Small group Bible study curriculum with lessons by:
Scott Aniol, Tom Ascol, Voddie Baucham, Josh Buice, Costi Hinn, Phil Johnson,
Steven Lawson, John MacArthur, Laramie Minga, Matthew Sikes, Paul Washer, James White
Main Point: Lifting heartfelt and holy worship to the Lord is a blessing to the worshiper.
Main Passage: Psalm 134
Memory: “May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth!” (Ps 134:3)
Worship is not primarily for the benefit of the worshiper. If you choose a church based on what entertains you or makes you feel good, you’re doing it wrong, because true worship is an offering to God. It is not a performance for the congregation; it is not a shot of adrenaline to make the worshiper feel good. True worship must, above all, aim to please God, not to please the worshiper.
But there is a balance to that truth as well, and it is this: if you truly seek to worship in spirit and in truth, if your worship flows from a heart of love for God, it will produce in you a heavenly joy and delight. You will be blessed as you bless God from a pure heart.
Psalm 134 highlights that side of this equation—the blessedness of true worship. This psalm occupies a unique place in the Hebrew Psalter. It is the last of fifteen short psalms that are all labeled “A Song of Ascents.” They are all grouped together in the Psalter, starting with Psalm 120, and the fact that they are grouped together like this suggests that these Psalms functioned as a kind of portable song book.
Most of the songs in this grouping are short and focused on one very specific theme: worship. Most of the fifteen Songs of Ascent mention Zion, or the temple, or the city of Jerusalem, and they all have praise as a major theme. They include other topics, but the one central theme that ties all of them together is worship, specifically the formal and corporate worship that takes place in Jerusalem on Mount Zion in the temple complex.
And therefore, the vast majority of commentators believe that these fifteen psalms were a collection of songs that were set aside especially to be sung by pilgrims who were making the uphill journey to Jerusalem for the annual feasts. This would make perfect sense of the inscription “A Song of Ascents,” because Jerusalem is situated in an elevated region—no matter where you are coming from, in order to get to Jerusalem, you have to go up. The Psalms of Ascent were filled with themes that directly pertained to that ascending journey. Their brevity and simplicity makes them very easy to memorize; all of them are also, therefore, suited to group singing as families would ascend to Jerusalem for a feast.
The three annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem—Unleavened Bread, Harvest, and Ingathering—were commanded by the Law:
Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me. 15 You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. None shall appear before me empty-handed. 16 You shall keep the Feast of Harvest, of the firstfruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor. 17 Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God. (Exod 23:14–17)
The final psalm of this collection, Psalm 134, is fittingly an invocation of blessing on people who have come to worship. It is a short three verse psalm, and its theme is the blessedness of worship. In fact, the word “bless” appears in each of the three verses. Verses 1 and 2 urge worshipers to bless the Lord, and verse three calls on Yahweh to bless the worshipers.
The psalm seems to have been written for antiphonal voices. The first two verses appear to be the voice of the pilgrims who come to the temple, and verse 3 seems to be sung by the people who are mentioned in verse 1, namely the servants of the Lord who stand by night in the house of the Lord. These are the priests and Levites who worked the night shift at the temple. And so, the pilgrim worshipers would sing verses 1 and 2 and the temple workers on duty at night would answer with verse 3. As the final psalm in the Songs of Ascents, this may have been a farewell benediction sung when the celebration was over, just as the worshipers began their journey back home. They would have gathered in the temple courts in the early hours of the morning, preparing to journey back home, and this psalm may have been what they sang as they departed.
The three verses in this psalm also provide the simplest of biblical worship liturgies in three parts: a call to worship, a doxology, and a benediction.
A Call to Heartfelt Worship (Ps 134:1)
Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the Lord!
This call to worship is addressed to the night guard and the priests who ministered at the temple overnight. It is both an invitation and a command to the temple’s night staff. The temple always had priests, Levites, guards, and even musicians on duty. Qualified worshipers were welcome to come at any hour, and the night shift was not to be treated as an afterthought—it was important. As a “copy of heavenly things” (Heb 9:23), the service of the earthly sanctuary needed to mirror the perpetual worship that takes place around the throne of God in heaven.
Therefore, people were on duty at the temple around the clock throughout the year. And the night shift had to be especially watchful. First Chronicles 9 describes the duties of the large retinue of guards around the temple:
The gatekeepers were on the four sides, east, west, north, and south. 25 And their kinsmen who were in their villages were obligated to come in every seven days, in turn, to be with these, 26 for the four chief gatekeepers, who were Levites, were entrusted to be over the chambers and the treasures of the house of God. 27 And they lodged around the house of God, for on them lay the duty of watching, and they had charge of opening it every morning. 28 Some of them had charge of the utensils of service, for they were required to count them when they were brought in and taken out. 29 Others of them were appointed over the furniture and over all the holy utensils, also over the fine flour, the wine, the oil, the incense, and the spices. 30 Others, of the sons of the priests, prepared the mixing of the spices, 31 and Mattithiah, one of the Levites, the firstborn of Shallum the Korahite, was entrusted with making the flat cakes. 32 Also some of their kinsmen of the Kohathites had charge of the showbread, to prepare it every Sabbath. 33 Now these, the singers, the heads of fathers’ houses of the Levites, were in the chambers of the temple free from other service, for they were on duty day and night. (1 Chron 9:24–33)
Some of the rabbinical records suggest that there were also groups of unusually devout worshipers who were in the habit of visiting the temple to pray in the middle of the night. Luke 2:37 describes one of these, a widow named Anna. Luke says of her, “She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.”
