This is one of the key incidents in the gospels, Peter's declaration of who Jesus is. Notice when it happens. Peter, along with the other disciples, had not covered themselves in glory over the feeding of the 5000, and immediately after this Peter would be rebuked for speaking on Satan's behalf (though Luke doesn't record this).
Jesus was praying in private. Wouldn't it be good to know more about what Jesus actually prayed? Anyway, His disciples were with Him. He asked them who the people thought He was. To this there were all sorts of answers, John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the other prophets. All of them wrong. In our day we lay great store on asking what people think, politicians are always going on about listening to people. The truth is "the people" know precious little, and much of what we think we do know is rubbish. At the time of writing (30 Aug 13) the Archbishop of Canterbury has recently given a speech on homosexuality a lot of which seems to be based on the fact that society's views have changed. Well so what? This does not mean they are right to change, it does not mean that God's "views" have changed. The gospel is based on revelation, as we are about to see here.
Jesus then asks the disciples who He is and Peter declares that He is the Messiah. In Mark it is made clear that this truth was revealed to Peter by the Father. Luke's emphasis here is on the fact that Jesus is the Messiah and that the disciples recognised who He was.
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