Scripture reading for tonight. It's going to be selected portions from the songs of the sense So if you would turn in your Bibles to Psalm 120 While you're turning there just want to make a couple of comments When I want to thank the session for the invitation to come in and preach this morning It's a great joy for me to do so to be here with you. I bring greetings from From your older sister, but smaller sister, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, our two churches, the OPC and the PCA, have been close sister denominations since the PCA came into existence. And we've had the closest relationship that we could possibly have as two different denominations in churches. And so, as a minister of the OPC who lives in the area about an hour up the road, it's my joy to be here with you. I have other connections to this church as well. One sitting up here near the front and sometimes is standing up here behind your pulpit. Brandon is one of my former students and also Charles Shear who's been preaching I think some in the evenings here. They are my former students. So if you enjoy their preaching, I'll take all the credit. If you haven't enjoyed it very much, it was the other professors, you know, that didn't do their job with these two students. Actually, they're a great joy to me. I enjoyed both of them immensely at Graham Bible College. I've been there now for almost 20 years there. Also, you have a visitor here today. Larry and I, Rose, go way back. over 20 years ago. I knew him when he was the director and I served on the board of the children's home in Whitfield, Virginia. I walked in and there was Larry. I haven't seen him in 20 years or almost 20 years. It was good to see him and his wife here with you. So I do have some connections to this congregation. I'm going to begin reading with 120. Then a portion of 121, a portion of 122, and then we'll turn to the end to 133 and 134. Hear the word of the Lord. In my distress, I cried to the Lord and he heard me. Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue. What shall be given to you or what shall be done to you, you false tongue? Sharp arrows of the warrior with coals of the broom tree. Woe is me that I dwell in Meshach, that I dwell among the tents of Kadar. My soul has dwelt too long with one who hates peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war. Now Psalm 121, just the first couple of verses. I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence comes my help. My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. And then 122 again, just the first couple of verses. I was glad when they said to me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem. And now Psalm 133. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious oil upon the head running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron running down to the edge of his garments. It's like the dew of Hermon descending upon the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord commanded the blessing, life forevermore. And then Psalm 134. Behold, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who by night stand in the house of the Lord. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord. The Lord, who made heaven and earth, bless you from Zion. This is the reading of God's holy word. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your word, for your word read and heard. which you have ordained as a means of grace and a great blessing to us. Holy Spirit, you illumine your word to us. We pray that you illumine this, your word, to our minds and our hearts and plant your word deeply in our souls to bear fruit in our lives. And now, Lord, we come to the preaching of your word. We believe what our forefathers, the Westminster divines, who taught us, that it's especially the preaching of the word that is made effectual unto salvation. Your servant stands before you in the congregation, acknowledging that he has feet of clay, and yet you hide a treasure in earthen vessels that you might be praised. I cannot do this apart from your strength, and I look to your Holy Spirit for unction, the anointing of the Holy Spirit to preach this, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, grant this unto the edification of your people. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. The question that the minister has when he has one opportunity to preach is what to preach. I have 66 books of the Bible that I could have picked from to preach. That's a lot of freedom. But it also creates a dilemma. What do you leave with a congregation if you may only have one time to preach there? And I wrestled with it. And I could give you little summations of other texts that I considered, but I'll forego that for this morning. I decided instead to, as your brother in Christ, reveal something of what the Lord's doing in me. I think we all need to learn to do that. I'm going to preach the text. Don't get me wrong. But these passages have become very important to me. And I want to commend something to you up front. Something I didn't do as a young Christian or even early in my ministry. But it's something that sort of happened to me in God's providence. Find