“End of the Journey”, Psalm 134 -Pastor Bob Leroe, Cliftondale Congregational Church, Saugus, Massachusetts
We’ve been traveling to Jerusalem for the past few months, and now we’ve arrived! The pilgrim songs known as the Psalms of Ascent conclude in the Temple, with a joyful song of praise and blessing. Each step of this journey has been marked by a song, and now the worshippers join together in reverent devotion. We’ve covered 14 “Psalm Steps” and we’ve reached the final step and the highest point of ascent, in which we are urged to praise the Lord our God.
The journey began with repentance, in the foreign lands of Meshech and Keder. In Psalm 120, the first of these pilgrim psalms, we heard a call to turn away from the world and to turn toward God. The journey began with “woe is me” and concludes with “bless the Lord!” Each of these psalms focus on turning to God by developing character qualities. The road of discipleship begins with repentance, and it concludes with praise. Each step along the way we’ve been encouraged to develop forgiveness, humility, obedience, unity, and other steps of spiritual growth, to the glory of God.
“Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord!” Everything is set aside as we join the community of praise. When we enter church preoccupied with problems and decisions and responsibilities we may miss what God is saying to us; we miss His blessing. All distractions need to be left outside the sanctuary.
Worship is the highest and noblest and most important activity we can ever engage in. At the Millennium Celebration, Charlotte Church received three separate invitations to sing for the Queen of England, the President of the United States and the Pope—what an honor, and what a difficult choice. When I served as Post Chaplain of Fort Story the Secretary of the Army visited my Chapel and heard me preach. I wondered if he wasn’t satisfied I might end up stationed in Turkey or Eniwetok! Those are perhaps poor examples—think of the most significant thing you could do, or the most important person who could see you at work. Psalm 134 tells us that our highest achievement and greatest aspiration is worship. Our audience is God. This final Psalm of Ascent introduces the psalms that are to follow. Psalms 135-150 concern themselves with worship, the closing theme of the psalter.
We’re encouraged not to hold back, but to lift up holy hands in worship. Some churches get carried away in their fervor, while others are way too stiff. I prefer worship to be enthusiastic, but not frenzied. I’ve visited many types of worship services, from the formal and liturgical to charismatic and contemporary. It is appropriate to raise hands during a song or prayer as a sign of heart-felt devotion toward God. It’s not to make us look more spiritual. Some Christians would like to lift their hands but are too self-conscious to do so. That’s one of those things we need to leave outside the sanctuary. We lift hands not to call attention to ourselves, but as a gesture of worship. It doesn’t make us “holy-rollers”, it simply gives us a means of expressing our heart-felt adoration of God. And it is a Biblical expression of praise. After reading Psalm 134 we have to admit the raising of hands in worship is commanded. We see this confirmed in the New Testament as well, as Paul writes Timothy, “Whenever you assemble, I want men to pray with holy hands lifted up to God” (I Tim 2:8).
Lifting up holy hands has little to do with emotion, though we tend to think this is the case. We can lift up our hands regardless of how we feel. We may not be able to control our feelings, but we can control our arms; we can lift them in blessing. As we go through the motions, we may sense our spirits lift in praise. Calvin asks, “Why do people lift their hands when they pray? Is it not that their hearts may be raised at the same time to God?” Lifting our hands to heaven reminds us that worship is directed toward God. Raised hands indicate that we are looking to God in our worship and that whatever blessings we may be seeking come from Him. This gesture is also the posture of children asking a parent to pick them up, an act of trust along with a desire for security. Lifting up hands shows that they are clean. Psalm 24 says, “Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in this holy place? Those who have clean hands and a pure heart” (vss 3-4). Lifting up our hands also shows that they are empty. We can’t approach God or serve Him if our hands are already full of other things. God has things to give us, and we need empty hands to receive them. This is a posture of expectancy and surrender. With open hands we show our willingness to let God rule our lives, and to empower us. Our empty hands show God that we’re available to be used; our hands are not employed in other things. Our uplifted hands show a willingness to receive whatever God may choose to place in them.
Faith, not feelings, brings us to worship. Sometimes we may not feel like coming to church…but when we do, God uses the action of worship to raise us up. If we waited till we felt like worshipping, we might not worship at all. Humphrey Bogart described a professional as “someone who does a better job when he doesn’t feel like it.” We try harder when feelings alone don’t bring us to joyful praise. You hear it said that half the effort is “showing up.” Sometimes that’s the best we can do—we show up for worship, even though we may not be “in the mood.” Some Sundays we barely make it to church, but we come anyway. And we wait to see what God has for us, offering Him our worship. God deserves our praise, regardless of how we may feel at the time. Worship is the highest form of love.
We all know people who couldn’t be dragged into church; it’s the last place they’d want to be. It literally will be—some day six strong people will carry them in! They remind me of people who are tone-deaf. Attending a concert is like torture to them. I play music by ear, so it’s hard to imagine being tone deaf. In a similar fashion, some people find worship excruciating. They are spiritually deaf—their ears aren’t attuned to the music of praise. Worship begins with a hunger for God. The French have a saying, “A good meal begins with hunger.” The problem is, some people do not hunger for God, and they will not be filled or satisfied.
The Psalm is addressed to the “servants” who “minister” in the House of God. These are the priests, all from the tribe of Levi. The Levites were entrusted with the ministry of worship. They led the people of Israel in worship. They were also watchmen, responsible to ensure that the Temple was kept undefiled. They served much like our Deacons and Trustees, concerned with the spiritual and physical condition of God’s house.
The pilgrims who made their way to Jerusalem for the high holy days have now completed their acts of devotion. They are about to return home, singing this song. They won’t be able to worship in the Temple again until the next journey. As they leave the city, they are encouraged to know that the Levites will be remaining behind to represent them in the Temple. The worship of God will not stop at the end of the pilgrimage. The worship will be carried on by the Levites in their absence. When we depart, we know that things will be well-taken care of because many hands are entrusted with the work of this church.
This psalm is not addressed to individuals—the focus is corporate worship, our coming together as a body of believers. We need one another and we worship best when we’re together. While the psalm singles out the Levites, we are all servants of the Lord. We’re either serving, or selfishly living on our own.
Our ultimate destination isn’t the Temple in Jerusalem, but our heavenly home, our eternal dwelling place. The praise we offer now anticipates the final consummation of our worship in heaven. Worship is what we’ll be doing for all eternity. Saying “I don’t want to worship” is pretty much saying, “I don’t want to go to heaven.”
One commentator calls Psalm 134, “How to have a ‘good night’.” When darkness presses in, when we’re troubled or under attack, we have one recourse—to bless God. Worship is the strongest weapon of our spiritual warfare. Worship is resting in God. We can count sheep, or talk to the Shepherd!
This final step ends in a benediction, similar to the priestly benediction of Numbers 6 (“The Lord bless you and keep you”). The ultimate goal of all believers is to bless God and to be blessed by Him. We can bless God and worship Him because He blesses us. The key to our worship is that God is the Initiator. He calls us; He saves us; He sanctifies us, and He will glorify us in His presence. Because of all God has done in and for us, and because He took the initiative, we are able to bless Him in response.
Prayer: Lord, we bless Your holy Name and count it a privilege to offer You worship. How can we keep from singing, when You have given us a song of praise. We lift our hands and hearts to You as we journey to our heavenly home. Open our ears, Lord, and help us to listen to You that we may follow; in Jesus’ Name, Amen.
