My Prayer for You

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; 
the Lord lift up His countenance upon  you, and give you peace.
Num 6:24-26

The Dead Sea Scrolls were, until recently, our oldest copies of biblical text.  But in 1979, Villanova professor, Judith Hadley, was assisting archaeologist Gabriel Barkay, in excavating a site in Jerusalem's Hinnom Valley.  In a burial cave, she saw something resembling the metal cap of a pencil.  It was a sensational find, a tiny silver scroll of great antiquity.  Another was found nearby.  These tiny amulets, dating to the Hebrew monarchy seven centuries before Christ, were so small and fragile they took several years to painstakingly clean and open.  When scientists finally unrolled them, they found the world's oldest extant copy of a biblical text, the words of Numbers 6:24-26.

While the amulets date from the seventh century B.C., the original words are far older, coming 1400 years before Christ.  As the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, the Lord commanded the priests to bless the people with this three-fold blessing.  (Excerpt from: Then Sings My Soul by Robert J. Morgan.)

Today one of my favorite hymns is this biblical text set to music by Peter Christian Lutkin (1858-1931).  He was born in Wisconsin to parents who had emigrated from Denmark in 1844.  In addition to his position as Dean and Director of Choirs at Northwestern University, he also served as Professor of Theory, Piano, Organ, and Composition in the School of Music, 1895-1931 and Director of the School's Department of Church and Choral Music, 1926–28. (Wikipedia)