Amen. If you turn in your copy of God's Word now to Psalms, we'll be reading tonight Psalm 134. You should find that on page 615 of your Pew Bibles. Let's give attention once again to the word of God. 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. Let's find the reading of God's word. Amen. Please be seated. Would you pray with me? Our Father and our God, We come to a short passage of Scripture tonight. And Lord, in our human wisdom and reasoning and understanding, we will be unable to grasp this. And so, Father, we pray, work powerfully tonight by your Spirit. that He would lead us and guide us, that even as I speak, Lord God, that the Spirit would be speaking through me, that You'd use the preaching of Your Word for all of Your purposes, and that, Father, You would be blessed as Your Word goes out. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. At the beginning of Genesis chapter 2 we actually have the end of the creation account. There we read, thus the heavens and the earth were finished and on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done and he rested on the seventh day. To understand the rest of God, we must look beyond the human need for rest from our work or labors. We must look beyond the need for sleep, for we know that God is not one who slumbers or sleeps. If we were to turn to Exodus chapter 31, we'd read that on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed. That gives us a little bit more of information of what God was doing as he had finished his work of creation and spent a day resting and being refreshed. Tonight, there's a sense in which this particular psalm speaks to that. To the blessing of rest and refreshment to our God. We've been studying these songs of ascent, these 15 psalms that have been grouped together for some time now. We've seen that they are knit together because they are all centered upon God, certainly on worship, upon Zion, upon Jerusalem. Again, we don't know exactly how these Psalms were used. They were certainly sung, possibly by those who were headed to Jerusalem, possibly by those who were going up to the temple, possibly by those who were in exile, longing to get back to Jerusalem, to the temple, to the worship of God. But they do have that common theme. They are all about worship. Again, this particular psalm, this last of the Songs of Ascent is no different than the others. It centers directly and fully and completely upon the worship of God. Tonight, I'd like us to see that the children of God are enabled to bless Him through sincere worship. The children of God are enabled to bless him through sincere worship. A very simple statement, but one I don't know that we appreciate or really understand well. We'll see that in three points. First, blessing from within. Secondly, blessing from midnight servants. And then finally, blessing from Zion. Brothers and sisters, I think if we grasp this psalm tonight, we're going to have a better appreciation of what's happening when we come to worship our Lord and Savior. Well, first, blessing from within. As a preliminary matter, there are times when we need to stress something that's not expressly set forth in the scripture, in the text. of this particular scripture so that we don't head in the wrong direction. And tonight I think we have such a situation. As we consider blessing the Lord, the God Almighty, I think we must first consider what this doesn't mean. What it's not possible for us to do. You might be thinking of blessing the Lord as a gift. Something we give to God, something that gives him something that he didn't have prior to our blessing him. We might think that our coming to worship is adding to God in some way. It's giving him something that he needed. We see that in gifts we give to one another. A birthday party is Full of gifts. Christmas time amongst Americans. Full of gifts. That which a person didn't have prior to the opening of the gift, now they have. Now they can enjoy that which they didn't previously have. But it's not the same when we bless God. For we know that God is all-sufficient within Himself. He stands in need of nothing from his creatures. That's what Paul was preaching as he went to Athens. And as he passes by Athens, he sees this statue, this inscription to the unknown God, and so he goes and proclaims what they didn't know. Listen to how he describes the true God. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything." You see where Paul begins in describing to those who didn't know this God who He is. Because the Greeks were thinking that they were the ones who gave things to their various gods. And Paul is saying, no, no, the true God is the one who made everything and stands in need of nothing from you. That concept, that idea, that truth of God is what's referred to by theologians as the aseity of God. It means that he's all sufficient within himself. It's a theological word, but you know what it means. Wilhelmus O'Brockle puts it this way in his work, The Christian's Reasonable Service. All creatures, whatever the degree of their perfection may be, are dependent upon an external source for their being and well-being. That's what Paul is preaching. that you're here today because God has made you, and you're completely dependent upon Him. Your perfections, to whatever degree you have them, are dependent upon something outside of you. God's perfection, however, excludes such a possibility, as He has no need of anything. No one can add or subtract anything from his being, neither can anyone increase or decrease his felicity, his perfection consistent, his self-sufficiency, his self-existence, and that he is the beginning, the first, he is all sufficiency, is within and for himself. I think a Brock will grasp that truth pretty clearly. And we have to keep that in our minds as we're thinking of blessing God. The self-sufficient, the triune living God, the one who created all things, the one who owns all things, the one who sustains all things, needs absolutely nothing from that which He has created. The living God was self-sufficient prior to creation. And He is self-sufficient even after He is created. He will be self-sufficient for all eternity. Praise God. Praise God. This is what it means for Him to be self-sufficient. We also know that God is an unchanging God. And we have to keep that in mind as well tonight as we go through this passage. For I, the Lord, do not change. Therefore you, O children of God, are not consumed. Malachi 3, verse 6. Or James speaks to this as well. