Expository - Songs of Degrees

Psalm 134

Constant Communion

As they turned to go home, about to leave the blessedness of that fellowship, as they went back to their various places throughout the land of Israel, as they left the priests whose joy and privilege it was to remain in Jerusalem and serve in the tabernacle, they sang to those priests these words of encouragement: "Bless ye the Lord all ye servants of the Lord, which stand by night in the house of the Lord." And the reply from the priests would come, "The Lord that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion." It was, perhaps, also a time tinged with sadness as they left that blessing behind until the next time.

However, for us this morning, this Psalm 134 is the great climax, where we may abide continually in the presence and in the blessing of the Lord. Together we are kings and priests unto Him, rejoicing in His presence. This blessing we may enjoy now.

This Psalm holds promise for us now. We may rejoice and abide in His presence continually now, not just in the future, "in the sweet by and by." There is blessing for us today. Those that stand by night in the house of Lord are a type of us, now, in this present, dark, evil world, standing in the presence of God. In the "sweet by and by," all will be light. Then it will be glorious and eternal day, but this is a Psalm for the night, in which we may continually worship and enjoy communion with the Lord. This is the height to which the soul ascends.

Constant Worship and Praise

In I John it makes it clear that, if you hate your brother, then you dwell in darkness. Praise God that we are of the light, and we do have that love for each other. That brings us into the place where we know the mighty anointing of the Holy Spirit, represented by the abundance of oil that ran down Aaron's beard and garments. That is also the place of being refreshed, typified in Psalm 133 by the dew of Mount Hermon.

What do we do when we are amongst the brethren in unity? We praise and worship the Lord. In ancient times the men of Israel knew such times only briefly at each festival. We, however, are able, as priests unto our God, to move into the blessing of Psalm 134 and enjoy that communion all the time.

Blessing the Lord

"Bless the Lord," says the Psalmist. There's a remarkable thing. How can we bless God? Well the word 'bless', in Hebrew, carries with it the idea of happiness and gladness. If we are blessing God, we are making Him glad, and we do that when we respond fully in faith to Him and His grace, and when we ascribe to Him the praise, the majesty and the glory. What is God contented in most of all but the work of His precious Son, our Lord Jesus Christ? "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," He declared from heaven itself. What pleases God most is when we are found in Christ Jesus and Jesus is in us. When he sees the saints, the Lord sees His precious Son and in that He is well pleased.

In the beginning, when God looked at His work of creation, He saw that it was good. On the sixth day He looked, and it was very good. When God looks at the work of the new creation in Christ Jesus, He sees that it is very good. There is great blessing for the Lord.

In Psalm 103, David encourages Himself: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits; who forgives all thine iniquities, who heals all thy diseases, who redeems thy life from destruction, who crowns thee with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies thy mouth with good things... Bless the Lord you His angels... bless ye the Lord all ye His hosts, ye ministers of His that do His pleasure; bless the Lord all His works in all places of His dominion; bless the Lord, O my soul."

Let us bless Him today!

When God is being blessed, there is great joy amongst the people of God. That is why this Psalm emphasises in its instruction that ALL the servants of the Lord should bless Him. There is a wonderful goodness, as we have seen, in brethren dwelling together in unity, and all such should be blessing Him. In I Corinthians 12-14 it tells us that God, through the Holy Spirit, has given gifts to everyone so that the Church, the Body of Christ might profit and be built up. God is bringing us all into a place where we might be pleasing to Him, because His Son is revealed in them.

Standing by Night

In the tabernacle of old, there was light in the Holy Place. The seven branched lampstand provided light as it shone is a dark place illuminating the shewbread opposite, the full provision of God for all His people in whom the Lord was indeed blessed. It shone all the time. It was fuelled by holy oil. We too need the infilling of the Holy Spirit that we might shine for God and ever be pleasing to Him, that we might worship Him in Spirit and in truth. We may stand by night, but we are receiving a constant supply from heaven itself where all is light.

"Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." (Isaiah 60 v 1)

Back in Psalm 120, when David took stock of his situation, and found that he was far away from God, where was he? He was dwelling among the tents of Kedar. In the Song of Solomon, the bride said that she was black, as the tents of Kedar. However, in Isaiah 60 v 7, we find the flocks of Kedar coming up and gathering together in the presence of the Lord. Those that were astray and far off, those that were black with sin, are brought back, cleansed, into the presence of the Lord. There they praise and glorify the Lord: "All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto Thee... they shall come up with acceptance on mine altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory." Praise God, although we dwell in this dark world now, although we stand by night, we know His glory shining in our heart, we know the glory of His presence now, but there is coming an endless day when Jesus will be the light. There will be no night there.

Let us rejoice that we are not of the darkness. We have been translated from darkness and have been brought into His most marvellous light. We have a foretaste of glory divine. The Israelites of old endured the hard times of slavery in Egypt. When God poured out terrible plagues upon the land of Egypt, there came a time when God put a difference between His people of Israel and the Egyptians. When the ninth plague came bringing darkness for three days, God put a difference between the two peoples. When there was a darkness that was so thick that it could be felt, there was light in the dwellings of the Israelites. That is a picture of those who are the Lord's today.

Standing not Sitting

In the Old Testament, the worker was one who stood. We too, as the priests in the House of the Lord, stand because there is a work to do. We stand by night, in the darkness of this world, to declare the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, to exalt His name, and to point lost souls to Him that they might be saved.

We stand because the Victor, the mighty Conqueror, stands. Although we like to think of Jesus being seated at the right hand of the majesty on high, the position of one whose work is completed, nevertheless, there is an occasion where it is recorded that the risen Lord Jesus was standing in heaven. That was when Stephen, the martyr, was slain. He cried out that he could see Jesus standing at the right hand of God. It was the Lord Jesus, the mighty Victor. Stephen, in his dying moments, saw the One who has forever conquered death, and was received into His presence to live forever.

When the Conqueror stands, he does so because He will never yield. When we stand in His strength it is because we are more than conquerors and will always have the victory over the enemy. We are unmoveable in Christ Jesus, as it so counsels us in I Corinthians 15 v 58 "...Be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord." Never yield an inch to the enemy. When you have put on the whole armour of God and have done all, then stand! (Ephesians 6) We can do it because of our Mighty Victor in the glory.

Then there is yet another aspect to our standing. Subjects stand in the presence of the king. We are standing in the presence of the King of kings and the Lord of lords. So we stand to worship Him and to honour and magnify His name.

Yet again there is another reason. When the Israelites were preparing to leave Egypt on the night of that first Passover, they ate the Passover meal standing up. Why? Because they were ready to move out of Egypt. That is why we stand by night, because we are ready to move out when the morning of that new day approaches. This world is not our home and we are not going to sit and make ourselves comfortable in it. We are ready to go.

As the servants of the Lord, we stand by night, worshipping Him, waiting for the morning, looking for His coming. In Isaiah, the cry goes out, "Watchman, what of the night?" Back came the reply, "The morning comes and also the night." We are not of the night, but of the day. When the morning comes, it will also be a time of judgment, a night of great judgment, not upon us but on all those who have rejected the Lord. We, however, look for that morning, that day without clouds, that day without end.

Blessing from God

This is what we find at the end of the Psalm. The Lord is still giving. "The Lord that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion." That is the place, according to Psalm 133, where He has commanded the blessing, even life for evermore. Life in all its fulness and abundance is the blessing with which God wants to bless you today.

Surely goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our life and we will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.