As you're turning there, this is the second shortest of the Psalms of Ascent. So it's a very, very, very short psalm. So that makes it very, very interesting. It's also the last psalm of the Song of Ascents. As we're looking at this 134th psalm, it's a song of blessing. It's a song of worshiping. I want to ask, just curious, How do you prepare your heart for worship? And to put it more in language that would be everyday speak, how do you prepare your heart for coming to church, to a church service? Has anybody got any thoughts? Give me a thought. Okay, praying for the pastor, praying for the Word, praying for the lost, praying for your own heart to be prepared right, reading the Word of God. George? Do what now? Oh dear. And then pray real hard the rest of the way, right? So what happens when you have a family, you're kind of waiting, waiting, waiting. listening to worship music, singing songs of praise, tuning our hearts, praying God would tune our hearts. This psalm in particular, there's only three verses and two of them make up one verse it looks like, so it looks like two verses just about. But what it does, this psalm sends us into a series of songs of praise once you start Psalm 134. I want you to notice, if you would, look in the 120th Psalm, which is the first Psalm of Ascent. In the 120th Psalm, I want you to notice verse 1. It says, In my distress I cried unto the Lord, and he heard me. Now look down in verse 5. Woe is me that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar. the psalmist is going through a struggle as he starts the Psalms of Ascent. But then if you notice in Psalm 134, it's all about blessing. Bless ye the Lord, bless the Lord, the Lord bless you out of Zion. What you've got is a psalms, all these psalms, these 15 psalms, which you can divide up in fives, three sections of fives, and it's like three levels or tiers of stairs. What you start out with in the 120th psalm, you're on the very first section. In that bottom step, from Psalm 120-124, what you find the psalmist doing is looking to the Lord. In the second section of 5, what you have in Psalm 125-129, he is talking about believing upon the Lord or trusting in the Lord. In that third section, Psalm 130-134, what you have there you're looking to the Lord, or as you look to the Lord, you're trusting in the Lord. As you're trusting Him, you're worshiping Him. The 134th Psalm is the pinnacle when you reach the top, and it's all about blessing. Here's the worship, the blessing. When you talk about worship or you think about worship, Worship is not what many people in our day and time would think, something flashy or something real showy. You got to have lights, you got to have loud music, it's got to be fast-paced. That's not worship. You can tell how deep a church's worship is If you enter into the beginning of their service, you could often tell within just a few minutes how worshipful it is. Does it exalt God? Is your worship man-centered or is it God-centered? Is the worship about your needs Or is it about exalting Christ? Is it about things going on in my life and I want answers to in my life? Or is it about the Word of God? Is your worship based upon personal experiences, what you're going through, and you're trying to line the Scriptures up with what you're going through? Or are you coming to the Scriptures letting it shape you and form you. What God's Word does, it reveals Him to us. And as He reveals Himself to us, it draws us to worship Him. There are many things I read that come through email, and much of it is how to grow a church, or how to have an elevated worship, or how to do this, how to do that. You know what? I don't need none of that, and we don't need none of that. We need to focus upon the Lord. You've got to be rooted in the Word, and the more rooted in the Word the more good fruit you'll produce. The more rooted in the Word of God, the higher the worship will go. And here's the problem with a lot of people that meet together. They're not very rooted in the Word, and their worship don't go higher than the ceiling. Psalm 134, I want you to notice the first verse. And it's the call to bless the Lord. Verse one it says, behold, bless ye the Lord. All you servants of the Lord, which by night stand in the house of the Lord. This first verse tells us who. It's the who in worship. Who is to bless the Lord? As you read here, it talks about the servants of the Lord. And as the psalmist wrote this, no doubt it was talking about the Levites and the priests who served in the temple daily. And as they served in the temple daily, they're called upon to bless the Lord. All you servants of the Lord. Now in some of the catechisms some churches have, they will have something like the chief end of man is to glorify God. And true, that is our chief end. We must ultimately glorify God. Our focus in worship is to glorify God. And if you come with a focus upon God instead of a focus upon self, getting needs met, you're going to worship. As you focus upon Him, Notice who, when it says, the servants of the Lord, it's got all you servants of the Lord. That means all from the least to the greatest. All the servants of the Lord. In our day and time, as we look at this psalm, if we were to apply it to churches, who is the least to the