Seder 107: Numbers 6:22-27 and Matthew 5---the Aaronic Blessing and the Beatitudes

 God is the source of all blessings (James 1:17).  In the Bible, human representatives of God like kings (2 Sam 6:18; 1 Kings 8:14,55)  and priests (Ps 118:26; Lev 9:22) often prayed for blessings for God's people.

It was a duty of Israelite priests, in fact, to pray for blessing, and God gave them the words for such a prayer (Num 6:24-26).  The words include:

• "The Lord bless you"---as in Lev 26:3-13; Dt 28:3-14, which picture wellbeing in all areas of life.
• "And keep you"---protect you from things that work against this blessing, against peace and prosperity.  Such protection is described, for example, in Psalm 121.
• "The Lord make his face to shine upon you".  This expression pictures a superior showing favor to a subject, as in Pro 16:15:  "In the light of a king's face there is life, and his favor is like the clouds that bring the spring rain."  See Ps 31:16 for another example of this expression. 
• "And be gracious to you"---a prayer for God's mercy.
• "The Lord lift up his countenance upon you"---the opposite of hiding one's face in anger and turning away, as in Gen 4:6.  Deut 28:50 refers to a nation sent to punish Israel as "hard-faced".
• "And give you peace"---"peace" is shalom, which connotes prosperity, health, and wholeness.

This blessing "placed God's name" upon the Israelites.  As bearers of God's name, they were charged with representing him before the nations, a responsibility they were to carry out faithfully, as emphasized in one of the Ten Commandments (Ex 20:7).

Moses embodied what it meant to receive this blessing.  When he communed with God on Mount Sinai, he experienced God's shining face.  His own face then shone, illustrating a close relationship with God (Ex 34:29-35).  Biblical theologian David H. Wenkel studies the Bible's "shining face" and "face-to-face" motifs in his book Shining Like the Sun:  A Biblical Theology of Meeting God Face to Face.  

Some of the oldest known copies of verses from the Bible are copies of the Aaronic blessing preserved on two tiny silver strips dating from around 600 BC.  These strips were found at Ketef Hinnom in 1979.

When we think about biblical blessings, we also think about the Beatitudes pronounced by Jesus in Matt 5:2-12.  The Beatitudes are not prayers like the Aaronic blessing.  Rather, they identify groups of people who have already received blessing, even if they might not seem in the world's eyes to be very fortunate.  In a sermon at Church of the Messiah on July 2, 2022, Kyle Kettering brought out the difference and expounded on the Beatitudes.

Seder 73: Psalm 132---The End of the Ark's Pilgrimage

 Psalm 132 is the longest of the psalms of ascent (120-134), a group of psalms associated with pilgrimage to Jerusalem for festival days.  It is a psalm about the ark of the covenant being transported to Jerusalem in the days of King David (2 Sam 6; 1 Chron 15-16).

In this case the ark was not on a temporary journey to Jerusalem for a festival.  In fact, the ark was finally coming to rest at Zion at the end of a long pilgrimage.  "Arise O Lord and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might," we read in Psalm 132:8.

The psalm praises David's tireless efforts to bring the ark to Zion and asks that God remember David for these efforts (vv 1-5).  God responds that he will remember his covenant with David, a covenant that includes the promise that a Davidic king will rule forever.  

Psalm 132 includes a messianic prophecy.  Of Zion God says, "There I will make a horn sprout for David; I have prepared a lamp for my anointed."  Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, refers to this prophecy in Luke 1:69.

There is another reference to Psalm 132 in Acts 2:30, where Peter mentions the oath of Psalm 132:11 in his Pentecost sermon.  And Stephen in Acts 7:46 alludes to Psalm 132:5.

On September 17, 2021, Kyle Kettering gave a sermon on Psalm 132 at Church of the Messiah.  He noted another significant theme of Psalm 132, that of God as teacher (see v 12).  "Who is a teacher like him?", Job 36:22 asks.  Isa 2:3 pictures people from all nations coming to Zion to learn from him.