some portion of God's Word. Doesn't matter which portion. It could be a book of the Bible. It could be a particular psalm. It could be a series of chapters that all go together. But find some portion of God's word and just dive into it head first. Read everything you can read on that portion of God's Word. Listen to every sermon you can find, at least good ones. Sermon Audio has thousands of sermons, many that are very, very good and helpful, some that aren't. Find resources, good resources in that portion of God's Word and just dive into it. Just really grab a hold of that portion. of God's Word. Memorize as much as you can. Commit it to memory. Meditate upon that portion. Not to the neglect of the rest of the counsel of God. And you study it within the context of what the whole of the Bible teaches. But if you do that, and that passage or that portion of God's Word becomes sort of your portion, your special portion of God's Word, it will be a blessing to you. And that's what happened to me with the songs, The Sins. It began probably even when I was a child, because my mother loved the Psalms and taught me the Psalms and demonstrated Jesus in the Psalms. And then about 20 years ago, when I was the founding pastor of Providence Christian Church, OPC Church in Chilhowee, Virginia, I spent five years on Sunday nights preaching through the entirety of the Psalter. We would take breaks here or there, but we preach through all 150 of the Psalms. Not only should we sing them and study them, we should preach them. What I hope to help you learn today is we should experience the Psalms. They grow out of the experience of God's people before Him. coming on up I found this to be a good series in my labors I'm typically working with a number of mission works around the southeast at any given time going to them typically once a month and I found this to be a good series to preach so this morning you better put on your seatbelts because I'm going to redact 15 sermons into one 15 sermons into one this morning the songs of ascent what does that title mean a song of ascent Maybe I should explain what the titles are to the Psalms. Sometimes we've read the Psalms our entire lives, sung many of them, most of them are in the Trinity Hymnal, in worship, but we've never paid much attention to those little titles that are at the top of some of the Psalms, not all of them, but of many of them. I don't believe the titles are inspired. The writers themselves didn't write the titles. The titles were assigned as the Psalms were arranged in the order in which we have them in the Scriptures now. It's still ancient. Actually predating the Lord Jesus Christ, the assignment of these titles. But even though I'm not convinced they're inspired, I think they're often very helpful to us. A title may be simply of David, a Song of David, or a Song of Solomon, or the Sons of Korah, or the Sons of Asaph. These are different writers of the Psalms, and knowing who authored the psalm can oftentimes help you understand it. Sometimes there's even titles that tell you something of the historical occasion that gave rise to the psalm. Sometimes the titles don't help us at all. It's to be sung to the tune, Lilies of the Valley, or something like that. Some tune we don't know. Or to be accompanied with a particular stringed instrument we don't have. But there are 15 psalms, beginning with 120 and ending with 134, that all share this same title, A Song of Ascents. And they're the only psalms in the Psalter so titled. But what does the title mean? There are different theories, but I'm not going to go into those. The vast majority of commentators, and I agree, believe the title points to this reality. These were psalms God's people found especially suited to sing when going up to Jerusalem to worship God as prescribed in his word, while ascending Mount Zion. These were the Psalms they especially sang. Especially those who were scattered abroad after the Babylonian captivity. And therefore, their travels were a pilgrimage from where they lived far away, going up to worship God at Jerusalem, at the Temple, as God prescribed in His Word. These were the songs they sang on their way to church. In the old covenant. I'm sure they sang others. They sang these on other occasions. But especially on this occasion. And there's something to the order that we see. There's a logic to the order in which we find these psalms as they are arranged. Especially at the beginning and at the end. And we're going to focus on the bookends of these. I wish I could preach all 15. I can't. We would be here for two or three weeks in order to do that. We're going to focus on the bookends, the first of these, and then the latter of these psalms. Psalm 120, a fitting psalm to sing before the worshipper departs from home in a faraway land. As you read Psalm 120, you have an interpretive difficulty up front. There are two locations that are mentioned. He says, though I sojourn in Meshach, though I dwell in the tents of Kedar. These are two places that were far distant from each other. The question comes, where did the psalmist live? Well, maybe he was nomadic and traveled and at one point lived