Thoughts on the Divine Service
31. The Benediction
Dear friends,
At the end of the Divine Service, there’s an exchange of blessings. Throughout the service, we’ve rejoiced that the Lord has visited His people, present in His Word and sacraments to forgive our sins.
After all the Lord has done for us, the Benedicamus is only appropriate! The pastor calls out “Let us bless the Lord!”, and the congregation responds, “Thanks be to God!”
When we bless the Lord, “bless” is perhaps most synonymous with “praise,” and to praise God is to declare what God has done for us. In that respect, the entire Divine Service is a sacrifice of praise, for each canticle declares that the Lord is at work to give us life and salvation. Having received His gifts in His means of grace, we declare our thanks one more time.
However, the Lord gets the last word and blessing with the Benediction:
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace (Numbers 6:24-26).
There’s a lot going on here.
The Lord blesses; and when the Lord blesses, He gives what He says. By His Word and sacraments, He gives us forgiveness, life and salvation. By His provision of daily bread, He gives us all that we need for this body and life. As the service concludes, it ends with the Lord’s promise that He will accompany us and provide for us in the days to come.
Not only that, but He promises to keep us—to guard and protect us from every attack by the devil, the world and our own sinful flesh.
The Lord also makes His face to shine upon us in order to be gracious. This is an exceptional blessing found only in Christ. In Exodus 33:20, we learn that no sinner can look upon God’s face and live, so for God’s face to shine on unholy people would be devastating. But in the Old Testament, we find God’s shining face linked to His presence (Dan. 9:17) and salvation (cf. Ps. 31:16; 80:3, 7, 19), which is what the Divine Service has just been about! God’s face shines on us because Christ has cleansed us of our sin.
The Lord lifts up His countenance—or, as the Divine Service 1 benediction says, He looks upon us with favor. He works all things for our good because He gives us peace, and we are at peace with Him because He has taken our sins away.
You’ll note that the Benediction is a threefold blessing: “the Lord” is invoked three times, a reminder that we worship one God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It’s easy in English to forget that “Lord” is not a title in the original Hebrew: it’s the name of God, “Yahweh,” which English publishers usually replace with “LORD.” In fact, the very next verse, God declares that to speak this benediction is “to put My name upon the people of Israel” (Num 6:27). Where God’s name is, He is present (cf. Psalm 20:1); so as His name is put on us at the end of the service, He declares that He goes with us as we depart.
Does that sound familiar? When Jesus institutes Holy Baptism in Matthew 28, He declares that baptism is done “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”—in the name of the triune God, just like Numbers 6:24-26. And as God is present where His name is given, Jesus promises, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt 28:19-20).
As the Divine Service ends, then, we depart with the reminder that we live as God’s baptized people, born again into His kingdom. Forgiven and enriched by His gracious visit in the means of grace, we then go about our callings for the week. Then we gather again, and how does the liturgy begin? With the Invocation, recalling our baptism. As the Lord has safely brought us through another week, we gather again in His name, rejoicing that He comes to visit us again with grace and salvation. What joy!
It seems appropriate to end on a nerdy note: It’s a common practice in LCMS congregations for a closing hymn after the Benediction, but you’ll note that no hymn is suggested in the hymnal as the service concludes. Although we once concluded every service with a closing hymn at Good Shepherd, now we only have one when we have a processional, giving crucifer and pastor an opportunity to return from whence they came. On most Sundays, the service ends with the Benediction. Our reasoning for omitting a concluding hymn is twofold. One is pragmatic: given the growth of the congregation, the distribution is lengthy and the congregation actually sings more hymns now than it did when we had a shorter service with a closing hymn. The other is theological: when the service concludes with the Benediction, the Lord has the final word—and it’s a good one!