BackgroundThe closing psalm of the Songs of Ascents and the briefest of them. The setting is the temple at night. The pilgrim community addresses the priests and Levites who stand watch in the house of the LORD through the dark hours (compare 1 Chronicles 9:33), and the priests respond from within the sanctuary with a benediction. The psalm functions as a hinged farewell at the end of the pilgrim cycle.
Psalm 134: Bless the LORD by Night
A Song of Ascents.
By Bea Zalel
Psalm 134
A Song of Ascents.
- Come, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD who serve by night in the house of the LORD!
- Lift up your hands to the sanctuary and bless the LORD!
- May the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion.
Theme
Psalm 134 closes the Ascents the way a long evening service closes a feast. The first two verses are addressed to the night-watch servants of the LORD who stand by night in the house of the LORD. Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the LORD. Hand-lifting was a standard posture of prayer (compare Psalm 28:2; 1 Timothy 2:8) and the holy place is the inner sanctuary of the temple. The pilgrims, before going home, bless those who will keep watching when they have gone.
The exchange is liturgically tender. The departing pilgrim community blesses the priests; the priests then bless the pilgrim. The third verse turns the direction around: may the LORD bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth. The same God whose dwelling is on this single hill in Judah is the maker of heaven and earth, so the blessing pronounced from a small spot covers everything the pilgrim is walking back into.
It is fitting that the Ascents end at night, and end with a benediction rather than an arrival. The pilgrim came up to worship; he leaves with a sending-off blessing pronounced by men whose calling is to keep the lamps burning while ordinary households sleep. Pilgrim life and ordinary life are knit back together by this brief liturgy, and the long climb of Psalms 120-134 is sealed with the cosmic credentials of the God of Zion.
Discussion questions
- Who are the "servants of the LORD who stand by night in the house of the LORD," and what does 1 Chronicles 9:33 add about Levitical night-watch duties?
- What is the cultural and biblical background of lifting up hands as a posture of prayer? Compare Psalm 28:2 and 1 Timothy 2:8.
- How does the brief shift of speaker between verses 2 and 3 work as a liturgical exchange between pilgrim and priest?
- Why is it significant that the Songs of Ascents close at night rather than at high noon in the temple?
- How does the description "he who made heaven and earth" widen the geographic specificity of "from Zion" in verse 3?
- How does Psalm 134 close the arc that began in Psalm 120 with a pilgrim crying out from Meshech and Kedar?
- What does it mean for the pilgrim to bless those who will keep watching after he leaves?
- How might modern believers recover a sense of liturgical exchange (people blessing ministers, ministers blessing people) from this psalm?
- How does the night setting of this psalm shape the way you read the watchmen image in Psalm 130:6?
- What does it look like to leave a season of intense worship with the blessing of verse 3 sealed over your ordinary life?
Read this psalm in another translation
The inline text above is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB). Open in a new tab to compare with a modern licensed translation: