say this, and it happens to be I I can't think of another contender for the most recited thing ever. If you think about how many people every week now just say that, um wouldn't probably want the the thing that people are saying most to be this incredibly powerful thing that has all the spiritual potential in it? That makes sense why why you Providence would spread it far and wide.

[00:21:22]And it's quite succinct.

[00:21:24]It's kind of like the 10 Commandments that way. It just gets on with it. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. A few phrases.

[00:21:30]Easy to memorize.

[00:21:32]Right? Yeah. Uh it's a it's a great thing. So next time, you know, people are at home or are there if they go to church or whatever, uh and you got occasion to or maybe you never have said this prayer and you think