Wake up sleepy saint and sing a song of praise to the Lord

1 Now bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord who stand in the Lord’s house at night! 2 Lift up your hands in the holy place and bless the Lord!   3 May the Lord, Maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion.  

Psalm 134

Introduction

R.C. Sproul noted, “A recent survey of people who used to be church members revealed that the main reason they stopped going to church was that they found it boring. It is difficult for many people to find worship a thrilling and moving experience.” A Sunday school teacher asked her children, as they were on the way to church service, “And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?” One bright little girl, let’s call her Mary Jane, replied, “Because people are sleeping.” R.C. notes people have difficulty finding worship thrilling and moving. And M.J. notes how many people sleep through the service. I also think too many people sleep through the service too. If not physically, then spiritually. This evening I want to call your out of your slumber. I want to call on you to worship the Lord. And I want to pray that the Lord would bless you. I want to do those two things because I believe that they’re the main points of Psalm 134. A call to bless the Lord, and a prayer for the Lord’s blessing. To guide us through what this short Psalm says, and what it means, I’ve asked 6 simple observation questions. A what, a who, a when, a where, a how and a why question. Let’s step through the Psalm and I’ll show you each question I’ve posed to the Psalm and then we’ll work through each question one at a time: 1. In 1a we read Come, bless the Lord and I’ve asked, “What is worship?” 2. In 1b we read all you servants of the Lord and I’ve asked, “Who is to worship?” 3. In 1c we read who stand by night and I’ve asked, “When do servants worship?” 4. In 1d we read in the house of the Lord! and I’ve asked, “Where do servants worship?” 5. In 2 we read 2 Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord! and I’ve asked, “How do servants worship?” 6. And in 3 we read 3 May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth! and I’ve asked, “Why do servants worship?”

What is worship?

1 Come, bless the Lord, The first word Come really just means Look! Behold! Pay attention to this! The Lord is Yᵉhôvâh, the self-existent or eternal One. This is the Jewish national name of God. The word bless is fascinating. It is a primitive root which means to kneel. And so, by implication, to bless God as an act of adoration. To bless is to kneel, to bless is an act of worship, a profession of adoration of God, who He is and what He has done. What is worship? Worship is to bless the Lord. It is to come before Him and acknowledge how grateful we are for who He is and what He has done.

Who is to worship?

all you servants of the Lord, servants of the Lord are to worship. This is almost certainly speaking of the Levite priests. Psalm 134 is a Psalm of Ascent. It’s one of 15 Psalms that were sung by pilgrims to Jerusalem. This Psalm is the final Psalm in the set and was likely sung as the pilgrims retired and left the temple area at the end of the say, as night came, as the late night shift of priests begun their duties of cleaning the temple, keeping the fire on alter lit through the night, and guarding the valuable temple instruments. The Levites had been set aside in God’s Word to the task of serving Him, ministering to Him. Who is to worship? The Levite priests.

When do servants worship?

who stand by night Moses recorded (Ex 27:20-21), “You shall command the people of Israel that they bring to you pure beaten olive oil for the light, that a lamp may regularly be set up to burn. In the tent of meeting, outside the veil that is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening to morning before the Lord. It shall be a statute forever to be observed throughout their generations by the people of Israel. When do servants worship? Night and day, evening to morning.

Where do servants worship?

in the house of the Lord! The house of the Lord is, or was, the magnificent temple complex in Jerusalem which stood upon the Temple Mount. The great temple was built to be a permanent resting place for the Arc of the Covenant which contained the Ten Commandments. By the time this Psalm was written it is likely that the first temple, Solomon’s Temple, had been destroyed, and a second temple had been envisaged, or had been constructed. Because the temple was a focal point for worship of the entire nation, for example, all the nation was required to come to Jerusalem 3 times a year for religious festivals (Ex 23:14), many, many Levites were required to be on site to facilitate the smooth ordering of worship. Where do servants worship? At the temple.

How do servants worship?

