‘He is for you’: a blessing out of tune?

Dave Brennan analyses the popular Christian song, ‘The UK Blessing’.

A synthesiser from one side of the country starts, a piano from another part of the country enters, a message fades into view: ‘Churches from around the UK have come together to sing a blessing over the nation.’ And then amazing vocalists (all on Zoom) representing the likes of ‘Catholic Charismatic’, England and Vineyard Northern Ireland begin:

The Lord bless you and keep you Make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace As we receive, we agree, amen

Amen, Amen, Amen

May His favour be upon you and a thousand generations And your family and your children and their children, and their children

May His presence go before you and behind you, and beside you All around you, and within you He is with you, He is with you

In the morning, in the evening In your coming, and your going In your weeping, and rejoicing

He is for you, He is for you He is for you, He is for you He is for you, He is for you He is for you, He is for you

My message

‘Thanks for all your hard work on The UK Blessing, which has turned out beautifully and touched many … It is a fine sentiment to wish a blessing on the nation at this time and stands as a great example of ‘thinking outside of ourselves’ when we can be tempted to hibernate until the storm has passed …’

This is an excerpt from an email I sent to its director, Tim Hughes, reiterating my appreciation for The UK Blessing, which has now been viewed 3million times. And so, before I continue, let me be clear: this is not an attempted judgement on the people contributing to this video, whom I love as brothers and sisters in Christ, nor am I calling into question their motives, which were probably as generous and sincere as human motives can be. At one level, God’s people simply wanted to bless the nation during a terrible time, and they did so with enthusiasm and from the heart.

The message

However, in its present form the message – quite unintentionally I am sure – dangerously misleads the lost as to their spiritual standing before a holy God by insisting and repeating, its unqualified crescendo, ‘He is for you. He is for you.’ Of course, God loves all people (Ps.145:9), but is His primary message to our nation one of affirmation – an unreserved thumbs up?

Reiterated shouts of ‘He is for you, He is for you’, accompanied by nothing else, suggests that God is pleased with our nation as they are – there is no hint that anyone needs to humbly turn to the God they have opposed and change their ways in order to experience His full blessing. In contrast, the Bible repeatedly states: ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ (e.g. James 4:6)

In the Bible, the truly humble are not those who care for the vulnerable, or NHS workers (although we are extremely thankful for them), but those who acknowledge their sin and turn to God. Those who do not accept this truth, regardless of whether they are doing such kind and compassionate things at this sad time, remain enemies of the living God, cut off from Him, and condemned to death for eternity if they don’t repent. Jesus’ opening words were not ‘bless you’ but ‘repent and believe the good news’ (Mark 1:15)

Accordingly, in my correspondence with Tim Hughes I concluded: ‘Please could you consider adding in the description section underneath, for example, one of the following verses, perhaps with a brief explanation? Acts 3:26; Isaiah 55:6; Romans 8:1. I hope and pray that you receive this message in the spirit in which it is intended. I desire to see Christ exalted, the church purified, the lost saved.’

Misdirected message?

But back to the lyrics again, some may ask, ‘What’s the problem with singing the Aaronic blessing of Numbers 6? Surely we should rejoice that Scripture has been heard 3million times?’ Well, the problem arises from the fact that the words of this song are lifted out of context and directed towards the people of the United Kingdom. Whereas in Numbers 6:23 it is expressly God’s people, the people of Israel, that are the recipients of this blessing, not the pagan nations. Moreover, even for God’s own people the blessing is not exactly unconditional. By chapter 14, of the same book, God has judged this entire generation of Israelites.

Again, I am not saying that it is wrong to wish a blessing upon a pagan nation (see Jer. 29:7). But I am saying that this message needs clarification, or it can very easily mislead. When a toddler is running towards a road, a ‘Well done, look at you go!’ – even if sincerely meant, is inappropriate… irresponsible, in fact.

Sadly, our godless nation is on the road to destruction, and our affirmation that ‘He is with you, He is with you’ merely speeds our nation along that road. Surely this is spiritually irresponsible. This problem is intensified when we consider the direction in which our nation is running.

The state we’re in

Civilised though this nation may appear in public – the police are generally quite polite, most people obey traffic lights, we’re rather good at queueing and saying ‘sorry’ to strangers when we’ve done nothing wrong (e.g. looking at the same item on a supermarket shelf) – in private, I believe, we are, sadly, one of the most wicked nations on earth.

This is most evidently seen in our record on abortion. For the United Kingdom kills more unborn babies proportionally than any other country in Western Europe. Last year one in four babies were killed in the womb, that’s more than 200,000 children. 98% of these were healthy mothers, healthy babies – no medical complications or abnormalities whatsoever. Ann Furedi, head of BPAS, the main abortion provider in the UK, is very candid about this: these abortions are the result of an unapologetic and unreserved culture of ‘choice’ or autonomy.*

The total death toll in the UK now stands at over 9million since 1967 – well past the 6million mark of the Holocaust which we today rightly mourn and condemn.

But, more than that, the UK is a global accelerator of this worldwide genocide, pumping hundreds of millions of pounds into killing babies abroad.

And perhaps we have to acknowledge that the church has also been all too silent in the face of this genocide.

David Robertson (en,May), in considering various Christian responses to Covid-19, helpfully settles on the lesson of Luke 13:1-5. At the very least, what we are seeing in this moment in history is a wake-up call from God, a call to repent while we can. To me the UK Blessing seems to drown out the sound of that wake-up call to our nation. And instead lulls them back to sleep.

For a more extended analysis see brephos.org/post/the-trouble-with-the-uk-blessing.