DUNCAN/Blessing and blessed

Please turn with me in your Bible to Psalm 134. When you look at it, this psalm has the feel of being antiphonal, like somebody’s speaking to somebody else. You see the first two stanzas, in verses 1 and 2, look like someone speaking to someone else and then the third stanza looks like someone responding back to the people who spoke in verses 1 and 2. It sounds like somebody is speaking to the servants of the Lord who are ministering to the night, by night, in the house of the Lord. And in this declaration, we see a call to bless the Lord by day and night, to lift up our hands in prayer, and to bless the Lord from mount Zion.  

Bless the Lord 

The first thing that I want you to see from the very first call, and whoever’s singing out verse 1, says, “Bless the LORD!” There is debate over whether it is the Levites calling the people coming into the temple to bless the Lord or the people declaring this proclamation to the Levites. While the priests were praising the Lord in their offering of the sacrifices, the worshippers were doing the same. Whoever is being called to, one thing is clear. God’s people are being called to bless the Lord. 

What does that mean? It means at very least that we are to declare God to be the truly blessed One and the source of every blessing. Do you really believe that He is the source of every blessing? Then declare it, not just with your lips but with your hearts when you come to the house of the Lord. Highly prize Him above everything else. Pronounce Him to be precious to you, more precious to you than anything or anyone else in this world. When we come to the house of the Lord it’s our job to focus on the Lord and say, “Lord, You are our satisfaction. You are our treasure. You are truly blessed. From You comes every blessing. I’m not going to find blessing in the world unless I find You because it’s in You that all true blessedness exists.” So, bless the Lord. And we do every time we gather. 

Bless the Lord by Night 

Secondly, notice again in verse 1 that we are to bless the Lord by night. “Come bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, who stand by night in the house of the LORD.” They stand in the house of the Lord to bless. That’s language right out of Deuteronomy. It’s language right out of 1 Chronicles 23. It’s language of worship services. Their job is to bless the Lord. It sounds like the evening service. And this actually appears on more than one occasion in the Old and New Testament. When Elijah the prophet was about to culminate that contest with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Prior to calling down fire from God from heaven to consume the sacrifice, we’re told there in 1 Kings 18 that it was about the time of the evening sacrifice when he prayed that prayer. Now fast forward — Daniel. He has been in exile for almost seven decades in Babylon. And do you remember Daniel 9:21? God gives him this vision and in the vision the angel Gabriel comes to Daniel and Daniel tells us that it was about the time of the evening sacrifice when he had the vision. 

When you gather for worship on the evening of the Lord’s Day, you’re doing something that goes back three thousand years at least to the time of David and Solomon and the morning and evening sacrifice. So, here’s my word to you. Bless the Lord by night. Take peculiar delight in the Lord’s Day evening worship. 

Bless the Lord by Lifting Up Hands 

Next, bless the Lord by lifting up your hands. What does it mean to lift up hands to the holy place? Lifting up hands in the Bible is a posture of Prayer! It’s a way in which you show honor to God in public prayer. By the way, that’s why Presbyterian ministers lift up their hands in the prayer of adoration and invocation in a worship service. We’re just following a Biblical posture of prayer. It’s the most common Biblical posture of prayer. There are multiple Biblical postures of prayer. One Biblical posture of prayer is being totally prostrate on the floor on the ground spread out before the Lord. But another posture of prayer is with your hands lifted up to God. And the call to “lift up your hands to the holy place” or “to the sanctuary” or “in the holy place” are possibly to lift up your hands in crying out to God. Maybe that’s what Paul is catching on to in 1 Timothy chapter 2 — “Lift up holy hands in every place” is a call to bless the Lord by prayer, to pray to the Lord in the house of the Lord. What does Jesus say? “My Father’s house is a house of prayer,” so bless the Lord by prayer in the house of the Lord.

Bless the Lord from Mount Zion

And finally, remember, on Sunday night when you go to church to bless the Lord, you go to a better place than Moses or David or Solomon. And I’m not talking about the physical building. Do you remember that conversation that Jesus had with the woman at the well in Samaria? And He said to her, “Woman, I tell you, there is a day that is coming when we will neither worship here in Samaria, these mountains, nor in Jerusalem at the temple, for God is seeking worshipers who will worship Him in spirit and truth.” And it’s interesting. The woman’s response is, “Okay, Jesus, I know who You’re talking about. You’re talking about the day when the Messiah comes.” And you remember what Jesus says to her? “I am He.” And then He says to His disciples in Matthew 18 that “Where two or three of you are gathered in My name, there I am in your midst.” Jesus is saying in John 4 and in Matthew 18 that the place where new covenant believers now come to meet with the living God is in Him.

So, when you come to bless the name of the Lord, when you’ve gathered with the people of God to do it, where have you come to? You have come to Mount Zion, you have come to Jesus to worship Him. Whether it’s just a few of us gathered in a rural location or a beautiful cathedral, if we’ve come in the name of Christ we’ve come to Mount Zion. We’ve come to a better place than Moses or David or Solomon to meet the living God. It cost the shedding of the blood of the Son of God for you to come to that place. Don’t take that for granted.