greatest? Who are the servants of the Lord? I want you to look over with me to 1 Peter. In 1 Peter 2, look down in verse 4. There in the Word of God we read in verse four, to whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious, you also as lively or living stones are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Notice down in verse 9, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar, that means a chosen people. that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, which in times past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Those who are believers are servants of God. Look over in the book of Revelation chapter one. Revelation chapter 1 and down in verse 6, the Word of God says that He, that is Christ, has made us kings and priests unto God and the Father. To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. The Word of God is telling us that if you're a child of God, He's made you a king and He's made you a priest. Therefore, we are the servants of the Lord. The redeemed are the servants of the Lord. Everyone who's been purchased by the blood of Christ is His servants. Therefore, behold you, bless you, the Lord, all you servants of the Lord. We ought to be blessing the Lord and praising the Lord. This does not talk about unbelievers. Unbelievers don't want nothing to do with the Lord. Unbelievers, when you think about it, they wouldn't enjoy blessing the Lord. It might have been Brother George there might have mentioned this to me last week. I can't remember. But think about an unbeliever going to heaven. They'd be miserable because They don't want nothing to do with it now. Why would they want something to do with it then? You know what? An unbeliever does not want anything to do with the Lord. The Lord will not bring them to heaven as an unbeliever. They would not enjoy heaven if they do not enjoy the Lord here upon the earth. When are you to bless the Lord? Notice the second part of verse one. It says, which by night stand in the house of the Lord." At night. You think about at nighttime, it's nighttime now. But here it's talking about blessing the Lord continuously. Day, afternoon, evening, We are to continually bless the Lord. We are to continually worship the Lord. He does not slumber. He does not sleep. It is what the Word of God tells us. So worship is something that is continual and should be continual in our lives, not just on Sunday, but all through our lives as we live it through Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Something unique about the time zones, if you were to go around the world, what you find like in the Philippines right now. It's morning time. You think about it. Morning time, they're blessing the Lord. Night time here, we're blessing the Lord. You think about it as all around the world, there's constant praises going up to God from God's servants all around the world. Now you think about that constant praise, a continual worship is going on. It's a rare soul that will praise God during the good and the bad, during the times of light and during the times of darkness. You know what? We're to be continual in our praise. No matter what comes our way, we're to be blessing the Lord. You remember the song? I can't sing the words because it might cut me off on Facebook. You know, from the rising of the sun to the going down of the sun, the name of the Lord shall be praised. And it needs to be praised in our lives. From the rising of the sun, when you wake up, you ought to be praising God. To the going down of the sun, you need to be praising God. You remember the song, Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it? He giveth me songs in the night. Ever had a song come to you at night and it's a song of worship? You know, it is God who brings it to remembrance. Therefore, we ought to worship Him with that. And you know what you're doing when you're starting to worship? As you're worshiping here, all that's doing is tuning you and tuning your heart for eternity. It's getting you ripe for heaven. Getting you ready for heaven. You're starting to work on that praise. and one day we'll be praising right in his presence. Worship is also a key to our witness. I firmly believe believers that really worship with their heart and they worship consistently, they are a stronger witness when opportunities come up. We don't always take advantage of the opportunities we have. You ever had an opportunity to witness somebody and you thought about it maybe like 10 minutes later or 30 minutes later and the situation has already passed and you feel like you want to turn your foot around and kick yourself in the backside because you blew it and you had the chance? You know, we need to be mindful of that. But the more you praise God, the more you're going to witness. And the more stronger your witness will be as you praise Him, because He is worthy to be praised. Whether it's daytime, whether it's nighttime, He alone is worthy of our praise. In verse 2 it adds to how we should praise the Lord. Verse 2 says, lift up your hands in the sanctuary. Now over in Timothy it talks about let men lift up holy hands. Here it says lift up your hands in the sanctuary. Now what does it mean to lift up your hands? What's the purpose of lifting up your hands? What's it