From Numbers, Chapter 6:

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, 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.

“So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”

There is something inherently poignant about that phrase, “bless you and keep you,” amplified by the context here, where it is after all God himself who is saying that these are the words he wishes his people to be blessed with.

There’s an old standard, written by Meredith Wilson, that uses that same benediction (recorded by many, including Jim Reeves and Perry Como):

May the good Lord bless and keep you, whether near or far away.
May you find that long-awaited golden day today.
May your troubles all be small ones, and your fortune ten times ten.
May the good Lord bless and keep you ’til we meet again.

Cute, and perhaps nothing more.

Then of-course there’s Bob Dylan’s use of the same phrase, in his song Forever Young.

May God bless and keep you always,
May your wishes all come true,
May you always do for others
And let others do for you.

“May your wishes all come true;” that line has always seemed kind of banal to me after the opening benediction. But when listening to the song it is quickly overtaken by “May you always do for others / And let others do for you,” which is very far from banal, and this is another difference between reading a lyric and hearing it performed. And without a doubt the whole song only keeps gaining in depth as the years pass by, and those “winds of changes” keep shifting.

There’s a nice performance from the David Letterman show in 1993 on YouTube. Click here or play below.

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