“The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord look on you with favor and give you peace.”
The familiar blessing at the end of the service used to be something I only half-listened to. I thought it was the traditional ending to church and never thought anything more of it.
I know better now.
In another post I wrote on the benediction, I noted this:
The blessing at the end of the service isn’t the pastor’s blessing. He’s speaking the words, yes, but it’s God himself doing the blessing. It isn’t the pastor wishing that the Lord bless you—no. This is God himself saying these words—what he has done, is doing, and will continue to do until the day he calls you home to heaven.
God assures us—even now—he is blessing us. Even now, he is keeping us in his loving embrace. He has not abandoned us; he is right here with us, and he is smiling on us. God is gracious to us, treating us as his dearly loved children. And because we are his dearly loved children, he looks on us with favor and gives us his peace. We need that. We need to know that we are blessed by our God. We need to hear that every single day.
“You are now entering the mission field.”
The bold words painted above the church door were visible to churchgoers as they left the building. I used to glance at them once or twice, think about them briefly, and then move on with my day.
I know better now.
Psalm 67 has helped me reframe my thinking—about the benediction and why God blesses his people.
May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us—so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you. May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples with equity and guide the nations of the earth. May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you. The land yields its harvest; God, our God, blesses us. May God bless us still, so that all the ends of the earth will fear him. (Psalm 67:1-7)
What does it mean that God blesses his people? Why does God bless his people? How does being blessed by God change the way I live and interact with the people in my life?
Because of Jesus’ perfect life, innocent suffering and death, and triumphant resurrection, you and I are at peace with God. All of our sins have been forgiven. Heaven is our home.
That changes the way we live, doesn’t it? No matter what happens in this life, we are blessed beyond measure. Whether we have much or little by way of earthly possessions, health, or wealth, we have everything we need with our heavenly Father.
If God, in his infinite mercy, decides to bless us with earthly possessions, health, and wealth, we then have opportunities to use those blessings. Not for ourselves, but for others. So that God’s ways may be known—his salvation among the people God has put in our lives, the mission field we live in every day.
However, if God, in his infinite wisdom, decides not to bless us with earthly possessions, health, and wealth, we still have opportunities to let our light shine and give praise to God for what he has done for us in Christ Jesus.
That speaks volumes—perhaps even more so, at times, than praise from those abundantly blessed by earthly, material standards.
Dear Christian, no matter what, you are blessed. The mission field is all around you. And your Savior Jesus goes with you every step of the way.
Using the words of the Aaronic blessing, The Lord Bless You is a brief, inspirational book that explains what it means to be blessed by God. Personal prayers that fit many different situations are also included in this comforting devotional resource.
Did you enjoy this post? Subscribe for free Christ-centered content every week!
Alex Brown is the marketing and content copywriter at Northwestern Publishing House and a 2023 graduate of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary with a Master of Divinity degree. He enjoys reading, writing, and spending time in God’s creation with his family.
Leave a Reply