Psalm 134, a song of ascents. Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the Lord. Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord. May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth. Here ends our reading. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, We thank you for your precious word, what we acknowledge to our own natural hardness of heart and resistance to the things of God. And we admit then, if this word is to do us good, you must make it living and active. You must apply it to us by the Holy Spirit. You must cause it to be an instrument of life instead of hardening and of death. Lord, please speak to us. Please teach us what to think and how to look at the world and how to consider our future. Please shape us by this means of grace. We ask in Jesus name, amen. All through this past summer, we have been considering the so-called Psalms of Ascent. pilgrim songs, as it appears. There have been other hypotheses, but over the years, most other explanations of what that title at the top of these 15 Psalms means have been disproved, debunked, have fallen away, and it has become plainer and plainer as we compare the text of the Psalms with the historical setting and with the titles of the Psalms, that these are in fact pilgrim songs to be sung on the way to Zion. by those who, in many cases, lived very far outside the promised land, especially after the days of exile, but who were coming home as it were. Maybe not three times a year as the calendar had prescribed because that was not possible for them, but at least once in a lifetime, those as far away, we said, as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, places alluded to in the early Psalms of ascent came to Jerusalem. got to share their faith and share their worship and bring their sacrifice and hear the good news and have blessing pronounced on them and feel like spiritually at last they were home. We notice at the beginning of this series of 15 Psalms, 120 through 134, that they weren't gonna line up neatly in terms of describing step-by-step-by-step some kind of exact journey. They're a collection. But we did say there were some indications of movement and development within them. For instance, they do start out far away in Meshach and Kedar. And then the next Psalm talks about some of the dangers of the journey and getting there. The next psalm talks about approaching through those hills up to Zion. And another indication, at least in a general way, of a progression of thought and of this collection being used, maybe even sequentially by those pilgrims going up to the three great feasts in Jerusalem, is the way it ends. because it ends here with a joyful and yet I think wistful kind of looking back, one last moment to receive one last blessing before the pilgrim departs and goes back home. I think the mood of the psalm is captured well by Derek Thomas when he compares it to the times when you take a vacation, you know, and you've been to some beautiful place and you've enjoyed it for say a week, and you know the next day you're gonna have to leave, pack your bags and go, and you tell your spouse, he says, Let's go one last time to that place we've been enjoying, one last time to that cafe or that museum or whatever it is that's captured your interest. And so Psalm 134 seems like that, once especially I think we've interpreted the grammar of it. I think what's happening is these pilgrims are on their way out. This is one last moment, one last exhortation to those who are in the temple precincts to go on worshiping the Lord even though we ourselves are going to have to go back home as pilgrims. Two basic observations, then, in this psalm. The pilgrim worshipper blesses the Lord in Zion. One last time, the pilgrim worshipper blesses the Lord in Zion. That's the first two verses. And the second observation is the Lord blesses the pilgrim worshipper from Zion. That's verse three. So the Pilgrim Worshipper blesses the Lord in Zion and the Lord blesses the Pilgrim Worshipper from Zion. And that is how the collection of Ascent Psalms concludes. So in the first place, the pilgrim worshiper blesses the Lord in Zion, verses one and two. Now there have been many debates, people trying to parse out who's talking to whom. Is this a Levite talking to another Levite? Is this a priest talking to a student? Is this a worshiper talking to another resident of Jerusalem? But I think given the context, given the meaning of Song of Ascents, as we've seen it pretty consistently make sense, And then given to the grammar of how we alternate voices in this song, and I'll explain that a little more when we get to verse 3, I think it's pretty clear that what we're doing is, as pilgrim worshipers, telling the servants of the Lord who are on duty in the temple at night, one last time, bless the Lord. Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord. So you might have to go back to Meshach and Kedar tomorrow. You might have to find your way back through those dirt roads and dangerous hills. You might not get to come back here for who knows how many more years, depending on how your life might go. But you who are on duty by night, you who stand in the house of the Lord, you who do not let the lamps go out, you who keep singing the songs all through the night, you who keep the worship of God going, you lift up your hands in the holy temple and bless the Lord. So you see the worshipper is blessing the Lord, but he's blessing the Lord through the Levites who are on duty by night in the temple, the house of the Lord. By night. We need to note, I think, in scripture the significance of evening worship. Evening worship is prescribed repeatedly not just for the Sabbath, but actually every day there were evening sacrifices offered up and they seem to carry their own sort of Nuance may be a kind of wistfulness to them. For instance, in Psalm 141, David says, O Lord, I call upon you and hasten to me. Let my prayer be counted as incense before you and the lifting of my hands as the evening sacrifice. There's kind of a longing to the evening sacrifice, you see. You will have a song in the night when the holy feast is kept, Isaiah 30 says. And the idea that there would be not just once a day, but twice a day worship, especially on the Sabbath day, is deeply ingrained then into the Israelite psyche. We even find, for instance, when Daniel has been in captivity for 70 years, And he is visited by Gabriel with visions of God in Daniel chapter 9. He tells us that this happened at the time of the evening sacrifice. You see, it's like Daniel's watch is still running on temple time 70 years later and several hundred miles away in Babylon. Likewise, Elijah's great sacrifice in Mount Carmel is synchronized to the oblation, or as the new American standard fleshes it out so you'll understand it, the offering of the evening sacrifice. We seek to follow that pattern, of course, by worshiping on Sunday evenings. That's something that the apostles did. That's something that the churches they wrote to and visited did. But my point here tonight is not so much how many worship services there need to be in the New Testament church, as to point out what that evening worship, that beginning and ending of the day, and then the Levites being on duty, not just as guarding the temple, not just as baking bread for the next day, but going on perpetually singing, what that means as they lift up their hands and bless the Lord, as they greet worshipers, as they sing songs to God. The attitude of it is we do not want the glory of the Lord to diminish and we do not want the worship of the Lord to stop. So these servants then are Levites. Remember that in the wilderness, in the days of the mobile sanctuary, the tabernacle, Levites had been appointed to move stuff and care for stuff and they had special responsibilities. They could touch things that were holy and there were different clans and divisions of the Levites. But once the Levites have all that stuff transferred to a temple, they don't have the same job anymore. 1 Chronicles 23 actually addresses that directly. David, who has gathered materials and picked a spot where his son will build the temple in Jerusalem, says this in 1 Chronicles 23. The Lord, the God of Israel, has given rest to his people, and he dwells in Jerusalem forever. And so the Levites no longer need to carry the tabernacle or any of the things for its service. I'm like, okay, does that mean that there's no more job for the Levites anymore? We'll skip down a few verses to verse 30. Right after David says that, they were to stand every morning, thanking and praising the Lord, and likewise at evening. And whenever burnt offerings were offered to the Lord on Sabbaths, new moons, and feast days, according to the number required of them regularly before the Lord, thus they were to keep charge of the tent of meeting and sanctuary, and to attend the sons of Aaron, their brothers, for the service of the house of the Lord. In other words, the way they're gonna fulfill the ancient job description of taking care of God's sanctuary is no longer to carry around tent stakes anymore, no longer to slide those poles into the carrying rings of the incense arc anymore. Now it is to assemble by night as well as by morning to lead God's people and to adorn God's house with praises. Every morning thanking and praising the Lord and likewise at evening. See, some think that Psalm 134 is merely talking to the janitor or the night shift or people who are, you know, guarding temple valuables, but the servants of the Lord, lifting up their hands to the Lord, this is, I think, the language of worship. Deuteronomy 10 says, the Lord had set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the Ark of the Covenant back in the wilderness and to stand before the Lord to minister to him and to bless in his name to this very day. So telling those servants in the house of the Lord to lift up their hands toward the Lord is telling them to continue this worship that's been appointed to them. And essentially what they will do then as your representatives, your priestly representatives, and the old covenant, you still had the priestly mediators, right? Is that they will do the blessing of the Lord for you. Not only are they ceremonially qualified to get closer, but they will be able to stay here perpetually while you, after a week's festival, have to go back home. So, We as worshipers want to bless the Lord, and so we tell the Levites, go on blessing the Lord, even by night, even by candlelight. Make it around the clock, blessing of the Lord. Don't let up. What does it mean to bless the Lord? Well, we can describe him as blessed. as having all worth and power and might and the other things we see being ascribed to him, for instance, in the book of Revelation. Saying bless the Lord is a way basically of praising the Lord. As in Psalm 103, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. That is, praise him, make much of him, talk about his blessedness. And it can also be a way of saying thanks to the Lord. That's something we've actually seen in these songs of ascent, Psalm 124. Blessed be the Lord who has not