Give us day by day our daily bread.
Luke 11:3
Words: Josiah Conder, 1836.
Music: Munus John B. Calkin, 1872 (🔊 pdf nwc).
Alternate Tunes:
If you know where to get a good photo of Calkin (head & shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels),
The pupils of Rabbi Ben Jochai once asked him with regard to the manna sent to the Israelite host in the wilderness:
Why did not the Lord furnish enough manna to Israel for a year all at one time?
I will answer you with a parable,responded the teacher.Once there was a king who had a son to whom he gave a yearly allowance, paying him the entire sum on a fixed day. It soon happened that the day on which the allowance was given was the only day in the year when the father ever saw his son.
So the king changed his plan and gave his son day by day that which sufficed for the day. And now the son visited his father every morning. Thus God dealt with Israel.Quoted in Nutter, p. 230
Day by day the manna fell;
O to learn this lesson well!
Still by constant mercy fed,
Give me Lord, my daily bread.
Day by day,
the promise reads,
Daily strength for daily needs;
Cast foreboding fears away;
Take the manna of today.
Lord! my times are in Thy hand;
All my sanguine hopes have planned,
To Thy wisdom I resign,
And would make Thy purpose mine.
Thou my daily task shalt give;
Day by day to Thee I live;
So shall added years fulfill,
Not my own, my Father’s will.
Fond ambition, whisper not;
Happy is my humble lot.
Anxious, busy cares away;
I’m provided for today.
Oh, to live exempt from care
By the energy of prayer:
Strong in faith, with mind subdued,
Yet elate with gratitude!