Do you remember that golden moment— right at the beginning of the pandemic— when the Church rose in beautiful unity and responded, ministering God’s love and comfort to our panicking world? Remember? We sang God’s blessing over them.
The Church in the UK kicked it off and gathered musicians from all across the denominations, ethnicities, and generations to record and stitch together, Kari Jobe’s “The Blessing”. The words of scripture, straight from God’s heart, cut through the anxiety-laden atmosphere and brought peace. I can’t tell you how many times I hit repeat. Each time, I was moved to tears.
Many other cities and countries followed suit, each with their particular variation, it became a global moment of the Church standing and blessing, revealing the love of God, reminding us all that he was still with us and for us.
The Lord bless you
And keep you
Make His face shine upon you
And be gracious to you
The Lord turn His
Face toward you
And give you peaceAmen, amen, amen
Amen, amen, amenMay His favor be upon you
And a thousand generations
And Your family and your children
And their children, and their childrenMay His presence go before you
And behind you, and beside you
All around you, and within you
He is with you, He is with youIn the morning, in the evening
In your coming, and your going
In your weeping, and rejoicingHe is for you, He is for you
He is for you, He is for you
He is for you, He is for you
He is for you, He is for youAmen, amen, amen
Amen, amen, amenMay His presence go before you
And behind you, and beside you
All around you, and within you
He is with you, He is with you1
Why were these words in that particular moment so powerful? Why did they move us and strengthen us, even while we sang along to declare the blessing over our communities?
I believe it’s because they tapped into the very heart of what it means to be a priest, and we together stepped into our calling to be a priesthood of all believers. According to Deuteronomy 10:8, the first priests were simply called to:
carry the ark of the covenant
stand before the Lord to minister to him
bless in his name
And this is how they were to do it— these were the words that they were to use:
“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘“This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:
The Lord bless you
and keep you;the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.”’ Num 6:22-26
Even though the moment of The Blessing song has faded, we are still called to bless our communities with these words. Have you considered how that might shape your prayers of intercession?
INTERCESSION AS BLESSING
What is intercession if not praying for God’s blessing upon our families, churches, and communities? Blessing is intense and powerful. It’s more than good wishes, it’s a literal impartation of life and the flourishing that comes from God alone. We bless as conduits of God’s heart so it’s even more powerful when we are fully aligned with how he desires to bless. Thankfully, He’s not left us to figure this out on our own. The threefold priestly blessing reveals to us the essence of what that should include.
The Lord bless you…
The idea of blessing involves the release of divine activity to cause something or someone to flourish. In Genesis, where we first encounter God’s blessing, it’s in creation and it involves infusing the animals and then mankind with the ability to multiply. “Be fruitful and multiply” God declares, not as a command (for we can’t do it without Him), but as a blessing! Let’s pray for our people (be they our family, our church or our community) with faith that God wants to pour in life, flourishing, and multiplication of that life.
…and keep you.
The second blessing is for the Lord to keep us, protect us, and sustain us. This is a prominent theme in Jesus’ high priestly prayer of John 17, he intercedes that we would be kept from the enemy and the spirit of the world (Jn 17:12,15). He then further prays that we would be sanctified, or kept from sin, lies, and deception as he prays: ”Sanctify them in the truth, your word is truth.” (Jn 17:17). This is such an important way to intercede right now as so many are deconstructing their faith and losing their grasp of truth.
The Lord make his face shine upon you…
The third blessing is that the Lord’s face will shine upon us, which many biblical commentaries suggest is a repetition of the opening prayer for blessing, but lifting it to a higher level. Sort of a “more Lord” petition.
Consider how wonderful it is to have God’s face, which is like the noonday sun, shine with mercy and favour upon our lives and our communities.
For example, from Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible:
“Cause himself, the sun of righteousness, to arise and shine upon them, and give both spiritual light and heat unto them; grant his gracious presence, the manifestations of himself, communion with him, clearer discoveries of his love, of interest in him, and an increase of spiritual light and knowledge of his Gospel, and the truths of it, and of his mind and will.”
…and be gracious to you
The fourth blessing is that the Lord would be gracious to us. This idea of graciousness can sound, to our Canadian ears, like how we think of niceness or politeness. But think again, it’s so much more than that.
It’s all about grace. As we pray this blessing on our communities, we are sacramentally releasing the grace of God and grace is needed for every good and right response to God that we make. It’s needed for repentance, for obedience, for extending forgiveness, for enduring trials, for discerning direction, for receiving God’s love… the list goes on, and on. Grace is also what carries us when we fail and fumble, it’s what washes us of our sin, again and again, and imputes Jesus’s righteousness to us.
Pray for grace for your friends, your family, your neighbourhood, and know as you do, that this is a blessing the Lord delights in giving.
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you…
The fifth blessing takes the previous idea of his face shining upon us and amplifies it even more— God lifting up his countenance upon us (or upon those we are praying for), with a personal and tender interest. Think of it like what David asked for when he prayed: “keep me as the apple of your eye”, or when Joseph finally laid eyes on Benjamin, his little brother— it is this kind of gaze (Ps 17:8, Gen 43:29).
…and give you peace.
Shalom.
Nothing broken, nothing missing. This is about peace, but much more than the absence of anxiety, it’s the climax of this six-part blessing from the heart of God. It’s the ultimate full, blessing of flourishing in the presence of God.
This is the peace that passes understanding. It is the peace that comes as a manifestation of the Spirit. The same glorious breath of God that the early disciples experienced after Jesus’s resurrection (Jn 20:21) is the same peace and presence that he can breathe into our lives and the lives of those we are praying for.
Praying this priestly blessing over our communities in intercession is a powerful way to intercede, especially if you are unsure of how to respond in prayer in these rapidly changing days— which are so full of needs. This priestly blessing, from the very inception of the priesthood, contains in concentrated form, revelations into the love of God and his intentions for blessing us and using us to release full-throttle blessings into our communities.
The reason the UK blessing was even more impactful than concert-like renditions of the same song is that it was sung to a nation. Many of the worship leaders looked right into the camera, and they connected with their viewers— speaking God’s blessing right into their lives and situations. More intimate than we are used to, more intense, but wonderfully conveying the intimate and intense love of God through human faces and voices that were serving as a priesthood of believers.
I’d encourage you to give it another listen. Let the words of blessing go deep into your heart, refresh and strengthen you in God’s love— and prepare you to pray them over your people once again.
by: Kari Jobe, Cody Carnes, Steven Furtick, Chris Brown— Elevation Worship, 2020
11 By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted, But it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked. Proverbs 11:11 (NKJV)