in Meshach and another point lived in Kedar. But they were far distanced. Meshach was far to the north of Israel, between the Black and the Caspian Seas. Meshach was a descendant of Japheth, the son of Noah. Qadar was far to the east in what's now Upper Arabia, a portion of what you would call Saudi Arabia now. This was the land of Qadar. Qadar was the second son of Ishmael, the son of Abraham. The point I'm making is, is the people from Meshach and the people from Qadar had nothing in common in terms of their tradition or their ancestry, all the way back to Noah. But they do have something in common. Their hearts are in enmity with God, the one true God, and thus with the people of God. Psalm 120 is a psalm of distress from beginning to end. There's no real relief in the psalm itself. He begins by saying, in my distress I cried to the Lord. Verse 2, deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue. Verse 6, my soul has dwelt too long with one who hates peace. I am for peace, but when I speak they are for war. Here is a man, a Jew, one who believes in Jehovah God and yet lives among pagans. whose hearts are at enmity with God and thus whose hearts are at enmity with Him. And his soul is weary from living in this world. I ask you, beloved, do you ever get weary of soul living in this world? In the pastoral prayer this morning, I focused much of our attention upon the persecuted church, We have brothers and sisters right now whose lives are in imminent danger. We have brothers and sisters who are now with the Lord who have been killed by radical Muslims. It is a broken world out there. And even our own culture. What I have seen happen in the last ten years in terms of the free fall of our own culture, is shocking to me. Things that were considered, when I was not that long ago, as being an abomination of the whole culture, are celebrated today. And if you oppose The mores of our culture that are emerging based upon what God says in his law, you are a bigot in the mind of our culture today. This change has happened very, very rapidly. Do you ever grow weary in this world? Weary where you work and where you labor, if you labor among unbelievers. weary in your neighborhoods if some of your neighbors aren't Christians. It can be wearisome to live in this world. The question is, is there any respite? Is there any rest? Is there any relief for the believer? Whether it be the Jew who lived in Kadar in the first century, Are you today who live here and now? There is respite and rest. To be found at the end of the pilgrimage for the Old Testament Jew, to be found in the house of God, at the temple of God, where God meets with His people, and where His people assemble to worship and to praise His name. And you have it even better. Because under the New Covenant, worship is no longer centralized in tabernacle, temple, in the Holy Land, so far away from a Cedarite or a Meshite. So far away! But rather now in local assemblies where we live. There is a centrality to our worship that we sometimes forget. It's one reason why I said the things I did before we confessed to the Apostles' Creed. You realize, our brothers and sisters who have used that creed for centuries, and even others even using it today, even as we are. The centrality of worship now is that we're worshiping in the presence of heaven. If you could look up and if the roof were to lift off and if the heavens as we see them were to open up and you were able to see the throne of God as Ezekiel and as John did in their visions. You would see that Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of God the Father, and there are myriads of angels surrounding that throne. And the church triumphant is already there in heaven. And we are worshipping here in our local assemblies. And the chorus is rising up. We're participating in that united worship. But oftentimes we don't look beyond the ceiling. There is more glory in this room right now. But there wasn't a thousand Passovers. Because Jesus has come. The question is, is have you forgotten? Have you forgotten this? Do you realize what happens in the assembly? God Himself is here. Inhabiting our praises. We began with A prayer of adoration and invocation, where we are actually invoking what God promises to do, to come and to be with us. He is here, right now, with us, in greater glory than in a thousand Passovers. In the first century, a census was taken. Do you know how many Jews would go to Jerusalem for Passover? They didn't count. 1.2 million in the city. Savior services scattered throughout the city, but the city was built compact together. 