Word of Salvation – February 2006
BLESSINGS GIVEN AND RECEIVED
Sermon by Rev John Haverland
Text: Psalm 134
Readings: 1 Chronicles 23:24-32; Hebrews 5:1-9
Theme: The pilgrim worshippers urge the priests in the temple to bless the Lord, and the priests respond by blessing the people in the name of the Lord.
Purpose: To encourage you as worshippers to bless the Lord in our services, and to receive his blessing.
This psalm is the last one in this collection known as the Psalms of Ascent. Most Bible scholars think this title describes the people of Israel travelling from their homes up to Jerusalem and the temple.
The word “ascend” means to go up.
The temple was high on a hill and the people had to climb up the road, to ascend to get there.
God commanded the people of Israel to travel from their homes to Jerusalem three times a year for the feasts or festivals (Ex 23:14-17). This collection of psalms express their feelings and experiences as they travelled.
They cover the full range of human emotion – joy and sorrow, hope and fear, comfort and despair, praise and complaints.
So there is a great variety in this collection.
Psalm 134 concludes these Psalms on a very positive note of blessings given to the Lord and to the people.
There is some debate about who is speaking in v 1 & 2.
Some think it may be the High Priest, but it seems most natural to see this as being spoken by the people of Israel who had come to worship the Lord in his temple.
They had come to Jerusalem for one of these major festivals, had spent the week in the city and at the temple, and were about to head home.
Before they left they urged the priests and the Levites to bless the Lord, and the priests in turn blessed them.
The Hebrew word for bless is ‘baruch’, which was the name of the scribe of the prophet Jeremiah.
It is a very common word in the Bible and is used 400 times in the Old Testament.
“Bless” is the key note in this Psalm; it is mentioned three times, once in each verse.
From this Psalm I want to encourage you to bless the Lord and to receive the blessing of God.
- BLESSINGS GIVEN TO THE LORD, v 1-2
a) We read in 1 Chronicles 23 that the Levites were to stand in the temple every morning and every evening to thank the Lord and to praise him.
They were also to look after the temple building and offer sacrifices and assist the priests.
But their primary task was to bless and thank the Lord for all his goodness and grace to his people. They were to do this during the day, but also during the night, or at least part of it. They were to give thanks to God.
The monks in the monasteries of medieval Europe followed this practice.
According to the rule of St Benedict in the 6th century the monks would get up at 2am and again at dawn and chant their way through the psalms and would do this at set times during the day.
We don’t agree with the monastic system but we do agree that we must bless the Lord.
We have the opportunity to do this in our worship services.
Sometimes if you can’t sleep at night you may go over the psalms from memory as you lie in bed, or get up and read the psalms and pray.
The people of Israel were very interested in the worship and work of God in the temple and they wanted to encourage the Levites in these tasks.
Both uses of ‘bless’ in verses 1 and 2 are in the plural and are addressed to all the Levites.
The first word in this psalm, ‘Come” translates the Hebrew word hine, which draws attention to the important statement that follows: “Behold! Come! Bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord.”
This is important and must not be neglected or forgotten!
This ought to be true of us today as worshippers of the Lord. All of us need to be committed to the worship of the Lord in our services.
But too often we are in autopilot; the order of worship is very familiar to us, so much so that we are not engaged – we are not paying attention – our minds are elsewhere.
But the worship of the Lord is one of the most important tasks He gives us.
So we must take a close interest in the order of service, in the content of what is going on, in the selection of psalms and hymns, and in the reading and preaching of the Scriptures.
Be sure to exhort and encourage our pastor in his task of leading the worship services and directing our praise to the Lord our great God.
Pray for our pastor and for the other elders.
All of us need encouragement to bless the Lord because by nature we are not focused on God but on ourselves; by nature we are more interested in our needs, our comforts and our concerns. But our focus in worship must be on God; we are here today to bless him.
b) In v 2 the worshippers in the temple speak to the Levites again and urged them;“Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord!”
When we think of lifting up hands in worship our minds go to the Pentecostal churches where everyone is doing this with much emotion!
But raising hands was also an Old Testament practice for prayer. There were various postures for prayer including standing, raising your hands, or kneeling.
All were legitimate.
The Lord had created us as whole people, with a body and a soul. When we come to worship we are to be fully engaged, with our minds, hearts, emotions and our bodies. How we sit or stand shows something about our attitude and approach in worship.
There may be times when you are not interested in worship and not engaged.
You are here in body but your mind is somewhere else.
You are physically present but spiritually disconnected.
The Lord knows what is going on in your mind and in your heart.
You need to come to worship not out of compulsion but willingly, with a glad heart, eager to worship the Lord and thankful for the privilege of being able to do this in freedom and peace.
Your posture, what you do with your body, has an effect on your worship.
If you slump or slouch in your seat, or stand and hang on the seat in front of you, that will not help your worship.
We worship God with our minds, our mouths and our muscles; with our hearts and our vocal cords.
John Calvin wrote that the purpose of lifting up our hands in worship is that we may also lift up our hearts.
