So, if you would turn to the Psalms of this evening, in the middle of your Bible, to Psalm 134. Psalm 134, that's found on page 659 in the Pew Bible. In Psalm 134, we come to the last of the Songs of Ascents. Sung by Israel as they answered the Lord's call to gather together to worship Him. And these psalms have given us insight into our own pilgrimage. Called out from an unbelieving world through the many troubles and trials of life. To gather as one people to worship the Lord together. Now in the Old Testament as we've seen the saints gathered for worship in a temple. In Jerusalem on Mount Zion. and that earthly temple made with human hands was destroyed, and it will never be raised again. In the New Testament, the saints gather for worship in a temple, in heavenly Jerusalem on Mount Zion that cannot be touched, at least not yet. This heavenly temple, not made with human hands, is Christ's body. Destroyed by death and then raised life after three days and through faith we're joined to him as living stones as to the corner stone to be built up into a single spiritual house. We, Paul writes, are the temple of the living God. As God said, I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. We are the temple of the living God. and all the songs of ascents have led us into this worship that we experience by Lord's Day here in this place until we enter in it completely at the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting and it will be unending in Psalm 134 with just 23 words this psalm captures the essence of worship the blessed communion of Lord and saints in which you bless the Lord and the Lord bless you. So hear now God's word, Psalm 134, a song of ascents. Come, bless the Lord, all you 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. May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth. And there ends the reading of God's word. Second shortest psalm in this altar. Twenty-three words in Hebrew. Well, this short psalm extols the blessed communion of Lord and saints. And it begins just as Psalm 133 began, with the cry to behold, to pay attention. Psalm 133 directed us to how extraordinary it is that the Lord has called us from every tribe and nation, people and language, and brought us all together into one people to worship him. It's a beautiful thing. Beautiful and precious. Good and precious. Psalm 134 directs us to the extraordinary fact that when we congregate together for worship, we enter into communion with him. That is, into intimate fellowship with him. Into a dialogue with him. In which he speaks to us and we speak to him. Now the ESV hides that word. We chose to translate the word behold as the word come as an application, I believe, to have you come as an enticement to this extraordinary dialogue between the Lord and his servants. But it is the word behold. It ties these psalms together. But this dialogue, as this psalm points out to us, is between the Lord and his saints. And this raises an important question. Whether this worship is for you. Are you a saint? Are you a holy one? Now some of you may smile because I've asked this to your face. It's one of my favorite questions. Because most, not all, but most stumble and start to think like a Roman Catholic and ask themselves, Are you so holy and thought, word, and deed that others would nominate you to be a saint? Or that your life history will reveal an overflowing of faith, hope, and love, and prudence, and justice, and temperance, and all kinds of virtues. And that after you die, you can go to the Lord and ask him to work miracles on your behalf. Are you a saint? I don't qualify. perhaps more of the street-level question, do you think you're holy enough? You've done enough? Especially compared to those really bad people. Well, if we're honest with ourselves, we don't qualify there either, do we? The scripture says that you are not and cannot become a saint on your own. It is out of the realm of possibility. It's beyond your reach. It's beyond your grasp. None is righteous, no not one. Even our righteous acts are as filthy rags, Isaiah says. So we're talking about the blessed communion between the Lord and saints. And the question is, who belongs here? How can you know if you're a saint? If you can't do it yourself and you can't see it in yourself, how can you know? well i wanted to direct you help you i hope to know that you are a saint if you are looking to jesus for your verification if you're looking at jesus and you believe and confess that he came into this world to save sinners and you consider yourself the foremost and you're looking at him and you believe and confess that for our sake God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin so that we might become the righteousness of God and that you've died with Christ and will also live with him and consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus because of his work and you believe and confess that because you share in Christ's resurrection life God declares you blessed and holy then you're a saint if you believe Jesus Christ came into the world to do all of that for you and that through faith in him you've been raised to life and in that life you're called blessed and holy by his father you're a saint in short if you're trusting Jesus Christ for your salvation you're a saint. You're a member of a chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation a people for God's own possession. That's how you know. So now that you know how to know are you a saint? If you're not you are here as an observer tonight and that's a beautiful thing. You are here to listen in on a dialogue between the Lord and his people and as you listen in, listen for Jesus who calls you to repent of your sin and to trust him to save you that he might bring you in to this conversation. And if you're here as a saint tonight, you are part of the conversation. You're in the dialogue. You're in the presence of the Lord. You are a participant in the blessed communion between lord and saint and in this communion this dialogue I'm referring to some of you seminary students know this it's the dialogue of worship we call it if you look at your order of worship tonight that purple sheet where did mine go? here it is if you look at that sheet look at that every Sunday every Sunday almost the same words are there There are a few, you know, different song numbers, different texts, different sermon title, different offering. But the backbone is there every week, morning and evening. That is a manifestation of this awareness that when we meet together for worship, we're talking with God. And he's talking to us. And