1.2, now that's a mega church. There's more glory in this route now than there was in a Passover with 1.2 million because Jesus Christ has come. He's been crucified, He's been raised, He's ascended on high, He sits on a throne, and we are His people. You have to believe what the Bible says about you. As often we forget. Is there respite? Yes, but that respite is to be found at the end of a pilgrimage. Psalm 121, a fitting psalm to sing once you embark, once you leave on your journey again. Put on, use your imagination. Use your imagination. We older folks, and that's what most of us here, we struggle with imagination. Children do good with imaginations. We don't use our imagination like we need to. Imagine for a moment that you're not living now, but you're living in the first century. You live in the land of Kedar. You're a shepherd. You have a lot of children. You have a lot of sheep. You want to go worship God as He prescribes according to this law, but you can't. Why can you not go? What are you going to do with your sheep? Are you going to call up the neighbors and say, will you feed and water our pets while we go to Jerusalem for four months? Have you got a thousand head of sheep? And your neighbors hate you already? No, you have to liquidate. You have to sell everything you have. You need to realize that for a Jew in the first century who lived in Kadar to go worship God at the temple is something he does one time in his life. Maybe twice. Maybe his father took him when he was a little boy or took her when she was a little girl. And now that you're not a little boy or a little girl anymore, you're going to take your family. You see the planning? Do you see what you have to do just to go and worship God? But none of you had to do that to come here today. I drove an hour. That's a short distance. If you live Kadar, even on horseback, you're talking about a month to get there across the desert. Psalm 121, a fitting psalm for the worshipper to sing once they've embarked. Look at what it says, I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence comes my help. My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. I'll look up to the hills for help. Even in the desert region, in Kadar, and it is desert. It's not flat. There are hills, there are sand dunes, there are hills. In the journey from Qadar in Upper Arabia all the way to the Holy Land into Jerusalem, you will actually encounter on that pilgrimage mountains, they call them Jebels in that region. Sandstone mountains of Wadi Rum. I'd love to see them. I've just seen pictures of them. That rise up almost vertically from the floor of the desert. The different hues and the different colors in those mountains or those jevils as they call them in that region. You would pass through those on pilgrimage. Now here's the thing, ordinarily if you're a traveler and you're traveling through on foot or you're traveling foot on horseback or camelback in that region, as you look to the hills, you don't look to the hills for help. You look to the hills for danger. You look for a mountain lion. Because you've got to have some sheep to offer sacrifices, some goats for milk and meat along the way. You look for a bear. You look for a predator. You look for thieves and robbers hiding in wait to ambush you and your family. That's what you look for. If you're on pilgrimage, rightly so. Remember Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan? The man who pounced upon the Jew, beat him and left him for dead, robbed him. You look for danger, but not the psalmist. The psalmist looks to the hills for help. for help that comes from the Lord. Because by faith, he's not looking at the hills that are before him. By faith, he's looking to the hills of his destination, the hills upon which Jerusalem is built. That's why it's called Ascending Mount Zion, Songs of Ascents. The temple was actually on a mountain called Moriah. Did you know that? Jerusalem has two mountains. It's built upon two mountains. On the western end of the city, the mountain is Zion. That was where David's palace was. That was the seat of the reign of God through David, his king. But then across the central valley, later called the Trippian Valley, and because the city's been destroyed twice, there's hardly a valley there anymore today. But there's another mountain called Moriah. That's where the temple was built. That's where Abraham was told to take Isaac, his only son, and go up into the mountains of Moriah and offer him there as a sacrifice. Tradition says the temple was on the same site where Abraham offered Isaac, his son. Jerusalem is a city that's built upon hills. And the worshipper is looking by faith to his destination because there he's going to meet with his God and with the people of God. There he's going to find respite. There he's going to find help. And so as he travels along the way and sees the hills, he's singing Psalm 121 in his heart, in his mind. You see how he's experiencing the psalm as he's making his way to worship. Psalm 122, a fitting psalm to sing once you arrive in Jerusalem. Look at verse 2. I'm reading the New King James Version. I know most of you have the ESV in front of you. Both are very fine translations, I might add. But here, in the New King James Version, the language is, Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem. It's translated, getting the sense of arrival. We've just arrived in Jerusalem. I want you to imagine, if you've made this long pilgrimage, You're making your final ascent. Let's say you're coming from the south. You're coming from Bethlehem. It's a six-mile journey up a well-traveled road. You're on foot as you're making your way to go to worship. You come to the next rise. Are you going to see the city? Not