The night shift at the temple also consisted of some of the highest-ranking priests, because the burnt offerings had to be kept burning all night. The sons of Aaron were strictly instructed not to let that fire go out:
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 9 “Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt offering. The burnt offering shall be on the hearth on the altar all night until the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be kept burning on it. 10 And the priest shall put on his linen garment and put his linen undergarment on his body, and he shall take up the ashes to which the fire has reduced the burnt offering on the altar and put them beside the altar. 11 Then he shall take off his garments and put on other garments and carry the ashes outside the camp to a clean place. 12 The fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it; it shall not go out. The priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and he shall arrange the burnt offering on it and shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings. 13 Fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it shall not go out. (Lev 6:8–13)
So night duty at the temple was a responsibility that could not be taken casually, yet like any ritual or routine, the tasks had to be done methodically. This illustrates a common problem with well-ordered worship: it becomes tedious very easily. It is easy to become inattentive or to succumb to the dullness of repetition and then begin to perform your tasks mindlessly or heedlessly. We sometimes sing our hymns that way, sadly.
And so, the call to worship in this early morning psalm specifically targets those whose duty it was to lead and worship. In fact, there’s a not-so-subtle irony about this, isn’t there? The people whose job it is to lead in worship are being called to worship. This is literally what you would call preaching to the choir. Indeed, even the choir frequently needs a call to worship.
Worship with the Whole Heart
And to underscore the urgency of this call to worship, it starts with an exclamation. The opening words translated “come” is a term designed to seize the attention of the people to whom you are speaking. It is the same word that is translated “behold” at the beginning of Psalm 133. It expresses a sense of earnest importance and lends emphasis through whatever statement immediately follows it. The sense of it here is exactly like the English word “look!” This is telling the temple staff, “Don’t lose sight of what you’re doing; don’t just go through the motions; and above all, don’t fall asleep on the job. What you are doing is of eternal importance, so put your hearts in it.” It is an urgent wake-up call: you serve a jealous God; give him the praise that is due him.
In other words, this is more than merely a generic call to worship. It would have been applicable to every person at the temple, of course, but it is specifically directed at those who have a particular calling to ministry. And thus, in a special way, this would apply to anyone who is serving the Lord in any kind of regular fashion. Men and women alike, priests and temple guards, janitors, nursery workers, even the person who sweeps the floor—“Bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the Lord!”
The Hebrew word for “stand” in this call to worship is consistently used in Scripture to speak of the duty that is performed by those who served in the temple.
| Deut 10:8 “At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD to stand before the LORD to minister to him and to bless in his name, to this day.” Deut 18:7 “And ministers in the name of the LORD his God, like all his fellow Levites who stand to minister there before the LORD …” 1 Chron 23:30 “And they were to stand every morning, thanking and praising the LORD, and likewise at evening.” 2 Chron 29:11 “My sons, do not now be negligent, for the LORD has chosen you to stand in his presence, to minister to him and to be his ministers and make offerings to him.” |
Remember, the sacrificial furnishings in the temple did not include any chairs. The priests stood, signifying the unfinished nature of their service. In fact, the work of atonement was never really ever complete until Christ himself finally offered one sacrifice for sins forever. That is the very point of Hebrews 10:11–13:
And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.
Psalm 134 recognizes that all those people who were working in Solomon’s temple were standing, and the call to worship is specifically directed to those who “stand by night in the house of the Lord,” men and women whose job it is to care for the details of worship in the early morning hours.
Thus the context of this call to worship is a tacit recognition that anything routine can be too easily taken for granted and be done half-heartedly. So, this is a formal call to wake up from the listless stupor of liturgical routines and bless the Lord with a whole heart.
Bless the Lord
Scripture uses the word “bless” in several ways.
| “Bless” in Scripture Gen 1:22 “And God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.’” Gen 2:3 “So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.” Gen 24:60 “And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, ‘Our sister, may you become thousands of ten thousands, and may your offspring possess the gate of those who hate him!’” Luke 24:30 “When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them.” |
To bless something is to consecrate it by either saying words or making a pronouncement that confers or invokes divine favor on a purpose or object. With that definition, how do we bless the Lord? We certainly cannot confer any good or benefit on him; we cannot increase his happiness. We certainly cannot sanctify him in the sense of adding to his holiness.