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from heaven, from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. God does not change. And how does that fit in with what we're thinking about tonight? He doesn't change by receiving a blessing and being increased in His blessing because we've given Him something. He can't. God doesn't decrease if we fail to bless Him in worship. It's not the creation. that blesses God. Think of that as we think about God resting on the seventh day. We might think that God is in glory, He's in heaven looking down upon all that He's made and as He looks, He sees, oh, what a blessing this is to me. Before creation, I wasn't blessed this way. Now that I've made all these things, I'm receiving all this blessing from what I've made. And that would be an inaccurate thought. That would be not a scriptural thought. He rests on the seventh day, he's refreshed on the seventh day. Everything was finished. It was complete. It was all very good. It was done in accordance with his will. And it was doing it being the creation and everything in it. The waters, the mountains, the stars, the sun, the moon, the beast of the field, the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the trees, the fruit, the corn, man and woman were all existing and doing exactly as God had willed. And he rested. And he was refreshed. As we think of rest, we think of a blessing, don't we? We think we're blessed through resting. We're blessed as we are refreshed. We can even place those words side by side and say there's some equivalency to them. And so as God looks back or looks down upon all that he has done, all that he has made, he rests. He was blessed. Not that he was changed, not that he received some joy or happiness or pleasure that he didn't have already within himself. For again, that wouldn't be possible because he's all-sufficient. And yet, God rested and he made the day holy. He sanctified it as he was no longer pursuing his creation. So here it would seem that in some way God blesses himself within the Trinity, not outside the Trinity, not something external to the Trinity, but within the Trinity. He is blessed. He is resting. He is refreshed. Because he's all sufficient. He's resting within himself. He's blessed within himself as he saw the embodiment of his wisdom, of his goodness, of his righteousness, of his purity and of his holiness. All creation is reflecting that back to him and he's seeing himself in a sense. The reflection of his perfection. You see that in the scripture, don't we? Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. That seems to be the sense. Man was in complete submission and reflecting the image of God back to him before sin. I think that's what we can understand by God being blessed within himself as he looks upon his creation, specifically his children, and sees they're doing exactly that which he has purposed and willed for them, that man was doing according to his will, that his plan was unfolding within their hearts as Adam perfectly names the animals. that man and woman are joined together representing a union that's reflecting the union of the Trinity in perfection and holiness. And then there was worship. Consider that Adam and Eve were made on the sixth day and the first day of rest for man and woman began on the seventh day. The very next day was a day of rest, a day of worship. for these two, pure and undefiled worship before their sin. And God was blessed as he was worshiped. How do we know? Because we have this passage before us tonight. Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord. If it were not possible to bless the Lord, then this psalmist could not have written this verse for us tonight. Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord. It is possible to bless our God, not by adding to Him, not by changing Him, not by giving something that He doesn't have within Himself. But it's possible. Consider the parable that Jesus speaks of in Matthew 25, the one of the talents. If you remember, one was given five, one was given two, one was given one. And as they come back and report to their master what they have done, what do we see? And he who would receive the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, Master, you delivered to me five talents here. I've made five talents more. His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. Now, Jesus wasn't really speaking about those who would go and invest money or invest goods. And no, he was speaking about those who had been obedient. And as they're coming into glory, as the Lord Jesus returns, there will be this statement, this proclamation that you did what I asked you to do. that the Spirit works so powerfully in you to bring this about, and I can say, Jesus can say, well done, enter into my joy. Do you see the joy that's expressed over being blessed by obedience? God's not changing. And yet, and yet there's this sense that we can't completely understand these two things. God being self-sufficient within himself, blessing himself, and yet, and yet the truth that it's possible for his servants to bless him. Both are true. And that's what we need to focus ourselves upon tonight. The blessing that His children are to