The Priestly Blessing

 When I started high school, my mother signed me up for the A Cappella Choir.  The very first piece of music we began working on was Peter Lutkin's The Lord Bless You and Keep You. The choir sang it at the end of every concert that we did, so it was the first thing we learned and the last thing we sang as seniors three years later. Today, our church choir sang this piece and it brought up so many memories. I remember Park Cooley, who has passed now, quite well. He managed to get more out of us than we knew we could do.

One thing I didn't think about as a pimple faced high school kid was how special it was. The piece puts to music the ancient priestly blessing from Numbers 6:24-26 as commanded by Yahweh Himself. We were blessing the audience, and each other in the name of God. Today, no doubt, the school would be sued by some woke busy body. But back then teachers occasionally discussed God and felt no requirement to include Muslims or atheists in their discussion, for one is the religion of Baal-Zebub and the other isn't true.

Gentle readers are invited to listen the priestly blessing set to Peter Lutkin's beautiful music above and receive a blessing.