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 Psalm 134

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 A song of ascents

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 This is God's holy and authoritative word.

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 So this is the final psalm in the collection.

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 Of songs of ascent.

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 From Psalm 120 to Psalm 134.

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 So the meaning of that we discussed at the beginning of this collection.

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 But in Ezra chapter 7 verse 9.

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 During Ezra's return.

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 Describing Ezra's return from Babylonian exile to God's.

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 The land that God had given to the Israelites.

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 That return is described as an ascent.

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 As a going up.

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 This is on the first day of the first month.

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 He began to go up from Babylonia.

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 And on the first day of the fifth month.

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 He came to Jerusalem.

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 For the good hand of his God was on him.

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 So that's kind of the running theme through all the psalms.

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 In the songs of ascent.

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 That it kind of expresses a longing.

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 For God's holy place.

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 To worship the Mount Zion.

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 The dwelling place of God.

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 So this is a really fitting conclusion to the set.

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 It declares that those who bless the Lord at his temple.

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 Will be blessed by the Lord of heaven and earth.

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 So first we see the invitation to bless the Lord in verses 1 to 2.

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 And then in verse 3 we see the benediction.

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 May the Lord bless you.

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 And so let's look at first the invitation of verses 1 to 2.

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 It says,

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 Come bless the Lord all you servants of the Lord.

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 Who stand by night in the house of the Lord.

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 Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord.

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 So the invitation addresses all you servants of the Lord.

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 So the verb to serve as well as the noun service is used in various places throughout scripture to refer to like the Levites and the priests.

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 But the word servants is not used to refer to them.

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 Whenever it refers to servants in context like this, it refers to all of God's congregants.

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 All of the worshipers gathered together.

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 So here it's referring to every believer that are gathered there.

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 All you servants of the Lord.

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 And we can see that that's the meaning of this word in both Psalm 113 and Psalm 135 where the expression occurs.

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 And so they seem to be gathered for some kind of vespers.

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 Some kind of evening service.

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 A worship service because it mentions who stand by night in the house of the Lord.

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 And these two verses are bracketed by the phrase bless the Lord.

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 Verses 1 to 2.

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 It begins and ends with that phrase which is the main exhortation of that section.

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 But we know from Hebrews chapter 7 verse 7 that it's the inferior that is blessed by the superior.

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 So technically speaking, to bless is to impart or bestow good things or the blessings from God on someone.

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 And for that reason only those who have the God-given authority and the power to do that can do that.

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 So it's usually God's the subject of blessing.

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 He's the one who does the blessing.

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 But when, as is the case here, and is often the case throughout the Psalms, God is the object of blessing.

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 To bless means to worship, to praise God, to acknowledge that God is the blessed one.

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 He is the one from whom all blessings flow.

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 So there's such joy in this song because this is what this collection, Songs of Ascent, all look forward to.

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 Worshiping God in His holy place.

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 And that's when we are at our best and when we're fulfilling our eternal destiny.

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 That's what God created us for.

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 So that's the invitation.

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 And then in verse 3, it transitions to a benediction.

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 So from the place of the congregation's worship in Zion, now the Lord Himself issues forth His blessings.

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 It's really hard to wrap our minds around that reality, right?

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 Because it says the God is the one who made heaven and earth.

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 The one who made heaven and earth meets and blesses His people from a man-made temple in Zion.

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 A small hill in the Middle East.

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 And Solomon, who built the original temple himself, kind of grasped the absurdity of all of this.

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 Because during the dedication of the temple, he said this in 2 Chronicles 8, verses 18-21.

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 But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth?

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 Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you.

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 How much less this house that I have built.

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 Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea.

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 O Lord my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before you.

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 That your eyes may be open day and night toward this house.

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 The place where you have promised to set your name.

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 That you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place.

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 And listen to the pleas of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place.

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 And listen from heaven, your dwelling place.

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 And when you hear, forgive.

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 So Solomon understood how absurd it is that we could, as human beings, expect God to dwell in a temple we built on this measly hill, on this low earth.

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 But God deigned to grace that little temple in Jerusalem with his almighty presence.

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 Which even the, his presence, which even the highest heaven cannot contain.

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 And so it's like, like harnessing the powerful light and heat of the sun into like a flashlight.

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 You know, I mean, and channeling God's, you know, it's unimaginable.

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 And yet God did this.

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 And he did this, again, approximately 1,000 years later.

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 When Jesus came, Emmanuel, the Lord with us, the Son of God.

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 Who was born in the little town of Bethlehem.

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 John 1, 14 describes the incarnation of the Son of God this way.

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 The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

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 And we have seen his glory.

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 Glory as of the only Son from the Father.

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 He dwelt among us.

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 It's literally, he pitched a tent among us.

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 He tabernacled among us.

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 It's an allusion to the tabernacle, which was a prelude to the temple.

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 It's a, it, it, it, it's this God almighty took on weak and measly human flesh and dwelled among us.

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 And that's why in John 2, Jesus says that his body is the temple of God.

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 And the shock of this revelation continues.

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 The temple of God, the in flesh, the deity is destroyed on the cross.

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 Solomon's temple was destroyed in 6th century BC by the Babylonians because of God's people's sin.

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 And similarly, Jesus, the temple of God, is destroyed in the 1st century AD by the Roman Empire due to the sins of God's people.

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 But the key difference is that this time, instead of leading to God's people's exile out of Mount Zion,

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 this, Jesus' death leads to their redemption and restoration and entrance into the heavenly Zion that Hebrews talks about.

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 Jesus bore the sins of God's people on the cross.

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 And he rebuilt it in three days by being raised from the dead.

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 And after he ascended to the right hand of the Father, he pours out his spirit to make us the people of God, the temple of God.

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 And so 1 Corinthians 3, 16 to 17 says,

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 And so now, the shocking reality continues that now on us, us sinful people and unworthy people and unfaithful people,

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 on us rests the presence and blessing of the Lord of heaven and earth.

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 In us, the spirit of the living God dwells.

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 And in our despised and, by the world's estimation, our insignificant and inessential gathering of Christians,

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 there, God dwells.

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 His blessings issue forth.

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 God says, there am I among them.

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 And as we abide in Christ through faith, as we gather in the name of Christ, as we bless His name together,

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 His blessings flow to us.

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 That's a wonderful promise in this psalm,

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 that those who bless the Lord at His temple, that's us,

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 we will be blessed by the Lord of heaven and earth.

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 I pray that we'll never lose that sense of wonder,

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 that honor, that privilege that is to worship as God's people.

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 as a gift to an expert who praise Himян typing in us,

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 that this pardon will be what is to worship as God's victory.

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 That honor, that He Architectism letter,

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 that I would praise Him for you much worship the Lord in the Lord,

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 but what effort is to worship to be recognized by them.

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 So, God will give me great Лю Stephan Paul's message.

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 The Lens of the Vatican where,

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 ainda His forgiveness is about to겠� bebum who Eastern,

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 here have a great integition.

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 And there's been a coercion that He航 persuadiation

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 and He Argh Holmes on us!

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 Oh, oh, oh, oh, we about to forgive him.

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 Anymoreasser,