Him. That brings us to our second point. Blessing from midnight servants. This psalm is really all about the work of the Levites. At least that's what John Calvin concluded. I think he's right. Look at verse 1, Come bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the Lord. Well, what was the house of the Lord when this psalm was written? Most likely, it was the temple, right? Remember, the Songs of Ascent were all about worship. They're all about Jerusalem. They're all about Zion. They're all about going to the temple, possibly. They're all about remembering worship in Jerusalem, which was centered in the temple. Who was serving there? Levites. The priests, they were the ones who were serving in the house of the Lord. Now, who was standing by night in the house of the Lord? Wasn't it locked up tight shut? No, no, no, no. There were things happening within the tabernacle. There were things happening within the temple. The lamps needed to be tended. As the Lord is giving to Moses the description of the tabernacle in Exodus 27, we read this, You shall command the people of Israel that they bring to you pure beaten olive oil for the light, that a lamp may be regularly set up to burn in the tent of the meeting, speaking of the tabernacle, outside the veil that is before the testimony. Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening to morning before the Lord. burning all night. Somebody's got to be there to tend it. It shall be a statute forever. The psalm would appear to have that direct application to those Levites who were serving in the temple. It appears to be a reference to their service that they were obliged to perform. Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the Lord. There was another task that the Levites were given, and that is the burning of incense. Aaron shall burn fragrant incense on it. Every morning when he dresses the lamps, he shall burn it. When Aaron sets up the lamps at twilight, he shall burn it, a regular incense offering before the Lord throughout your generations, Exodus chapter 30. Remember Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, He was a Levite. What was he doing when he was visited by an angel? He was serving in the temple. He'd entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense. Indeed, a whole multitude of people were praying outside at the hour of incense. Do you see the connection between incense and prayer? As incense was burned, it was as if prayers were being offered up to the Lord, that sweet aroma. And so here we have in verse two, lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord. The incense as it wafted up to the heavens to the Lord almighty, pointing to prayer, people outside praying while the Levites were serving inside, lifting up the hands, the posture of prayer, of beseeching, of petitioning God, the holy place being the actual dwelling place of God almighty. Yes, the temple was a representation of his dwelling place. But as the Levites were serving, as the psalmist writes, the idea was lifting up your hands, praying to the Almighty. And this was how the Levites were to bless the Lord. This was to happen by and through their faithful and continuing service. Note the service was nonstop, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, all night, all day, every day. That's why there are so many Levites. That's why Zechariah had a particular time of service, because someone else would come in and serve after he was done. All night, every day, 365 days a year, an ongoing task, an ongoing display of obedience in the most significant task. serving the Lord, worshiping God, that the Levites, that the Israelites had to offer. Now, this passage communicates to us that this was not to be a mere external outward check off the box. I've done my time. I'm getting out of here. No, it was to be sincere. How could they bless the Lord through this service if it was not sincere? Think of the woes proclaimed by the Lord Jesus Christ to the Pharisees, the hypocrites, the scribes. He called them whitewashed tombs, which hourly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and uncleanness. To bless the Lord, you couldn't be a whitewashed tomb. You couldn't be a Levite merely tending the lamps and putting your time in. It had to be a heartfelt service in order to be a blessing to God. Physical labors, yes, but also spiritual labors. A heartfelt concern, not only for doing it properly, but for doing it unto the Lord so that you would be in your service a blessing to the Lord. There would be no blessing if the service was insincere. Consider the Israelites as Isaiah writes to them concerning their fasting. And they're saying, what's going on? We're fasting before you and you're not blessing us. And the Lord says, they ask of me righteous judgments. They delight to draw near to God. And they ask the question, why have we fasted? And you see it not. Why have we humbled ourselves? And you take no knowledge of it. Behold, in the day of your fast, you seek your own pleasure. and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel, to fight, to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high." It was insincere. It was beyond insincere. Sincere worship and praise is received by God with favor. Insincere. evil service is never received. Think of Cain and Abel. As early as Cain and Abel. Abel, a keeper of the sheep, Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought forth an offering of the fruit of the ground. Abel brought the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions. The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. It wasn't sincere. It wasn't offered in faith. Do you see the difference? Offerings are a pleasing aroma to God as long as they're offered in faith. Throughout Scripture, time and again, we read of burnt offerings being a pleasing aroma to God. Think of the end of