yet, so you back off. You come to the next rise. Finally, you see the city of Jerusalem. And what dominates the picture Is that Mount Moriah? It's on the eastern end. There is the temple. And if this is first century, it's the temple refurbished by Herod the Great, the wicked king, who did a good thing. He did it for his own glory. When Jesus came to the temple, Herod was rotting in his grave. Jesus came and triumphed at that temple and cleansed it. But it looks like a snow-covered mountain peak. when you see it in the distance. It's made of marble overlaid with gold. It's one of the great wonders of the ancient world. Yes, Herod's temple, the wicked man who refurbished the temple, actually almost rebuilt it, the one that was rebuilt after the Babylonian captivity. It would dominate You see, finally you make your way down to the road that comes from Bethlehem, from the south, the road that comes from the west, from Joppa. They would meet just before turning and going through the gate into Jerusalem proper. Can you imagine if you've been traveling for a month to get there? You finally enter, maybe for the first time in your life, the gates of Jerusalem. What are you going to do? You could have stopped and stand there and stare in wonderment and awe. David's tower would be there to your right. Directly across from you there is the temple up close. The inner part of the temple was towering in height. Even the gate that surrounds the court of the Gentiles was as well. Magnificent sight. There's your destination. You stand, you stare. When someone who's with you comes up and whispers to you, verse 1, let's go into the house of the Lord. Remember why we came. Remember why we made this long journey. The psalmist says, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem. I was glad. Brothers and sisters, were you glad when you entered the gates this morning? Who did this assembly? We have every reason to be more glad. than our forefathers in the Old Covenant. Jesus has come. He's here. I was glad. They said to me, let's go into the house. The Lord, our feet have been standing within your gates. Oh, Jerusalem. What a glorious experience it would be. Now let's turn to 133. It pains me to pass over the others in between. It pains me. But I must. 133 is a fitting psalm to sing when you're just about finished. If you go and make such a long journey, you're not going to go for an hour Sunday service. Or if Lacey Andrews happens to be preaching, an hour and fifteen or hour and a half Sunday service. If you're going to make that pilgrimage, you're going to stay for a while. In fact, the feast, you have Passover, Then you have the week of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. After Passover, after the Sabbath, the first day of the week, you have the Feast of Firstfruits, which happens to be when Jesus was raised from the dead. Then, of course, you'd probably save it through Pentecost, because you start counting seven weeks from the Feast of Firstfruits until the Feast of Pentecost. You'd stay probably for a couple of months. You've liquidated everything. You've made that long journey. But you've been there, you've worshipped God, you've worshipped God with His people as He prescribes His word. Look at Psalm 130 and I want you to contrast it with Psalm 120 as you read it. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is good and pleasant to be with the people of God. Remember what he left in Kadar? In distress I cried to the Lord. I live among people who speak with lies. I long for peace. When I speak of peace, they make war. That's how he began. But now he's made his pilgrimage. He's worshipped God together with the people of God. And he has tasted the unity of the brethren. And it tastes good. It tastes good. He uses two metaphors to describe it. Look at the first. It's like the precious oil upon the head running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments. If you have the ESV, I think it says running down on the collar. Maybe that's the Presbyterian version. The oil of anointing poured down, comes down upon the beard, drops on the collar. The New King James says, down to the edge of his garments. It's not that easy to translate from the Hebrew. I believe it was a profuse anointing that took place. This oil, was actually prescribed by God. He even gave the formula for it, the recipe for it, and the divine perfumer prepared it. And this particular ointment could only be used to consecrate the artifacts of the temple, the architectural structures, the temple, the Ark of the Covenant, these holy artifacts. And then ultimately Aaron himself, the priest of God, Moses' brother, who would represent the people of God before God. And the oil was poured upon Aaron's head, drenching his head, running down on his beard. If you take the New King James Version, dripping down his robes to the very edge of his robes. And what the psalmist here is saying is, The unity of the people of God is like that oil. What does that mean? The oil had this special use, as I said, to consecrate these holy artifacts and in particular Aaron. The oil represents the holiness of God. And the holiness of the tabernacle, the