Ask the Pastor: The Benediction
Question: How are we to receive the parting blessing? (Heads down? Heads up? Arms up?)
Answer: This is a great question! Let’s first consider what a parting blessing (called a “benediction,” meaning “good word”) is and then consider how we should receive it.
The benediction is God’s promise to us. The benediction is not simply a formal way to end a service (“This has been God, signing off!”), and it is not a vague statement of warm, fuzzy feelings (“All my love to you and yours, God”). Much more than that, the benediction is a formal promise in which God binds himself to bless his people.
The normal benediction that I use is from Numbers 6, when the Lord commands the benediction: “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel….So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them” (Num. 6:23–27). By putting his name upon us, God associates himself with us by claiming us as his own children. In this way, the benediction is similar to our baptism, where we are baptized into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19). Yet, although baptism is only administered once, we receive the blessing contained in the benediction every time we worship.
In my opinion, the proper way to receive such a blessing from God is with eyes lifted up. In making promises, God regularly calls his people to “lift up your eyes” to consider his promises (Gen. 13:14; 31:12; Isa. 49:18; 51:6; 60:4; Ps. 123:1). While there are times for repentant humility in which we should refrain from lifting up our eyes to heaven (Luke 18:13), the benediction’s purpose is not to convict us of our sin but to instill gospel confidence in the promises of God’s blessings. God is the lifter of our heads (Ps. 3:3), and Jesus himself models faith-filled confidence in prayer by lifting up his eyes to heaven (John 11:41; 17:1). Therefore, it is fitting to receive the benediction with faces and eyes lifted up to reflect the biblical posture for waiting expectantly for a promised blessing.
What, then, about our arms and hands? Scripturally, the reason that the minister raises his hands to pronounce the benediction is in keeping with the biblical example set in both the Old and New Testaments (Lev. 9:22; Luke 24:50). On the other hand, we have no biblical instructions about the hands of those who are receiving blessings. Some find that a posture of holding out open hands embodies the idea of receiving these blessings from God. For others, that physical posture feels unnecessary. Since I do not have a Word from the Lord laid down in the Scriptures on that matter, I will not bind anyone’s conscience one way or another.
Far more than body posture, my main exhortation would be to give serious consideration to your heart posture. Is the benediction a relief to you (“Finally this is over!”), or a signal for the next activity (“I need to grab the good cookies before the kids get them all!”)?
Or, does your heart linger over the words of the benediction as a bolster to your confidence in the Lord? Every week, you hear the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to you through the minister that he will bless you and keep you; make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; and lift up his countenance upon you, to give you peace. How often do you really consider what an extraordinary thing it is for God to promise you those things in the midst of your messy, chaotic, and burdened life?
This Lord’s Day, let’s lift our eyes and hearts up to the Lord as we listen to his promises!
