Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

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Give us this day our daily bread: this is our prayer

Author: Helen Otte (1986)
Tune: BARBARA (Friedell)
CCLI Number: 5021811
Published in 2 hymnals

Audio files: MIDI

Representative text cannot be shown for this hymn due to copyright.

Author: Helen Otte

Helen Ann (Brink) Otte Walter (b. Grand Rapids, MI, 1931) versified this psalm in 1982 for the Psalter Hymnal. She received her education at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and has worked as a teacher, proofreader, and librarian. She was a member of the Poets' Workshop that worked with the revision committee to prepare psalm versifications for the 1987 Psalter Hymnal. After her first husband died and she remarried, she remained active as a freelance writer, especially of children's stories and dramas, some of which have been published in Reformed Worship under the name Helen Walter. Bert Polman Go to person page >

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First Line:	Give us this day our daily bread: this is our prayer
Title:	Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread
Author:	Helen Otte (1986)
Meter:	8.4.8.4.8.8.8
Language:	English
Copyright:	© 1987, CRC Publications

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Notes

Scripture References:
st. 1 = Matt. 6:11, Luke 11:3
st. 2 = John 6:35

Beginning with the fourth petition of the Lord's Prayer (Matt. 6:11; Luke 11:3), "Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread" asks God to meet our daily needs and moves quickly to ask that God help us share from our abundance with "a world in need" (st. 1). The text makes clear that our sharing must involve not only daily needs but also the message and example of Christ's love, as we are loved. The text swings full circle by returning to the image of bread (from John 6)-Christ is the "living bread" (st. 2) who feeds the hungry multitudes.

At the request of the Psalter Hymnal Revision Committee, Helen Otte (PHH 17) wrote this text in 1986 for the tune BARBARA, a well-known setting for a text on the same theme: Grace N. Crowell's "Because I Have Been Given Much."

Liturgical Use:
A splendid offertory hymn (st. 1 and 2 also make a fine choral response at the offertory, but do not overuse); also useful in conjunction with stewardship themes.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook

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Tune

BARBARA (Friedell)

In modified bar-form (AA'B), BARBARA consists of two long lines and a third, longer line that comes to a strong cadence by means of a melisma. Sing this music in unison with firm organ tone. The tune also makes a fine choral prayer during the offertory, perhaps sung without accompaniment. BARBARA wa…

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