holiness of the furnishings of the tabernacle, the holiness of the Ark of the Covenant, the holiness of this man, the high priest, who would go into the very presence of the living God on behalf of the people of God. He had to be adorned with holiness. And the oil offers this sweet fragrance because God delights in holiness. And what the psalmist is saying is, God also delights in the unity of the church. He loves the unity of the church. As a regional missionary in our presbytery, it means I get to travel. I get to go to our churches, I get to go to our mission works within the Presbytery, which is large in the OPC, Presbytery of the Southeast, places where I go. I'm going to be in Virginia Beach, Lord willing, next Sunday. I think the next Sunday after that I'm going to be in Greensboro, North Carolina. I have to think. I think the next Sunday after that, Virginia Beach. I get to see a lot of different congregations. Where the people of God take seriously the unity of the church, God is pleased. Where they do not, and where there is discord in the church, God is not pleased. He loves the unity of the church as he loves the holiness of his people. And then the second metaphor is what the unity of the church is like for us. Look what he says. It's like the dew of Hermon, verse 3, descending on the mountains. For there the Lord commands the blessing life forevermore. Mount Zion, Jerusalem is built upon hills. We call it Mount Zion, but compared to Mount Hermon, it's a hill. You know, there are times when I preach in different places and I talk about and brag about how we live in the mountains here in East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, where I live, until I run into someone from the West, you know, and they say, no, you live in the hills. We live in the mountains out here. Mount Hermon towered above Mount Zion. Mount Zion is higher, not in elevation, but higher in importance because that's where God himself would meet with his people. But from Mount Hermon would descend, this is the picture, the Jews. The refreshing water that comes down from Mount Hermon and spreads over the Holy Land and over Mount Zion, turning that which is brown and dead green and making it alive. That's the picture. The unity of the people of God is like that dew. And it tastes good to the people of God. When the church does everything in its power to strive to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace, as Paul says in Ephesians chapter 4, so that issues among you are resolved quickly and biblically, because your reconciliation with your brothers and sisters in Christ is far more important than anything that may divide you. And when there is that sweet fellowship that comes from that unity, you can taste it. Guess what? Visitors who come in the door can taste it too. And when that's not there, it's not refreshing. It doesn't taste good. And there's tension in the air. Visitors know that too. The unity of the church breathes life. It's why Jesus, in his high priestly prayer, the night he was betrayed, prayed, Lord, let them be one, that the world would know that you did send me. And I have been in churches, many of them, in your sister denomination. And sometimes it doesn't taste very well. Sometimes it tastes so sweet. There's a life and vibrancy that grows from preserving that unity, fostering that unity, living that unity. Because that manifests itself in how we love each other. How we love each other in the church. Be one with each other. God loves it and you will too. The Lord blesses His church when they're faithful and zealous for that unity. You know the difference in the tone of 133 and 120? How good, how pleasant it is when brethren dwell together in unity. Jesus died on the cross to reconcile you to himself. Guess what? He died on the cross to reconcile the person sitting next to you and the person sitting in the back, on that hand at the back, on that hand. To reconcile them to himself as well. To reconcile them to God as well. And in so doing, he reconciles us to each other. It should grieve us that there's an OPC and a PCA. I mean, our fellowship is sweet between the two denominations. You know, twice we've tried to heal that. There's never a breach. We never divided from each other. The OPC was in existence when the PCA came into existence. We immediately became sister churches. We share the same publishing house. But many may not know that twice there was an attempt for the two churches to come together through what was called joining and receiving, where the much larger PCA invited us and another sister church, the Reformed Presbyterian Church Evangelical Synod, to join the PCA. Do you know what happened? RPCES voted to join with the PCA and the OPC voted to join with the PCA. And the PCA at that time voted to receive the RPC-ES, but voted not yet on the OPC. So we tried it again a few years later, went through the same process. This time the PCA voted to receive the OPC, and the OPC said, maybe not yet. And there's not been an attempt at organic unity since. I think God has his purposes in all these things. I do. Am I pleased with it? Do I think he's utterly pleased with divisions between