77. Smile and grant Peace
Numbers 6:26 The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
The Lord promises to smile upon you and give you peace. “To lift up one’s countenance” is to smile cheerily or grin broadly. The countenance is the face or the look of a person; to lift up the face is to smile. One smiles with the whole face: the lips curl, the eyes wrinkle and twinkle, and the face brightens up. What a blessing it is and what a promise is coming when God smiles upon us! The Lord smiles upon us when He is pleased with us, when we make Him happy, when He is proud of us, and when He just loves us. Gratefully, this is all the time. Even when we do something that grieves Him He is still well disposed toward us. He may not like the sins we do, but he still likes us, the persons we are. We cannot change His attitude toward us by what we do or don’t do. Because of Christ God loves us always, without fail. We can’t make Him love us more, and can’t make Him love us less. The Lord is always happy with us; He is always smiling at us; He always sees Jesus in us; He is always pleased with us. We receive the Benediction with faith so that we know how God feels about us: He will lift up His countenance.
And finally, He will give us peace, not the peace of the world, but the peace of God, which passes all understanding. Jesus does not only wish it for us, like people who say “Shalom” or “Have a good day.” He literally gives it to us, straight out; He places the peace of God in the heart to guard our hearts and minds. The peace of God is more than we can understand, explain, or put into words, but we know it when we feel it. We may not always feel the peace, but we always have it. And by faith peace settles over us and inside of us when we repent and believe the Gospel. And when we hear this Benediction spoken over us the Lord Jesus Christ gives us peace. This inner peace goes beyond emotions or outward feelings. He speaks it; He gives it: I believe it; I have it. Enjoy!