10.25.2012 PSALM 134

taken from spurgeon's treasury of david..a commentary on the psalms..

title-a song of degrees. we have now reached the last of the gradual psalms the pilgrims are going home and are singing the last song in their psalter. they leave early in the moring, before the day has fully commenced, for the journey is long for many of them. while yet the nigh lingers they are on the move. sas soon as they are outside the gates they see tyhe guards upon the temple wall and the lamps shining from the windows of the chambers which surround the snactuary; therefore, moved by the sight, they chant a farewell to the perpetual attendants upon the holy shrine. their parting exhortation arouses the priests to pronounce upon them a blessing out of the holy place: this benediction is contained in the third verse. the priests as good as say,
'you have desired us to bless the Lod and now we pray the Lord to bless you.
the psalm teaches us to pray for those who are continually ministering before the Lord and
it invites all ministers to pronounce benedictions upon their loving and prayerful people.

text
v1. behold, bless ye the lord, all ye servants of the lord, which by night stand in the house of the Lord.
2. lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord.
3. the Lord that made heaven and earth bless thee out of zion.

v2 'lift up your hands in the snctuary'

(note: one night at my chosen place of worshipping the Lord, mision evangelica in souderton, the pastor made a statement to this effect,
'everyone should lift up their hands to the Lord...for this is commanded in scripture
i had always 'intended' to check this out with a search in strong's concordance of the words 'lift up', 'hands', but due to the fact that i still have a huge mass of depraved rebellion against authority figures, in this case the pastor, i had not yet 'gotten around' to this.
here before me lies the truth of his statement.
now i have still to overcome the difficulty of doing anything 'on command' by another sinful human being. a fair amount of this occurs in worship at this location..not so much to be intolerable..but enough to be grating on each occasion. my practice is to ignore it roundly..except on the rare occasion when the Spirit within radifies. i shall need to adjust my outward behavior..crying to the Lord to give me a softening of heart and a producing within somewhat of a semblance of wholehearted worship to accompany the outer physical adjustment.)

in the holy place they must be busy, full of strength, wide awake, energetic and moved with holy ardour.
hands, heart, and every other part of their manhood must be upraised, elevated and consecrated to the adoring service of the lord.
as the angels praise God day without night, so must the angels of the churches be instant in season and out of season.
'and bless the Lor' this is their main business. they are to bless men by their teaching,
but they must yet more bless Jehovah with their worship.
too often men look at public worship only from the side of its usefulness to the people:
but the other matter is of even higher importance:
we must see to it that the Lord God is adored, extolled and had in reverance.
for a second time the word 'bless' is used, and applied to Jehovah.
bless the Lord, o my oul, and let every other soul bless Him.
there will be no drowsiness about even midnight devotion if the heart is set upon blessing God in Christ Jesus, which is the gospel translation of God in the snactuary.      exposition of v2 by spurgeon

whole psalthe last cloud of smoke from the evening sacrifice has mixed with the blue sky,
the last note of the evening humn has died away on the ear.
the watch is being set for the night.
the 24 levites, the 3 priests and the captain of the guard,
whose duty it was to keep ward from sunset to sunrise over the hallowed precincts,
are already at their several posts,
and the mutitude are retiring through the gates, which will soon be shut.
to many of them to open no more.
but they cannot depart without one last expression of the piety that fills their hearts;
and turning to the watchers on tower and battlement,
they address them in holy song, in what was at once a brotherly admonition and touching prayer:
'behold, bless ye the lord, all ye servants of the Lord, which by night stand in the house of the Lord.
lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord.
the pious guard are not unprepared for the appeal
and from thier lofty heights
in words that float over the peopled city and down into the quiet valley of the kedron,
like the melody or angels, they respond to each worshipper who thus addressed them with a benedictory farewell:
'the Lrod bless thee out of zion, even he who made heaven and earth.   robert nisbet

the tabernacle and temple were served by priests during the night as well as the day.
those priests renewed the altar fire, fed the lamps and guared the sacred structure from intusion and..plunder.
the psalm before us was prepared for the priests who served the sacred place by night.
they were in dange of slumbering;
and they were in danger of idle reverie.
oh, how much time is wasted in mere reverie-
in letting thought wander and wander and wander! the priests were in danger, we say,
of slumbering, of idle reverie, of vain thougts, of useless meditation, and of profitless talk:
and thereforeit is written,-
'behold, bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord, which by night stand in the house of the lord.
is it your duty to spend the night in watching?
then spend the night in worship.
do not let the time of watching be idle, wasted time;
but when others are slumbering and sleeping and you are necessarily watchfu, sustain the prasies of God's house;
let there be praise in zion-still prasie by night as well as by day!
'lift up you hands in the sanctuary and bless the lord.       samuel martin. 1817-78

v2 'lift up your hands..the lifting up of the hands was a gesture in prayer,
it was an intimation of their expectation of receiving blessings from the Lord, and
it was also an acknowledgment of their having received the the same.     samuel eyles pierce

'in the sanctuary.  the hebrew word signifying holiness as well as the holy place may here be taken in the former sense, the latter having been sufficiently expressed (verse 1) by 'the house of the Lord..
the priests (which are here spoken to) before their officiating,
which is here expressed by lifting up their hands,
were obliged to was their hands    henry hammond

v3 'the Lord that made heaven and earth...the priestly benediction brings God before us in a twofold character. He is described first as the creator of the univers.
He is described, in the second place as dwelling 'in zion' .
in the first aspect, he is represented as the God of nature;
in the second as the God of grace.
when i contemplate Him as the creator of the universe, ther is abundant proof that He can bnless me.
when i contemplate Him as dwelling in the churc,
there is aboundant proof that he wil bless me.
both elements are essential to our faith.   n.m'michael

as the priest were called upon to bless God in behalf of the people,
so here they bless the people in behalf of God.
between the verses we may suppose the previous request to be complied with.
the priests, having blessed God, turn and bless the people.
the obvious allusion to the sacerdotal blessing..number 6