Benedictions and Doxologies Worth Memorizing
I grew up in a little church tucked into a redwood forest where our pastor ended each service with a benediction. I don’t think he called it a benediction. Perhaps it was labeled as such in the Sunday bulletin. I just knew that after he preached and after he prayed, we would stand and he’d raise his hand up and toward us and speak formal words. Maybe he read it, I’m not sure. After that, service was over, and we could file out to the patio where I’d run around with friends.
Later, in my teens, the next pastor continued the benediction tradition, only this pastor spoke the words informally. For a while there, I thought they were his own beautiful words. He repeated favorites so often that I memorized one or two of them without trying.
"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen."
Imagine that blessing being spoken over you as you begin each week! I loved it.
It wasn’t until I started digging deep into the Word on my own that I realized those weren’t Pastor Doug’s words. They were scripture! That blessing above?—It’s from Ephesians 3. Of course! Somehow, I knew they were more than mere words.
photo by Stephen Leonardi at Pexels
What is a benediction? And what is a Doxology?
A benediction is a blessing. In some church traditions, it is also a short service. Usually, the benediction comes at the end of a service. A benediction is a blessing spoken over people.
Similar, but different: A doxology is a praise given to God. So, technically, the benediction above that Pastor Doug spoke and I memorized was a doxology.
When I consider both benedictions and doxologies, I imagine it pleases God to hear His Spirit-inspired words spoken back to him in order to glorify Himself.
Benedictions and doxologies are worth memorizing. Once these words of blessing are imprinted on your heart, you, too, can speak them out freely. Say them over your children. Say them over yourself! Say them to God is praise.
They are the perfect Word in all sorts of situations.
When I dropped my son off at college, the school gathered the new students and their parents on the central lawn and led us in singing the benediction in Number 6:22-26 before saying our goodbyes. I still cry when I remember that afternoon on the grass, hearing my son singing on my left and the rest of the parents and students on my right. Somehow, over the lump in my throat, I sang along.
Skip forward several years, I wrote the same blessing in a thank you note to our Steward before leaving our cruise ship this summer.
Not keen on memorizing? You might try what I plan to do this year as I study Paul’s Letter to the Romans with BSF. The book of Romans is full of benedictions and doxologies. I plan to write each of them out in the cover of my Bible study book as I journey through the study.
11 Benedictions Worth Memorizing
Numbers 6:22-26
“‘“The Lord bless you
and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.”’
Romans 15:5-6
May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 15:13
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so tthat by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
2 Corinthians 13:14
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Ephesians 3:17-19
So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:20-21
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Philippians 4:7
(May) the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.
Hebrews 13:20-21
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
2 Peter 3:18
(May you) grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
6 Doxologies worth Memorizing
Romans 11:33, 36
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! … For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
1 Timothy 1:17
To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
1 Timothy 6:15-16
He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
Jude 24-25 - I memorized this doxology simply by hearing it repeated on so many Sundays as a teenager.
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
Revelation 1:5-6
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Revelation 7:12
Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.
Every Thanksgiving, my family sings the Doxology, a famous hymn based loosely on Psalm 150:6. My grandmother fiercley held this tradition, so perhaps it’s one that came from generations before her. I don’t know. What I do know is that the hymn captures everything a doxology is meant to do, and it does it with hundreds of years’ of tradition at its back.
What traditions have you experienced with benedictions and doxologies?
I love sending my subscribers thinkgs like this list of 12 Verses to Help You Endure.
I’d love to send it to you.
Glenna starts by outlining reasons why we should care to study the Bible, and why we can study the Bible without a fill-in study guide. Then she gives us her step-by-step inductive Bible study method.
Perhaps the best part of this book is its length. It’s short. I read it in just over an hour. It’s part of the Disciplines of Devotion series (TGC and Crossway) in which each book introduces one spiritual discipline and gives practical steps to implement them in your modern, hurried life.