churches? No. But does he have his purposes? Is he working his purposes out? He is doing that. But what we do when we don't have organic union is we must work in labor. to have unity with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Even beyond the closeness we have between our two churches, to other true churches that are not exactly of the same faith and practice as we are. Because all of us are reconciled to God through Jesus Christ and thus to each other. Where this is felt the most is in the local congregation. So I would just lay before you, I don't know this conversation, I have no idea. Are there issues that you have with one another? I've not sensed any of that. Resolve it. Just do it. Because God loves the unity of his church and it tastes sweet and refreshing to us as well. It's a demonstration of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world around us we're trying to reach. And then finally, coming in conclusion to the last of these Psalms, which it concludes in the fitting place with a benediction. One of the things I love about our tradition, conservative Presbyterian tradition, is that we remember what the benediction is. You go to churches all over the place around here right now, some of them you won't know whether they started worshipping yet. Have we started yet? I guess we are by now. And then at the end there may be a closing prayer, there may not. Typically there's a closing prayer. But you don't have the minister of the gospel lifting his hands and pronouncing a benediction upon the people of God. We believe in the power of benediction and blessing. It's not just something that's formally in our liturgies and something we do because we've always done it. Because Jesus Christ Himself stands behind a minister of the gospel when He stands in the pulpit and lifts His hands and pronounces the benediction. Jesus Christ blesses His people. And you should receive that benediction and that blessing. Psalm 134 is an antiphonal benediction. Look at how it begins. Behold, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who by night stand in the house of the Lord. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord. This is a blessing that is pronounced by way of instruction upon the priests themselves. You've made the long journey from Kadar. You've worshipped in Jerusalem. You've spent your time there. You've enjoyed the worship of God and the fellowship of God's people. Now it's time to depart. It's time to go back to Kadar. It's time to go back home. You get up early in the morning. It's still dark. You make your way past the temple and you can see the light. the lights of those, the lamps that are lit by the priests and Levites who are there in the temple, who are serving in the Lord's house by night. You can't help yourself. You stop. You think about your experience. You lift your hands and pronounce a benediction upon those who serve in the house of the Lord. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, O ye servants of the Lord. You're saying, don't stop doing what you're doing. Because we're coming back. Keep the worship of God alive. Here upon the earth, here at the temple. The same thing here in the assembly. Because we're coming back next Sunday. The beauty is we don't have to wait until we can afford to make another pilgrimage. Or even wait until the next feast or festival. Next Sunday, it's coming. It's just a week away. Then there's another one after that. You see how blessed you are in Christ Jesus. And then it ends with the benediction. Perhaps one of the priests hears you, stops and lifts his hands. pronounces the benediction, the Lord who made heaven and earth bless you from Zion. You take your blessing and you go out the gates of Jerusalem and you head back across the Jordan River, across the plains of Moab, down the other side of the Dead Sea, back across the desert, to your homeland in Kadar, where Jesus says the fields are white at harvest. You go in the power of God with your blessing. One of the difficulties you face now, not having a minister of the gospel, is you don't get very many benedictions. Cherish each one. And when you have a minister, and I don't care who the minister is that's ordained, if he should forget some Sunday to lift his hands and pronounce the benediction, you wave your hand and you say, I'm not leaving without my blessing. Please, pastor, pronounce the benediction. Jacob held on to the Lord himself. And he said, I'm not letting go until you bless me. And the Lord blessed him. He limped away. But with the blessing of God. At the end of this service, after the final hymn, I'm going to lift my hands, I'm going to pronounce the benediction. With authority. I'm not the one blessing you. The risen, living Lord Jesus Christ does. And you receive it. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for these songs, for what they teach us about you, about your church, about your people, about the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, about worship, about rest, about benediction and blessing. Father, thank you for the treasure called the Songs of Ascension. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.