given us as prey to their teeth. So the pilgrim worshiper blesses the Lord in Zion. And he does that not just as a once-in-a-blue-moon occasion, but through the priesthood who gets the privilege of staying in God's presence, a priestly privilege that, by the way, you, as children of Abraham and as inheritors of the New Covenant, you have access to. The worshipers of the Old Testament desire that that worship would be ceaseless. They gloried in the thought that there is no off switch to the praising of God, though night may have fallen. I love the way that Messiah is described in Psalm 72 as reigning in Jerusalem and receiving their ruling in God's behalf, constant praise. Long may he live. May the gold of Sheba be given to him. May prayer be made for him continually and blessings invoked for him all the day. May there be abundance of grain in the land. On the tops of the mountains may it wave. May its fruit be like Lebanon. May people blossom in the cities like the grass of the field. May his name endure forever. His fame continue as long as the sun. May people be blessed in him, all nations call him blessed. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. Blessed be his glorious name forever. May the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and amen. That is a very enthusiastic and Old Testament version of saying that the sun never sets on the empire. In this case, the universal empire of our Messiah, the Lord Jesus. The pilgrim worshiper then blesses the Lord in Zion and specifically uses what spiritual privilege and access he has, which in our case now through Jesus Christ who has torn the veil and has removed every other mediator is far greater actually than the ancient Israelite had. But the pilgrim worshiper uses that access to press for, to seek after incessant, even nighttime worship of the Lord in Zion. But then there's a response. The Lord blesses the pilgrim worshiper from Zion, verse three. May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth. Now the reason we understand this to be a different voice, for this to be a kind of antiphonal psalm then, is that the pronoun, the you, is singular here, whereas previously we were addressing a plural group of servants. And so it seems to be happening in verse three now is this is the Levites who have been exhorted to go on praising and maintaining the worship of God in the holy places day and night. Now they're turning around to you, you taking your last look as a pilgrim, you wishing you could stay but you know you can't and saying to you, individual worshiper, may the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth. I think then as brief as it is, Psalm 134 is a beautiful example of covenant dialogue. You understand that's what worship essentially is. When we gather here as God's people, this is meant to be a conversation. God speaks to us, we speak to God. That takes a number of different forms, but the idea is there is not a monologue from either direction. but rather a thoughtful and personal dialogue with the God we are bound to in covenants. Worship then follows what we sometimes call the dialogical principle. The idea being that there is this circle of blessing. We bless the Lord, he blesses us. We bless the Lord, he blesses us. Until finally we are dismissed with his ultimate words, his benediction. That dialogue then reflects the covenants. And the covenants, of course, depends not just on God's spoken vows, but on the mediation of Jesus Christ. This is a little picture of the kind of conversation and the kind of relationship then that Jesus builds between God and his people. You realize that even here tonight at Sandy Springs is you call on God's name and you are in effect saying, through Jesus, your mediator, may the Lord be blessed in Zion forever. and you're expecting to hear back, the Lord bless you from Zion forever. And everything else God says to you in worship, stop sinning and I forgive you and pay attention and whatever else God might have to say to you, you expect that dialogue to happen to you in a way that blesses you and engages you, you don't expect God to close the gates and hang up the phone, you don't expect him to respond with some kind of curse or some kind of indifference. Why don't you expect that? Because you have a mediator, Jesus Christ, who has established this new covenants, this new relationship signed in blood. That's exactly how he described his work as he went to the cross, speaking to his disciples, saying, that this cup is the new covenants in my blood. This cup is the fulfillment then of everything that people in ancient Israel wished they could have with God, wished they could be sincere, wished they could be spiritually alive, wished they could be sprinkled clean, wished that they had clear and present title to a future in which there would be no more sin and no more need to tell each other, know the Lord, because we'd know him. And so this little dialogical psalm reminds you of the dialogical nature of worship, but please don't ever take for granted the fact that that dialogue had to be established. And that dialogue blesses rather than destroys you because Jesus Christ established it. Jesus mediates that covenant conversation and he's mediating it even now. The person who gets up here and talks, whether it's a minister or an elder, is just an appointed ambassador. Your mediator is in heavenly places. Your advocate and representative and the one who also is behind the minister blessing you from Zion is actually Jesus Christ. Do notice that it's not the priest who is the source of the