NOTES for Psa 134

¹Behold, bless ye the LORD, all ye servants of the LORD, which by night stand in the house of the LORD.

²Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the LORD.

³The LORD that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion.

The psalmist's call to bless the Lord is addressed to servants. The word “servant” may give the impression that he is speaking here of downtrodden, enslaved people whose master orders them, under threat of punishment, to utter words whose meaning is of no concern to them. Yet an invitation addressed to people to bless God presupposes the high dignity of those who are entrusted with blessing Him.

How great is the Lord who blesses humankind and all creation, and how insignificant a person seems beside Him! A person is therefore called a servant because a servant is not equal to his master. And yet it is precisely this being, lost amid the universe, whom the Lord allows to bless Him.

This means that His trust in us is great. He has placed us high above all that He created.

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For

¹Behold, bless ye the LORD, all ye servants of the LORD, which by night stand in the house of the LORD.

²Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the LORD.

³The LORD that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion.

Here, as in many other psalms, praise of the Lord is inseparably joined to remembrance of the events of salvation... Read more

Here, as in many other psalms, praise of the Lord is inseparably joined to remembrance of the events of salvation history. To some, this constant return to the past may seem unnecessary. Yet the Bible reveals to us that events of long ago are not something that simply “happened and is over,” but something that continues to shape the present day, something we can still touch.

That is why the psalmist recounts the history of salvation again and again in a concise form. It will continue for a long time, and its most important events still lie ahead. But even now, when we look back, we can see the most important acts of God, who guides the history not only of the people of Israel but of all humanity.

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NOTES for Psa 134

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Readings for 9 April 2018

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