2 Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord! Our psalm says, Lift up your hands. Baptists, we’ve got to talk. The Scriptures are comprehensive regarding the use of our bodies in worship. Different words and phrases in Scripture talk of worshippers lifting their hands (Ps 28:1–2, 134:1-3, Ha 3:10), lifting their palms (Ps 141:2, La 3:41, Ps 63:4, and Ps 119:48), stretching out their palms (Ex 9:29, 1 Ki 8:28-30, Is 1:12–15), spreading out their hands upward (Ps 143:5-6), lifting up their hands (Ne 8:1–6), fully stretching out your hands (Ps 77:2). Ps 28:2, Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy, when I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary. La 2:19, “Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the night watches! Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to him Ps 63:4, So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands. Ps 141:2, Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice! 1 Ti 2:8, I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; The emphasis of each of these verses is less about posture and more about the attitude of the heart. However, the lifting hands of hands is an appropriate heart posture for a heart bent towards God. Other postures of worship include standing, kneeling, prostrating ourselves, lifting our eyes up, casting our eyes down, and even clapping our hands. These postures of worship aren’t required, but they are appropriate. As a commentator writes, we must avoid singing without understanding, praying without heart, giving without enjoyment, kneeling only with the limbs. This is not divine worship. All soul-less, will-less, heart-less, Christ-less worship is the opposite of divine worship. To heartily bless The Lord, to lift up holy hands in supplication, to sing songs of love and praise to a divine Saviour, to give as unto The Lord, to attend church in order to meet with CHRIST and his people, that is divine worship.

Why do servants worship?

3 May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth! but to bless man, God must make of him what he is not, and give him what he has not.” — Kidner, Psalms 73–150, 454. 1.) What is worship? (1a) 2.) Who is to worship? (1b) 3.) When do servants worship? (1c) 4.) Where do servants worship? (1d) 5.) How do servants worship? (2) 6.) Why do servants worship? (3)

Application

What is worship? New converts. Our greatest duty is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Worship is to bless the Lord. It is to come before Him and acknowledge how grateful we are for who He is and what He has done. Friend, bend yourself to this life task. Who is to worship? servants of the Lord are to worship. Unbeliever. Ever been to a pool party were some people jump into the pool and splash and shout and have fun? While others stand on the side watching, getting a little wet when some water splashes onto them. That’s kind of what your church attendance is like. While as an unbeliever you get to attend our worship services, you’re standing on the side, while servants of the Lord are jumping in the pool having blast. It’s time to join us. To worship alongside us. As one of us. Turn from your sin and put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour. Profess with your mouth and believe with your heart. Do it at once. Do not delay. When do servants worship? Believer this point is obvious, we serve God all the time with all of our life. While the Levites served in the temple at night because someone was required to keep the fire on alter lit, you are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Co 6:19). So you are required to constantly keep the oil in your lamp burning (Mt 25:3). Your life is to be presented as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship (Ro 12:1). This isn’t a Sunday evening activity, this is a every day, whole of life activity. Where do servants worship? Friends, this point could be applied as the point above, we worship everywhere, all the time. But I want to make another point, closer to the text. Psalm 134 is about corporate worship. It’s about pilgrims coming to Jerusalem to worship at one of the great feasts when every member of the nation of Israel gathered to worship God together. Biblical worship so often is relational worship. We see that in the Old Testament and we see that in the New Testament. The early church in Jerusalem gathered (Ac 2). They gathered for prayer (Ac 4). They gathered on the first day of the week (Ac 20). We gather. And you must gather too. We’ve gone through a season where gather was legally constrained. And when it wasn’t it may have been that some felt the time hadn’t come to reenter social gatherings. Well now the time has come. Gather with God’s people and raise a hallelujah in the sanctuary. Babylon Bee is website devoted to satire. Christian themed satire. Satire is the use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices. I read a Bee article quoting, Psalms Experts saying: ‘Lift Up Your Hands’ Actually Means ‘Just Stand There With Your Hands In Your Pockets’ Academia’s foremost experts on the Hebrew book of Psalms are now claiming the phrase often translated as “Lift up your hands” is actually better rendered “Just stand there with your hands in your pockets.” The article went on to say, Scholarship now suggests that rather than lifting our arms in worship to God, the best way to convey affection, adoration, and reverence is by standing as still as possible while singing praises to Him. We cannot out-bless or out-give the Lord.