We are to be engaged in worship with our souls and our bodies. We need to instruct and train our children in this also, which is why they too need to be in worship.
c) In all our worship we are to “bless the Lord”, that is, to honour him, praise him and give him all the glory.
Too often we are focused on what we can get out of worship – the benefit to us.
But we are here to adore our Triune God, to revere and extol him. God is the focus of worship!
So we are here to “bless the Lord”. Many people bless their lucky stars, or themselves, or their good fortune, but we bless the Lord from whom all blessings flow!
To bless God is to acknowledge who he is and what he has done for us through the Lord Jesus.
We bless and thank God for his grace and mercy shown to us in Jesus, and for the forgiveness of our sins through his death on the cross, and for being made right with him through his resurrection from the dead.
We bless the Lord who has blessed us! Blessing is the “summarising and concluding word in all of Scripture”
(E Peterson).
The first part of Psalm 134 was spoken by the worshippers to the priests and Levites urging them to “bless the Lord”, during the day and at night, with their hands and hearts.
In the New Testament all of us are priests of God, set apart by the Holy Spirit to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to the Lord Jesus, who offered himself for us.
Our worship gives us opportunity to do this – to bless the Lord.
We have considered the blessings given to the Lord.
Now we consider
- THE BLESSINGS RECEIVED BY THE PEOPLE
In v 3 the priests respond by blessing the people:
“May the Lord bless you from Zion,
He who made heaven and earth.”
a) God can bless us because he made heaven and earth. He created the world in the six days of the creation week. He looked at all he had made and saw that it was very good.
God can and will bless his people because he is all powerful, almighty, and majestic.
The Psalms are full of this:
“The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the works of his hands” (Ps 19:1).
“O Lord our Lord how majestic is your name in all the earth!” (Ps 8:1)
This great Creator God can and will bless you, he will extend his favour to you and pour out his love on you.
b) The Lord blesses us “from Zion”.
Zion in the Old Testament was the name for Jerusalem, and especially for the hill on which the temple was built. Zion often referred to the entire city, the city of the great King!
The temple was the physical and visible symbol of the presence of God with his people; of God dwelling, living among them. (Ps 76:2)
Psalm 9:11, “Sing praises to the Lord, enthroned in Zion; proclaim among the nations what he has done.”
Zion in the New Testament is the church of the Lord Jesus; we are the New Testament Zion where Jesus reigns over his people.
He is our Prophet who speaks to us through his word and Spirit.
And He is our eternal High Priest who is interceding for us and who represents us in heaven before the throne of God the Father. He is the fulfilment of all the priests of the Old Testament. They were mere men and they died, but Jesus is the Son of God and he is eternal and he lives forever to make intercession for us.
And he is our King who rules over his church and kingdom. He is the Head of the church, which is his body. He blesses us in and through Zion, his church.
c) And the Lord blesses us through his ministers.
In the Old Testament his ministers were the priests and Levites.
The High Priest was the most important representative and Mediator between God and his people.
The other priests were also mediators as they offered sacrifices and offerings on behalf of Israel.
Aaron and his sons would bless the Israelites using the words God commanded them to say in the blessing of Numbers 6:24-26, which we often hear at the end of our services.
In the New Testament God’s blessing comes through the elders and pastors as we proclaim God’s blessing on you at the end of every service of worship, often using that priestly benediction.
But in this New Covenant we are all priests of God, servants of the Lord.
In our personal conversations and interactions with each other all of us may wish each other the Lord’s blessing, and pray for this, and convey this to others in our words and actions.
May each one of you be of much blessing to your families, to other members of this church, and to those around you in our society.
d) “Bless you” in verse 3 is singular.
In the Old Testament this blessing of the Lord was addressed to each individual worshipper at the temple as they prepared to travel home.
Some did not have far to go while others would travel for days or weeks. As they began their journey home the priest blessed each one of them.
The same is true for us in our New Testament setting. God’s blessing is addressed to all of you as members of the church of the Lord Jesus, as the body of Christ in this place, as the family of God gathered for worship.
But his blessing is also addressed to you personally, individually. “May the Lord bless you, each one of you!”
The Westminster Shorter Catechism begins with the question, “What is the chief end of man?”
The well known answer is, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.”
Another way to explain the word ‘glorify’ is to use the word bless. Our main purpose in life is not to be working or witnessing, suffering or serving, teaching or obeying, but it is to give blessing, honour and praise to God!
What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is to bless the Lord our God and to enjoy him forever.
Psalm 134 is a fitting conclusion to these 15 Psalms of Ascent.
It closes this collection of psalms with the people of God worshipping in Jerusalem, in the temple, blessing the Lord, speaking the truth to each other, and encouraging the priests and Levites who served the Lord day and night in the sanctuary.
It closes with a beautiful benediction, as do many of the letters of the Apostle Paul.
Here we are, on this Lord’s Day,
worshipping the Lord together, blessing Him, and encouraging one another with our presence together.
“Do not go away unblessed – for God will bless you.”
“May the Lord bless you from Zion,
he who made heaven and earth!”
Amen!