'Common Ground' Song 83 ‘May the Lord, mighty God’
Words & Music: I-to Loh © Abingdon Press
YouTube recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RbhWVzHvFw
Featured image: Aaron’s blessing from ratnermuseum.org

This is, apparently, a Chinese song, arranged for English words. Of the three Youtube performances I found with the original tune, the one linked above is the clearest, but only covers the first of the two short verses. If the Chinese pentatonic tune is hard to pick up (though it should not be), try this arrangement to the better known tune ‘Edelweiß’, which has the same sort of flow to it, but with the two verses set as a through composition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPJeVJYZ64k

The words are based on the ‘Aaronic blessing’ in Numbers 6:24-26. There is one phrase that struck me, that is different from most Bible translations of the blessing: ‘[May God grant you] courage in every endeavour’. That stood out in a blessing that is otherwise asking for peace and grace. Because the sort of peace that God offers is not a ‘couch potato’ or ‘duvet day’ kind of existence. He gives us grace and peace in order that we may be stronger to do the work that he requires of us. The nature of that work (‘every endeavour’ is a very wide term) will vary from one person to another. For one, it will be working hard in a hospital with the health risks involved; for another, pastoring a church with its emotional burden; for another, risking assault or worse in fighting crime or challenging a brutal regime. But we must approach our given endeavour with the peace, grace and also courage that God gives us.