Nevertheless, we are commanded to bless him. We bless him by saying words that call him holy, by attributing to him the honor that is due. In other words, to bless the Lord is to praise him. It is as simple as that—to hallow his name and to ascribe glory to him. And specifically, this verse speaks of praising him with thanksgiving.
And so, this first verse is a call to worship—a call to wholehearted, alert, heartfelt, grateful worship as opposed to simply going through the motions. “Put your heart in it”—that is the sense of this call to worship.
| Think About It |
| 1. In what ways do you sometimes find yourself heartlessly engaged in the regular routines of worship? 2. What are some practical ways you can ensure that you are worshiping with your whole heart? 3. In what ways can we bless the Lord in our worship? |
A Humble Doxology (Ps 134:2)
Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord!
The second part of this order of worship is the doxology—an utterance of praise to God. This is both a response and a repetition of the call to worship from verse 1; it both answers and echoes the call to worship.
The physical response of uplifted hands is often in the Old Testament associated with prayer. This was a gesture that signified holiness; because God is holy, those who come before him in prayer must themselves be holy (Lev 11:44, Num 15:40). Uplifted hands were a symbol that acknowledged the need of the worshiper for holiness. According to this verse, the hands were to be lifted to the holy place, meaning toward the holy of holies, the place where the Ark of the Covenant was kept.
| Lifting Hands in Prayer 1 Kgs 8:38–39 “Whatever prayer, whatever plea is made by any man or by all your people Israel, each knowing the affliction of his own heart and stretching out his hands toward this house, then hear in heaven your dwelling place and forgive and act and render to each whose heart you know, according to all his ways.” Ezra 9:5 “And at the evening sacrifice I rose from my fasting, with my garment and my cloak torn, and fell upon my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my God.” 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.” Ps 141:2 “Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!” 1 Tim 2:8 “I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.” |
Even today Judaism has a special ceremony known as the raising of the hands. This is part of the Jewish liturgy, during which a priest pronounces the formal blessing that is found in Numbers 6:24–26:
The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Physical gestures have the advantage of counteracting the feeling of listlessness or dullness that the psalm seems to be addressing. But the point is not mainly the gesture, but what the gesture means. It is a symbol of humble supplication and childlike dependence.
| Think About It |
| 1. What are some different ways you might obey the spirit of the command to “lift up your hands” in blessing the Lord? 2. Why is there an emphasis upon holiness when we approach God in prayer? 3. In what ways might we approach God in worship without a proper focus on holiness? |
A Confident Benediction (Ps 134:3)
May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth!
After the call to worship and the expression of worship, a new voice speaks in verse 3, so that this Psalm is apparently written to be sung antiphonally like a responsive reading. The departing worshipers sing verses 1 and 2, and verse 3 is the Levitical response. Those who stand by night in the house of the Lord have heard the call to worship; they have joined in the doxology of verse 2, lifting their hands in holiness; and now they respond with a benediction.
This is a perfect closing line to this very brief psalm and a fitting end to the fifteen Psalms of Ascent. Verses 1 and 2 both invoke the worshipers’ blessing to the Lord: “Bless the Lord.” Verse 3 is a plea that the worshipers themselves might be blessed. And this time, the blessing comes from God.
Importantly, the pronoun “you” is singular, emphasizing a focus on the individual. This is not a prayer for material prosperity, it is a wish for the joy and contentment that is the birthright of those who have found God’s favor and who worship him in spirit and in truth. Worship should be a joy and delight, and this is a prayer for that kind of spiritual blessedness. It is a prayer that God would grant from Zion the same favor and fellowship with God and his people that the pilgrims had come to Zion in order to find.
He is, after all, the Lord who made heaven and earth. All the blessings that we truly need are all at his disposal; that should be an encouragement. This psalm itself is given to us by the Holy Spirit as a reminder and a summons to seek those blessings in our prayer and in our praise of the most high God. “May he bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth.”
| Think About It |
| 1. What is the difference between praying for personal spiritual blessing and praying for material blessing? 2. Why does the fact that God made heaven and earth bring encouragement to worshipers? 3. What are some practical ways this simple worship order can impact your approach to worship? |
Prayer: Father, we are grateful for the fellowship and encouragement we find when we gather with the people of God, when we lift our hearts and hands and voices in praise to you. May we be faithful to proclaim your Word, to praise your name, and to bless you with full hearts, not in a perfunctory or mechanical way, but in spirit and in truth. We thank you for the Lord Jesus, for the salvation he purchased for his people. May we be found in that number on the last day, and may our praise extend through all eternity. We pray in Jesus’s name. Amen.
For Further Study:
Godfrey, W. Robert. Learning to Love the Psalms. Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing, 2017.
Robertson, O. Palmer. The Flow of the Psalms: Discovering Their Structure and Theology. Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 2015.
Ross, Allen P. A Commentary on the Psalms, Volume 3:90–150. KEL. Kregel, 2014.