this is a dialogue. And this dialogue begins with a call to worship. You heard this tonight from Psalm 113. And it ends with a benediction. But the Lord giving you his blessing for you to leave his presence until next time. And in between, the dialogue goes back and forth, back and forth. The Lord who speaks to us when he greets us with his word, when he speaks to us from the scripture that is read and proclaimed, when he communicates the gospel to us in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper or even in baptism, that's the Lord speaking to us. And it always comes from his word by his spirit, but it comes. And we respond. We respond back to him with praise and thanksgiving and song and in prayer. We give gifts from grateful hearts. We confess the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. We'll do that shortly in the Lord's Supper. And we close with a doxology, a song of praise, to praise him for who he is and what he's done. That's what this is every time you're here. it's a dialogue it is psalm 134 unpacked psalm 134 wraps it up in a nice little suitcase that has a beginning and an end it has the call to worship verses one and two and it has the benediction in verse three so let's look at this dialogue this blessed communion opens in verses 1 and 2 with a call to worship. You bless the Lord. Bless the Lord all you 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. This is an important reminder of who we bless when we come to worship. Much of what passes for worship in our day here and around the world is is to walk away from worship and wonder how well I feel blessed. We're concerned as consumers for what's in it for me. How do I feel about that exchange? How do I feel about that exercise? The psalmist says to bless the Lord. Our culture doesn't help us much. It doesn't really like us to praise or bless anything. In fact, it encourages us often to praise everyone, whether or not they are worthy of that praise. There are no winners or losers, only participants to praise. Everybody gets a ribbon. There's no passing or failing, only good intentions or efforts to praise. In fact, if you want, you can petition for a grade change if you feel bad about the one you got. That's what our world thinks about praise. There's nothing inherently praiseworthy. The fact is, however, that some persons and some things are more praiseworthy, more worthy of praise than others. We know that. And in the grand scheme of persons and things, the only one who is worthy of all praise is the Lord. The Lord God, who is more worthy of praise than we are able to praise. We are to bless Him because He in Himself is blessed, praiseworthy. Romans chapter 1 tells us that even though sinful men and women do not honor God, do not give thanks to Him, God the Creator is blessed forever. He is blessed in Himself. He doesn't need our blessing. In 1 Timothy chapter 6, the Apostle Paul blesses God who is the blessed and only sovereign the king of kings and lord of lords who alone has immortality who dwells in inapproachable light whom no one has ever seen or can see we are called to bless the lord because in himself he alone is blessed he alone is worthy it's our primary purpose when we come together for worship to bless the lord to acknowledge him to praise him to thank him for who he is and for what he's done what he's doing and what he's going to do to redeem his people and to restore all things and he gives his saints the holy spirit to motivate us and equip us to praise to bless him to worship God the Father and so Jesus taught us to pray hallowed be your name and for us to worship God the Son Jesus Christ whom we've already heard in Revelation is worthy, worthy to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing it's who he is and we are gathered together here tonight in this place to bless him. Now when the psalmist calls out here to bless the Lord, he calls out to you servants of the Lord. Who's he calling to worship? Now in the broadest sense, as I've already made the case, he's calling all of us to worship, all of his people to worship. The Lord said of Israel, and it applies to us, that they are my servants whom I have brought out. psalm 113 is clearly addressed to the whole congregation that was our call to worship this evening but in a narrower sense he's calling the priests and the levites to worship those whom he appointed to serve in his house day and night we heard about them in exodus we heard about them in genesis Melchizedek but Exodus Aaron and the sons were set apart the Levites were set apart for what purpose to tend to the worship of the Lord in the tabernacle and in the temple bless the Lord all you servants of the Lord who stand by night in the house of the Lord these priests and Levites were ordained to lead all the saints, all the people of God in worship, to direct their worship, to facilitate their worship, to mediate their worship in the way the Lord intended. That was their job. And at the center of this call to worship, which seems mainly aimed at them as well as us, is a call to prayer. Verses 1 and 2 begin with, bless the Lord and bless the Lord. And right in the middle is, lift up your hands to the holy place. We may not see that for what it is immediately because in our day we think of raising our hands in prayers as a wild thing to do. It wasn't and it doesn't need to be. Old Testament saints lifted their hands when praying to demonstrate that they were lifting their hearts. They were lifting their love, their trust, their need to the Lord their God. lifted his hands when he prayed to bless the Lord in Psalm 63 he said I will bless you as long as I live in your name I will lift up my hands and when he pled for mercy in Psalm 28 hear the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cry to you for help when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary this call to worship is a call to prayer it's a call to all but it's especially a call to those who serve in the house of the Lord to lead the people in worship so here in this psalm the psalmist calls on priests and Levites not only to maintain and to perpetuate the faithful worship of the Lord by his people but also to intercede and to pray on behalf of the people on this side of the cross we no longer worship on earthly Mount Zion where priests and Levites intercede for us we worship on heavenly Zion where Jesus intercedes for us he is our faithful high priest seated at the right hand of God the Father who maintains and perpetuates faithful worship by his people through his servants in the church he intercedes directly we are to intercede as well