Psalm 134: From Zion

 

The Songs of Ascents have been about a journey to Jerusalem, about God’s people traveling to God’s city, to gather in God’s house and seek and celebrate God’s blessing. There were three pilgrimage feasts for Israel (feasts in which Israel was required to gather and celebrate together in Jerusalem). At Passover they gathered to celebrate how God delivered them from Egypt. At Pentecost, Shavuout in Hebrew, or the Feast of Weeks, Israel gathered to give thanks to God with the firstfruits of His provision. At the Feast of Booths, Sukkot in Hebrew, Israel would not only gather, but they would build booths, that they would eat and many even sleep in during the festival to remember how God not only brought them out of Egypt, but cared for their every need during the journey to the Promised Land and even the 40 years of “wandering”. The songs were encouragement, motivation for the travel, beautiful reminders that their journey was not to get to God, but they journeyed because God had come to them.

Isn’t this the greatest truth of all? When Adam and Eve sinned it was God who came and found them. When Cain was being tempted and taunted by sin it was God who came to warn him. Abram didn’t decide to start a nation for God, but it was God who desired a nation through Abram and Sarai. When Israel cried out to God in slavery, He came down to deliver them.  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” And it all culminates with Jesus announcing to His apostles, “You did not choose me, but I chose you . . .” which John later explains this way, “We love because he first loved us” (I John 4:19). Israel’s journey to Jerusalem was not to get to God, but because God had come to them, our efforts are never to get God’s attention, but a response to the attention and affection that God has given to us. 

And so, this final song begins with the same word that Psalm 133 had begun with. In Hebrew it is “hineh”, we translate it “Behold”, “Look” or sometimes “Come”. It’s a call for attention, to take notice, to look closely, to come close. The last song calls the pilgrims to not just journey to the city, but to come close to God and then it gives specific instructions, “bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, who stand by night in the house of the LORD!” The song is clear, we have not come to be blessed, but to give thanks for our many blessings; we have not come to get that next thing we want or need from God, but to give God what He deserves from us. We are here to offer our hearts, to lay down our lives, to declare God’s wonders and to remember His goodness; we have come to bless God because He is worthy of our blessings! 

The next verse only adds to this picture, “Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the LORD!" In Scripture, the lifting of hands was a common posture for worship, it signifies not just surrender, but submission. What’s the difference? Surrender feels more like an event, we come to a moment when we realize we can’t do it on our own, we can’t fix what’s been broken, or we know that we are far from where we belong and, in that moment, we give up, we bow down. Submission is what happens after the surrender, it’s not an event, it’s a new way of living, of being and thinking. Submission is trusting God to direct our steps, it’s denying ourselves, taking up the cross and following Jesus. If surrender empties our hands, submission keeps them empty, it’s the heart condition that keeps us from picking up any of the things that we’ve laid down. We bless the LORD with our submission. We bless the LORD when we trust Him by yielding our plans and our lives to Him. We bless the LORD when we lift our hands and our hearts by praying, “Not my will but Yours be done”. We bless the LORD with obedience. 

I personally believe that this final Song of Ascents may not have been the last song that the pilgrims sang on the way to Jerusalem, but rather, the last song they sang in Jerusalem. I’ll say right up front that my belief on this is not uncommon, but it’s also not agreed with by everyone. But here’s why I believe it, the last verse is no longer a call to come to Zion, but a promise that everything in Zion will go with us. “May the LORD bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth!” 

We don’t understand pilgrimage. We keep trying to get to someplace where we can get something, but in Scripture, pilgrimage was about remembering not receiving, it was about giving thanks not getting more, but it was also about looking forward by rejoicing over what was behind. We go to church to be fed, when the Bread of Life has filled us with His Spirit. We try to get into God’s presence, when Jesus said, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” We don’t realize that this is what Jesus called following for our stomach’s sake, it’s not being led by the Spirit but instead living for and from the flesh. It removes our call to bless God and reduces God to being nothing more than the One who blesses us. God has given Himself to us, we gather so that He can give Himself through us. 

That’s the promise of the final verse of the final Song of Ascents, “May the LORD bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth!” If we are in Christ, it is time for us to live in the “from”. II Peter 1:3 is so clear, in Jesus, we have “everything we need for life and godliness” (Berean Study Bible). We lack nothing! We live in the favor and love of the Father, in the grace and redemption of Jesus and in the power and leadership of the Holy Spirit. We have come to Mount Zion, and now the blessing of Zion is not just going with us, it is being poured out from us. We are not reservoirs, filled up for our own safe keeping, we are rivers, flowing with sustenance and life for others. We are not only blessed in Zion, but we are blessed from Zion that we might bring many others to Zion. 

Isn’t that the pattern of Jesus and the gospel? After His death and resurrection, Jesus ascended from Jerusalem. He poured out His Holy Spirit upon the believers in Jerusalem and then sent them out from Jerusalem, to Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth, all while we await His return to Jerusalem. In Israel, they journeyed to Jerusalem to bless God and to celebrate His goodness. God then sent them out from Jerusalem to their homes carrying the blessing of Zion, being a nation of priests, God’s chosen people to make Himself known to all the nations. But even as they went out, there was always the promise in their hearts and minds, not just that at the next feast they would return to Jerusalem, but that the day was coming when the Messiah would come, and He would sit on the throne in the city of David. They knew what we must learn to understand, all blessing flows not only to but from Jerusalem. 

We are saved because of Jesus’ death and resurrection in Zion and the gospel being preached by the power of the Holy Spirit from Zion. Jerusalem has not been replaced, to the contrary, it is the place of Jesus’ return, of His earthly throne, of His final victory over all His enemies. This is why we pray for the peace of Jerusalem, that Israel would know her Messiah, that the nations would be grafted into the vine and that the gospel would reach the whole world so that the One who was sent to Zion and poured His Spirit out from Zion can finally gather all His people and return to Zion. I pray today that we would give our lives so that many others might know the blessing that flows from Zion.