Psalm 134

A Song of Ascents.

¹ Come, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD,
  who stand by night in the house of the LORD!
² Lift up your hands to the holy place,
  and bless the LORD.
³ May the LORD, maker of heaven and earth,
  bless you from Zion.

Psalm 134 is the final song of ascent where the pilgrims have arrived at their destination, and they are invited to do what they came to Zion to do: praise the LORD. This short psalm is only twenty-four words in Hebrew, but five of those words are the name of God: YHWH (LORD)[1], another three are a title for God (maker of heaven and earth), and three more are the Hebrew verb barak (bless). In the first two verses God is the focus of the actions of praise and blessing as the pilgrims enter into the space of worship. In the final verse the direction is reversed as the pilgrims are sent forth with a blessing, presumably spoken by a priestly figure, as they leave Zion and return to their homes.

In the previous psalm, the unity of the people was celebrated as they came to their destination and now all the gathered ones are called to participate in the actions of blessing the LORD the God of Israel. The actions of the worship are kinetic involving the lifting up of their hands within the holy space, but barak originally meant “to kneel” and that may also be a posture of worship expected within the movement of the psalm. (NIB IV: 1217) The people have made the effort to journey to the house of the LORD, a holy place where God’s presence dwells, and now their actions are now a part of their offering of obedience, homage, and trust to their God.

Within the flow of worship there is a time to be gathered and a time to be sent. One of the actions of sending is a benediction, a final blessing. Within my congregation I typically utilize either a trinitarian benediction or the Aaronic benediction from Numbers 6: 22-26. The brief benediction, which ends Psalm 134, and by extension the songs of ascent, is designed for the pilgrims who have come to Zion but now must return to their own towns or nations. The benediction seeks the blessing of the LORD upon those pilgrims, and wherever they go they are in the dominion of the maker of heaven and earth, yet the blessing emanates from this holy space in Zion where God’s presence rests. They came to this place to offer their blessing and worship to their God, and they are sent back into the world bearing God’s blessing upon them.

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[1] The divine name is formed by four Hebrew letters transliterated as YHWH, often pronounce Yahweh, but is spoken as Adonai (Lord) when read by a cantor in the space of worship. This is due to the commandment about not taking the name of the Lord your God in vain. That is why most English translations will translate these four letters as LORD in all capital letters to indicate the name of God is behind the translation.