Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's
Day 50, question 125. What is the fourth petition?
Give us this day our daily bread, that is, be pleased to provide
for all our bodily need, so that we may thereby acknowledge thee
to be the only fountain of all good, and that without thy blessing
neither our care and labor nor thy gifts can profit us. that
we may therefore withdraw our trust from all creatures and
place it alone in thee." This is a really profound exposition
of that short petition, give us this day our daily bread.
But you can see the logic of it. When we acknowledge that
God is the one who provides for our earthly, material, temporal
needs every day, That's not just something to be taken for granted.
That shows us something about who the Lord is. It shows us
that all good things come from Him. There's no other source
for them to come from. And so we rest in Him, we rejoice
in Him, and we receive from Him every blessing, everything that
we need, for body and soul. We're used to the Heidelberg
Catechism and the Belgic Confession and the Canons of Dort going
together because we call them the three forms of unity and
we publish them all under the same cover. But of course they
were actually composed separately and the Belgic Confession was
composed before the Catechism and as far as I know the authors
of the Catechism did not draw on the Belgic Confession in carrying
out their work. And so it's very striking. It
shows you that this was something that was in the air. In question
125 of the Heidelberg Catechism, you have God acknowledged as
the fountain of all good. Well, what does the Belgic Confession
say? Article 1, we all believe with the heart and confess with
the mouth that there is one only simple and spiritual being which
we call God, and that he is eternal, incomprehensible, invisible,
immutable, infinite, almighty, perfectly wise, just, good, and
the overflowing fountain of all good. The Belgic Confession and
the Heidelberg Catechism agree, and the application to us then
is that we look to the Lord our God for every good gift.