but he's appointed servants in the church and so when we look in the new testament these servants of the lord show up everywhere in the apostles the apostles are called the servants of the lord over and over peter james john and paul and after them ordained ministers and elders have been called servants of the lord in the scripture, called to guard the good deposit entrusted to them and to contend for the faith that was delivered once for all to the saints. Some are memorialized in the scripture. You know their names. Timothy, Titus, Apollos. But ever since the scripture has been closed, the servants of the Lord have been raised up for the same purpose, generation after generation. Most, however, have preached the gospel, died, and been forgotten. And that's okay. This call in Psalm 134 is specifically, in a way, directed at these under-shepherds for the sake of Christ, calling on them to maintain and perpetuate our faithful worship as a congregation. And to intercede on our behalf. Your ministers and elders in particular are called to this task. It stands behind much of their call to service. If you read in our church order what it is they're called to do, ministers, elders, and deacons, the first task is to be in prayer. To be faithful in prayer. To be interceding on behalf of this body. To be interceding on behalf of you. And the elders primarily are to govern the integrity of our worship. What you hear, what we do, how we do it, when we do it, who we do it with. They are called to this task. You, people of God, can pray for them, for us. we are not here to replace your worship we're not here to do it for you we're not here to do it without you we're here to lead you in it that you would bless the lord that you'd lift your hands in prayer your hearts in particular to the lord and so even though this call is focused at these leaders at leaders in the church it also goes out to you the saints of god who are together being build up as a spiritual house, as a holy priesthood in yourselves to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. David issued a similar call to all the assembly in 1 Chronicles 29. He says, bless the Lord your God and all the assembly blessed the Lord and bowed their heads and paid homage to the Lord. So this psalm, though focused on the Levites and the priests and thus on the servants of the Lord raised up across the ages does not exempt the people of God from the same call. Well, verses 1 and 2, the saints were called to bless the Lord. Verse 3, a servant of the Lord answers back to close the blessed communion of worship with a benediction, the Lord bless you. Now, modern translations do something that I have to say is just a small irritant. They add the word may. It doesn't need to be there. It's not there in Numbers 6 where God commands Aaron to bless the people in his name. And it's exactly the same words. Modern translators don't dare touch that one, but they feel free to touch this one because linguistically, it allows for it. But I urge you just ignore the may. Verse 3 is a benediction. And like all benediction, the Lord gives through his servants to communicate something real. Right here, right now, that's to be received by faith and carried away by faith. It's not a wish. It's not a maybe. It's not just a simple desire, even though it's a good one. It is a blessing that is announced to you by your Lord through his servant that you are to receive. And understand that it is powerful. to change your life the Lord bless you from Zion he who made heaven and earth the Lord's able and willing to bless you he's able to bless because he's the creator he made heaven and earth that's the point the Lord bless you he who made heaven and earth he's got the power to do it and he's willing to bless you because he's your redeemer. He has bought you with a price. He has brought you to himself. He's brought you into the assembly. He's brought you into this worship. He's brought you to Zion. And so the Lord bless you from Zion. This blessing is near to you. It doesn't come from a million miles away that might miss by a hair. It comes to you right here. The Lord bless you, saints. And I trust you've not forgotten who you are. He's your God and you're his people in Christ Jesus. The Lord bless you, whom he foreknew and predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, which is his express will for you. He has brought you near for a purpose, to conform you to the image of his Son. The Lord bless you toward that end. The Lord bless you, children of God, to be more and more blameless and innocent without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation. The Lord bless you, light of the world, to more and more shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. The Lord bless you who are set free in Christ to more and more serve one another through love and not use that freedom for your own selfish purposes. The Lord bless you to forgive each other as he's forgiven you in Jesus Christ. To draw near to the throne of grace with confidence that you may receive mercy and find grace in your time of need. To have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before you to the end. The Lord bless you. The Lord bless you tonight as he does in every worship service by the Holy Spirit through faith with the word he has preached to you and read to you. With the body and blood of Christ to be signified and sealed to you in the Lord's Supper in just a moment. And with the benediction, he will bestow on you to close the dialogue of worship for this evening's blessed communion of Lord and Saint. When the minister raises his hands to you to announce the blessing of our Lord, receive it from him by faith and take it with you into this world. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this nugget in Psalm 134 that has opened a pinhole into worship. That's allowed us to look in and to see the majesty and the wonder of what it is you've accomplished in Jesus Christ for us, your people in this world. As we wait for the day when our faith is sight, that you bring us together in unity one with another and in union with you in Jesus Christ. That we might commune with you. And we might speak with you and you to us. We are your people, you are our God. We thank you that we are able and willing, Lord, to bless you. For you alone are worthy. And we thank and praise you, Lord, that you continue to bless us. Whom you've already blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, our Lord. That you continue to bless us on our way. until your work in us is done. Receive our thanksgiving, we ask, in Jesus' name. Amen.