The Psalms – Week 17

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Oct 28

Psalm 134 is a short psalm, which at a quick glance, and without meditating on it, would appear to have very little importance. But the opposite is true. This Psalm, like many before and after it, is so rich in proclaiming the sovereignty of God. This is extremely important for us to understand as it speaks directly of the blessings to and from God. We might ask the questions, “How can we bless God in return? Isn’t he supposed to bless us?” In today’s culture, being blessed is seen on the outside, and less on the inside. Yes, some people are blessed with external things, but when it comes to blessings from God, I believe they are mostly internal. My prayer is that those who would take the time to read this blog would be humbled before God and in turn would grow in a posture of humility, praise and thanksgiving as we grow together as a church. Let’s look more closely into Psalm 134.

The beginning of the psalm begins with (v1), “Behold, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who by night stand in the house of the Lord!” During the rule of King David, he appointed priests to worship day and night at the house of the Lord. The priests would never stop worshipping the Lord. The word ‘bless’ in this psalm is the same word used in Genesis when God blesses humans, and it is also the same word he uses when he tells Abraham, “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you...”(Gen 12:2-3 NKJV). To be blessed by God is to bear the name of Christ. Everything that we do should represent Christ and what He did. Anytime that we stop bearing the name of Christ, we stop representing Christ and embrace our fallen nature, which means that God’s blessing in our life is compromised. In return, when we embrace Christ and represent Him, we are blessing God because His name is being proclaimed by the way that we speak and act around others - and not just our fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord, but especially those who don’t know Christ. When Jesus says to love your neighbor, he really does mean to love your neighbor. And in today’s age, that also includes the way we act on social media. Just because the person on social media is not physically in front of us, doesn’t mean we can treat them any differently. When it comes to brotherly and sisterly love, the scriptures have many things to say that we should practice as we live in community with one another. Philippians 2:3-4 serves as a reminder to our community: “3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.” We don’t just let blessings come to us, but we have to seek to bless those around us.

The word Lord in this psalm is widely read ‘Adonay.’ The word for Lord here is so exclusive and holy to the nature of God; meaning that God is self-created and sovereign over everything. Without the Lord God, we would cease to exist. The sovereignty of God is something we never talk about and is something that we take lightly. Other times, the sovereignty of God is questioned, especially when we see the works of the Lord in the old testament. The reality is that God is the sovereign one - no debate about it. He created the earth and all that is in it; the Bible starts with him creating the earth and everything in it and then creating humans. Romans 9:20(ESV) says, “But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” As the church, we need to recognize God’s sovereignty in order to fully praise and worship him in the way he deserves.

Verse 2 continues, “Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord.” Again, here we have the priests lifting their hands without ceasing, blessing the Lord God. The priests in the temple recognized that God is sovereign. The priests blessing Adonay, the sovereign one, means to bow down before him, surrendering to his mighty name. We, the church, have to be reminded that Christ is our savior. Christ was there in the beginning, creating and redeeming the darkness that hovered over the earth. Christ is the son of the sovereign God, something he did not forget or discard as he walked among his creation. He did everything the Father willed him to do without failing or complaining. In doing what the Father willed, this blessed God. Therefore, as the church, we have to live a life that blesses God - a life that gives glory to His name. We also come together as a community of believers and lift our hands in praise and adoration, surrendering all that we bring before him, giving God the honor and praise - which blesses the Lord.

Verse 3 ends with, “The Lord who made heaven and earth bless you from Zion.” The sovereignty of God is declared with reference to the beginning of the scriptures in the book of Genesis. The God who made the heavens and the earth is extending his blessings from Zion. The Jewish people knew that when Zion was mentioned, it meant the most Holy place on earth: the Holy of Holies. To receive blessings from Zion meant that they came from God. This psalm is also the last of the psalms of ascent and now all the children of God are heading back to their temporary homes as they are filled with joy and praise.

We, the church, have been redeemed by the blood of Christ and are blessed through Him. We are blessed so richly that we could not comprehend how much we are blessed to be called the children of God. Let us meditate on Psalm 134 so the we may be reminded that God is sovereign. Recognize that he blesses us through Christ so that in return we may bless Him by extending those blessings to others. Be encouraged and encourage one another. I will close with a quote from the book The Sovereignty of God by A.W Pink (which I cannot recommend enough!), “But why should we not place implicit confidence in God and rely upon his word of promise? Is anything too hard for the Lord? Has his word of promise ever failed? Then let us not entertain any unbelieving suspicions of his future care of us. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but not so his promises.”