Yahweh, high and holy Sovereign,
Claims the needy as His own,
Calls us to His holy presence,
Wraps us in His sweet shalom.
Refrain:
See His face ever lifted,
Ever shining, ever smiling,
Ever blessing, ever breathing peace.
Yahweh is our Great Protector,
He our Shepherd, we His sheep.
Guarding, guiding, seeking, finding,
He is watching while we sleep.
Yahweh takes us as His children,
Shares with us His holy name.
His the power, His the glory,
His the Kingdom we proclaim!
from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD
Numbers 6:22-27
One of the most familiar blessings in the Bible is also one of the earliest. After God had delivered His people from slavery in Egypt, He spent 40 years leading them through the desert wilderness, testing them, teaching them, and forming them into His own people. During those years He gave this blessing to Moses and asked him to give it his brother, Aaron, and to Aaron’s sons, God’s priests in Israel. God told them to speak this blessing to the people of Israel:
The LORD bless you, and keep you;
The LORD make His face shine on you,
And be gracious to you;
The LORD lift up His countenance on you,
And give you peace. (Numbers 6:24-26, NASB)
God delights to bless His people, and He wants us to know that He delights to bless us. But more than that, He wants to put His blessing in our mouths. He gives us chances to speak the Lord’s blessing over the lives of others, and to be blessed by God through the words of others. God wraps His people in the giving and receiving of His blessings.
But here, what specific blessings does God ask to be spoken by and to His people?
Look particularly at v.27. This blessing, and all the blessings of God that we speak to each other, are not empty, pious wishes. They are God’s blessings. God has decreed the well-being of His people. We are simply His instruments, His spokespersons, speaking His blessings into the lives of others.
Listen and sing:
Hymn: God Blesses His People
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics
When God was preparing Israel to enter the Promised Land, as He was forming them into a people who were uniquely His own, He commanded the priests to regularly bless His people with these words:
Yahweh bless you and keep you.
Yahweh shine His face on you and be gracious to you.
Yahweh lift His face on you and give you peace.
(Numbers 6:24-26, author’s translation)
To bless someone is to speak their well-being. Human speech, of itself, is relatively powerless. It is simply vibrating air. Though our blessings express kind intent, they are wishes, not commands.
But God’s words are sovereign, and so are His blessings. When He speaks, reality responds. When He blesses us, He decrees our well-being. And here in Numbers 6, as throughout scripture, God decrees the well-being of His people. He decrees the well-being of all who trust Him.
This special blessing in Numbers 6 doesn’t stop there. God wants His people to know that He is always keeping them. The word for “keep” means to watch, guard, and protect; to exercise great care over someone or something. For example, it describes the way one cares for a garden, or tends a flock, or watches over one’s own house.
Psalm 121:3-8 is a beautiful description of the way God keeps His people:
But my favorite part of this blessing in Numbers 6 is God’s promises about His face. Remember the story of Esther? She was afraid to enter the presence of the king without permission, and if she entered without him extending his favor, she would die. But here, God promises that the light of His face is always shining on us. He is always a gracious, loving, welcoming King. He invites us into His presence, and when we enter, He lifts up His face toward us and blesses us with His peace. This peace is not just the absence of all conflict. It is wholeness, harmony, and well-being, all the best that our sovereign God can give.
What does the light of God’s face mean in practical terms? Turn to Psalm 44. The psalmist is recounting all the ways God provided for His people by bringing them out of Egypt, taking them through the wilderness, then into the Promised Land. They overcame major challenges every step of the way.
It was not by their sword that they won the land,
nor did their arm bring them victory;
it was your right hand, your arm,
and the light of your face, for you loved them. (v.3, NIV)
God’s blessing, His keeping, His compassion, and the smile of His loving favor are constant toward His people, toward all those who love and trust Him.
Listen and sing:
Hymn: God Blesses His People
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics
