"The Lord bless you and keep you..."

While I have always known that verses in the Bible have been inserted into sermons and messages and transformed into passages that are added to music for hymns and contemporary songs, I am always delighted when I find a passage that is very familiar and I can put the book, chapter, and verses with it.

As I have been reading The Bible in 365 Days on the YouVersion app, I have picked up passages that I remember from watching (and reading) Mistral's Daughter.  This movie focuses on the Jewish religion so most of what I recall is found in the Old Testament.

Occasionally I will be reading and find myself humming along with the tune of a contemporary song or an old hymn based on scripture.

Currently I am reading several segments each day, trying to get ahead for the missed days on the cruise.  We won't have internet connection for the time on the ship and I need it to connect to the app.  Even the minimal internet package would not 'do it' for me to have access.  So I am reading ahead and trying not to be too upset that my 'streak' of connecting each day will be broken while we are gone.

I am more of a New Testament girl, plus I enjoy the Psalms and Proverbs.  But the books of the Old Testament?  Not a fan.  Now, however, I can't read the entire Bible without hitting Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers, which is where I am right now.  Some of the reading has been tedious, and I am so thankful for the devotional commentary each day which gives me some background and a little bit of context for the chapters of the day.  But seriously.  Yesterday I read the SAME offerings brought by a large number of sons.  The SAME thing.  "One silver plate weighing a hundred and thirty shekels and one silver sprinkling bowl weighing seventy sheckles....."  The book of Numbers is full of just that....numbers.  I don't like numbers.  They confuse me. But I am learning connections and that is good.

One passage that did stand out to me in Numbers was from Chapter 6, verses 24-26.

"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."

As I read in the devotion for this day, I found the focus was on adultery and the punishment for it.  Odd that these verses came at the end, right?  But when I returned to the devotion, the message for ALL of us is that we need to be faithful to our promises (marriage included) and to be faithful in response to God's faithfulness to us.  God wants to bless us with his presence, his face shining on us.  He wants to be gracious to us because he is kind, merciful, forgiving, and full of love.  He gives us peace in the midst of the troubles of life and his protection.  He wants us to keep away from evil (hence the adultery in the previous passages) and the tendency to fall away from him in the process.  We need to be faithful to him in ALL of our relationships. (copied and somewhat paraphrased from the devotional for Day 76).

I can't read those verses, though, without singing them.

"The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make His face to shine upon you.
And give you peace.  (And give you peace)
And give you peace. (And give you peace)
The Lord make His face to shine upon you
And be gracious. And be gracious.
Unto. You.
Ah ah ah men. Ah ah ah men. Ah ah ah men. Ah....ah....men."

(ok..may not be exactly that but similar to what we used to sing at the end of the service in the Mt. Vernon Presbyterian Church)

But also I recall the end of the service each Sunday at St. Mark's Lutheran Church in Medaryville.

I can see Pastor Widiger move to the center of the platform, lift his hands, and speak the words:

"The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face to shine upon you.
The Lord be gracious unto you.
And give you peace" (as he made the sign of the cross)

And the organ then began to play and the voices joined in:
"Amen. Amen. Ah, ah, men."

Part of the customs of the church.

Maybe I knew it before and just forgot, but I don't recall that those lines were passages of Scripture, and I definitely don't recall that they were from a book of the Bible which I tried to avoid reading.

But there they were.  Right there.  In Numbers 6:24-26.

I learn something new every day!