blessing. The Levites don't turn around to the worshiper and say, I bless you from Zion. It's not the building that's a blessing per se. It's not the festival that's a blessing per se. It is the Lord who blesses, that makes those things enjoyable and worthwhile. And I love the observation Ligon Duncan makes here. He says that whenever you go to bless the Lord, expect to get out-blessed. Expect God to get the last word and to give you more than you would ever give him. Indeed, his ability to bless us is limitless because as we're told here, he made heaven and earth. That's a reminder of his jurisdiction and of his power. It's something you find in other Psalms too, like Psalm 115, may you be blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth. Or in Ephesians chapter three, he is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. How does the Lord bless us, pilgrim worshipers, Well, there have been a number of blessings considered in these songs of ascent. Let me remind you of a few of them. Psalm 127 talked about the blessing of children. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with the arrows that are the children of his youth. Psalm 132 spoke about nourishing provision. God said, I will abundantly bless her provision, that is, Jerusalem's physical needs. I will satisfy her poor with bread. Psalm 133, the Lord has commanded in Zion the blessing, life forevermore. And Psalm 128 goes into great depth, describing the many blessings of a life that is well-ordered and visited by God. Blessings that we noticed when we studied Psalm 128 may not be manifested the same way for every person on this side of glory, but are describing an ideal life under every man's own vine and fig tree, as sometimes the Old Testament puts it. Describes blessing. But I think if we're going to appreciate the blessing being announced here in Psalm 134, we need to consider particularly the blessings of being here, where the worshiper is. Being here in Zion. May the Lord bless you out in the cornfield. Sure, great. May the Lord bless you in any other place where you might seek him. But where does the Lord bless you from? From Zion. And that's the place you've been for the past week. And what have been the benefits what have been the blessings that you would like to keep on enjoying as a pilgrim who might otherwise leave hungry or disappointed. What kind of joyful but also wistful looking back can you say from Zion I have received and brought home. What have I gained from going to this festival from going to this house of the Lord from going to this worship service. Well. There are, of course, spiritual blessings of gathering to God. It is, in a sense, up to God what kind of blessings you do or don't get and when you do or don't get them. Even now, when you come to church, you can't tell God what you think you ought to get from this or that act of worship. But the key blessing that you would get from Zion, I contend, is a priestly blessing. What blessing did you go there to specifically receive from the hands of Levites in the holy courts, when you not only celebrated the festival of booths or whichever one it was, but also brought your sacrifices and desired to be reconciled to your God at the altar? It was the priestly blessing. The blessing that goes all the way back to the original high priest, Aaron. Now if you were with us this morning, don't let what Aaron did cloud your appreciation of this because Aaron was just a man in a robe. You need to see what he represents. You need to see how other high priests stand in his shoes. And you need to see how he is able, how he is empowered to speak for God and give you the Lord's blessing from Zion. And you need to know how Jesus Christ, our priest who is more like Melchizedek than Aaron, our priest is now the mediator who blesses you. You remember the blessing of Aaron, the high priestly benediction that was prescribed for him? The exact words he was supposed to say, starting in Numbers chapter 6, when somebody brought their sacrifice, when they sprinkled the blood, when they laid their hands on the animal, when they sent up the smoke, when they said not just, thank you, but I'm sorry, or please forgive me, or accept my restitution, or I'll commit to you, Lord, to do more of what you want from me. Whatever the message might be that you send, whatever the sacrifice might be that you offered, especially when you're trying to deal with some sin that has interrupted your relationship with God, the key moment was when the priest would come back to you from the altar where your sacrifice was sent up in smoke. And he was supposed to say exactly this. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace." Now that's not a prayer. That's not Aaron. That's not Zadok. That's not Jesus saying, I hope the Lord decides to bless you. He offered this sacrifice and we'll see if it takes. It's an announcement. The Lord is shining, is smiling on you. You have his grace and peace. Whatever this week might feel like or look like, know what the reality is in Zion. Know that in the courts, in the house of God, you are being smiled upon and watched over. Everything is being orchestrated to your benefit. Nothing will separate you from the love of God and Jesus Christ. It's a blessing announced on the basis of a sacrifice. It's what we call the benediction. And in Reformed worship services like ours, it has rightly taken a place of prominence. that we would be dismissed every single service from the Lord's presence with this or another of the Bible's benedictions. And there are others, of course. There are those in the epistles. We know some very well, I think, like from 2 Corinthians, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Like an apostle or like a high priest, we're not just saying that, hoping that God loves you. We're telling you that, in Jesus' name, so that you will depart this place truly blessed. Some of us love the benediction from 2 Thessalonians 2. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. Our fathers and brothers in the faith tell us that it's especially fitting when we celebrate the Lord's Supper. To conclude with the benediction from Hebrews 13, now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Understand when you're here, it's not a priest doing that. It's not, may James or Dr. Carrick next week bless you from Zion. It is a person who is authorized to speak for a priest, and the priest has actually gone into the Holy Courts and obtained this blessing. And Jesus wants to tell you before you go, the Lord bless you and keep you. Things are well. with you and your maker. Farewell, of course, because of the cross. So the Lord bless you from Zion. This is where the priestly benediction is spoken. This is where worship is maintained. Zion is the place where blessings are heard, where God is connected with, and Zion then is the pilgrim's true home, even though he may on earth only have gotten to spend a little bit of time there. Zion is where God spoke, where God listened, where God forgave. And we need to remember, of course, since Jesus taught us that no longer should we seek God on this mountain or that mountain, but rather seek him in spirit and truth. We should come to him not through some earthly priest, but through his own self. We should remember that we are gathering to Zion, not once in a blue moon in Palestine. But every time the spiritual kingdom of God is manifested, every time two or three are gathered in Jesus' name, every time God connects to us. We are told in Hebrews chapter 12, you have come to Mount Zion. That's a now reality. That's not just a someday reality. You have come, worshiper, to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels and festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Already in spirit you can draw near to Zion. Already you can be blessed from Zion every single Lord's Day. But I would be remiss if I didn't point out, as we have noticed from time to time when we've talked about the theme of pilgrimage and going up to Jerusalem on festival, that in a sense those pilgrimages set a pattern for the Christian life. Because one day we will enjoy Zion more fully than we do now. One day we will walk by sight and not only by faith. One day we will actually see the revelation of that city that Abraham and everyone after him has waited for, that city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. The Lord bless you from Zion. I want to close this series. in the Psalms of Ascent for pilgrim journeyers by remembering not only the privileges spiritually that we can take with us for the rest of our earthly pilgrimage, but I do want to remind us too that Zion is our final home. There will come a time, eventually, when you and I are no longer pilgrims. And you and I don't have to say Goodbye to the worship of God. When you and I will be home permanently no more farewells no more see you next time no more God be with you till we meet again no more hey keep it going keep on praying don't give up the faith. There'll be a day when we don't need that anymore because we ourselves We'll be in that city where there is no more night. We ourselves will be in that manifestation of Zion that is described for us in Revelation. That's where we get to end up as pilgrims. After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude, that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes, and peoples, and languages, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb. And all the angels standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. One day, Christians, see, not only will you get to be home in every sense of the word, Not only will you one day reach the end of a lifelong pilgrimage, but one day your heart's desire as someone who knows the Lord, loves him, has been saved by him, your heart's desire that the sun would never set on the empire of Jesus and that worship would keep going up around the clock without ever ending. One day that will be physically, literally, obviously true and you'll be a participant in it. your great joy will be the fact that Messiah keeps receiving this kind of praise in Zion and keeps giving it back to you forever. So the pilgrim worshiper blesses the Lord in Zion and the Lord blesses the pilgrim worshiper from Zion. a little bit of a wistful psalm, though it's also a very joyful psalm. And it's a psalm that reminds us not only of our spiritual privilege of engaging with and dialoguing with God now in the spiritual Zion access we have, but it's also I think a psalm that reminds us that in our Lord Jesus' words, in my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, what I have told you, I go and prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, I will take you to myself that where I am, you may be also." Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for reminding us of wonderful things about your worship and your covenant and the future you've prepared for us. and your son in whom it has become possible and true. Father, please help us to believe these things and not shrug them off. Help us to respond to your word as you mean us to. Please let us live in this hope we ask in Christ's name, amen.