talking about when one lifts up their hands? There's symbolism in that. There's adoration. You're showing toward God. There is also dependence upon the Lord. You're showing submission to the Lord. You're showing that your hands are empty. there's nothing in my hands I bring. And we're dependent upon Him. It's a symbol also of submission unto God. Adoration. It's a symbol of blessing. And it always points to the source. Hands that are clean, lifted up unto God. Only God can bring down the blessing. In verse 3, short psalm, we're almost through. Don't act shocked. The Lord that made heaven and earth bless you out of Zion. What this is is very simply a short simple prayer. The Lord that made the heaven and earth. What's it talking about? It's talking about the Lord who created all things. He is the creator. He is all-powerful. The Lord bless you. out of Mount Zion, out of Jerusalem, as it displays God's power. This sounds very similar. Look over in Numbers chapter 6. Numbers chapter 6, you might recall this, there's what is called the Aaronic Blessing. In verse 22 it says, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron. And unto his son, saying, On this wise you shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and give you peace. And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel and I will bless them. Here, as in Psalm 134 in verse three, the Lord that made heaven and earth. bless you out of Zion. If you think about it, the Lord has blessed us out of Zion, out of Jerusalem. How did he bless us? Out of Jerusalem. It was there where our Lord was crucified. upon the cross and all the blessings that are poured out upon us because the Lord has blessed us out of Jerusalem. Zion, or Jerusalem, is where the Lord's placed his name. This is out of Zion. He has blessed us. Where else has God placed his name? God's placed his name in heaven. God's placed his name in his churches. Even so, out of those places God blesses people. Out of New Life Baptist Church, I pray, God would pour out his blessings upon others. It's through his people that he works. It's through you, through everyday situations in your life, you can be a blessing unto others. God's put us upon this earth for such a time as we are upon this earth. God's got a purpose, He knows, He's got a plan. And you know what? It's our privilege to exalt Him, to present Him to a lost and dying world, to share Christ with others. Here's how we ought to be a blessing to others. You can very simply, I was with a preacher the other day, we're at a table. And as we're at that table, we finish eating. And he looked at the waitress when she come back over and she said, is there anything else I can get y'all? He said, yes. He says, I know you're very busy. I know you're waiting on tables. You've got drinks to serve. You've got all kind of things to do. But can you give me something I can pray for you about? And she looked kind of dumbfounded. She said, well, thank you, sure, go ahead. She didn't know how to answer. And so he says, well, I'll pray for you. And we prayed right around the table. The little waitress held our hands. And finally, when he got through, he says, well, she said, that was mighty sweet. I actually never experienced that before. I doubt very seriously. But notice how he was a blessing to her in just a short moment in the middle of a work day. It takes boldness to pray for somebody working. We can speak a blessing unto others. How often when you leave someone, may the Lord bless you. Or how about when somebody's bow towards you and you say, may the Lord bless you. Well that dumbfounds them. Listen to what the Word of God says. Over in Luke chapter 6, I'll just give you a couple instances of this. In Luke chapter 6 down in verse 28, Luke 6 verse 28 there in the Word of God says, back up a verse, but I say unto you which hear, love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. In Matthew chapter 5 and verse 44 it has basically the same thing. Matthew chapter 5 and verse 44 There we read, but I say to you love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. You see how your life can be a blessing to others? You ever had somebody cuss you out? What's your natural response? What's your spiritual response is what I should say. What should be your response? I'm telling you, you'll leave them tongue twisted if you say, well, the Lord bless you. They ain't expecting some kind coming back from you. We need to be a blessing to others. Only God can ultimately bless. Blessings come down from Him. The Lord bless you out of Zion. but God can use you as an instrument to be a blessing unto other people that you meet in life. Psalm 134 verses 1 through 3. A short psalm. We're going to have a word of prayer and then we're going to sing a couple of songs. Father, we thank you for your word. There's so much power in your word because it's alive. And it speaks to our hearts and cuts down quick, convicting us of sin and of righteousness, of judgment. By the power of your spirit, you work in a marvelous way. So Lord, we pray that your word would truly find lodging in our heart. And we pray that you would help us to be a channel of blessing unto others that we meet in life. We desire for your name to be magnified and glorified for Christ's sake. Amen.