the flood and Noah, a righteous man. What does he do as soon as the door to the ark is opened and he is led out of the ark? Noah built an altar to God and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground because of man. Did you notice when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma? It was pleasing to God. Moses is not writing about the aroma being pleasing to Noah. He's saying it was pleasing to God. God received his worship. He says he speaks to himself within his heart. Once again, we have the sense that God was blessed by Noah's worship. Noah's thankful heart, he'd just been through the flood. His family had survived by the grace of God. And he offers up worship that's pleasing. Think of Paul's words in Philippians chapter 4, I've received full payment and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gift you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. They're offerings that were supporting Paul Paul's saying, yeah, this is good for me, but guess what? God was blessed by your offering. The worship of God is the ultimate service to him, isn't it? We were made for worship, brothers and sisters. How do we know that? We see the creation week, what's the culmination? It's the seventh day. We might say, well, no, no, it's when man was made. No, no, it's the seventh day. When God sets it aside, when he rests upon it, when he's refreshed by it, and he calls us to worship. That's the culmination of creation. We are made for worship. The Israelites were delivered out of the bondage of the Egyptians. Why? For worship. The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. That's what Moses and Aaron tell Pharaoh when they first meet with him. We've got to go sacrifice. We've got to go worship. Let us go. And at the end of all the plagues, what is it that Pharaoh says? Rise up, get out from among my people, both you and the sons of Israel, and go worship the Lord. They were delivered for worship. God is blessed as his children sincerely obey and worship. Do you consider that? Even tonight, as you've come here tonight, that your sincere worship is a blessing to God. Yes, this passage is literally about the Levites. It's about their work in the tabernacle, in the temple, We see a parallel, don't we? That's why we read 1 Peter. You're a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. That's what you're doing every time you come. You are proclaiming the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light because you're a holy nation. You're a chosen people, a royal priesthood. Do you see the connection? That's worship, isn't it? That's what you're doing. Every time you come, you're serving. You're standing before Him continually, even throughout your day. Even when we're not in this room, remember what we read tonight in our confession. Neither prayer nor any other part of religious worship is now under the gospel, either tied to or made more acceptable by any place in which it's performed. But God is to be worshipped everywhere, in families, individually, as you go out from this place. As you sincerely proclaim within your hearts the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, you're worshiping and He is being blessed. Praise God. And now we see, in a sense, the opposite side of that same coin. Our third point, blessing from Zion. Look at verse three. May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth. The first two verses were about the Levites, about their work, and as they worked sincerely to the Lord, that they were actually blessing him. And now, in a sense, as they finish their work, the Levites, the priests, call out this blessing upon the people, that they blessed the Lord through their service, and now through their service, they have been blessed, and they're proclaiming that blessing for all of those who they were representing in the temple, all the Israelites. Because they, through their worship, through their service, have been blessed by God. May the Lord bless you from Zion. Zion was representing the place of God's dwelling. And so the psalmist speaks of that blessing flowing from God as he dwells or even rests there. The tabernacle representing the temple, representing the dwelling place of God. Those who were serving in the tabernacle before it became the temple were serving in the camp of the Israelites, 600,000 men alone, women and children in addition to that, the herds, the sheep, the flocks in addition to that, a small city with what at the center? The tabernacle. So envision this, the Levites being the closest ones who are camping around the tabernacle, they're going into the tabernacle, they're serving God, they're being a blessing to God. And at the end of that service, then they proclaim that which they had received from God as they served him. And that was a blessing of God going out through the entire camp. As they're in the center, as they're in the middle. As everything about the Israelites' camp is focused upon the center, upon God, they now receive this blessing. Blessing from the One who made all things. May the Lord bless you from Zion, He who made heaven and earth. Why did the psalmist add that? He's noting the greatness, isn't he? The magnitude of this blessing. Can there be any greater? I think that's the idea. I think the psalmist might have added that, maybe, but he didn't. Could there be anything greater than this blessing from God as you come to worship Him? Yes, you're bringing a blessing to Him, but you're receiving the greater blessing because He's the one who's made all things. Can there be any blessing which exceeds the blessing that comes from the one who's made all things, who's made you, who sustains you? Indeed, the blessing of worship. And so we see that direct connection between worshiping God and receiving the blessing from God. Please don't miss that. If you receive nothing else tonight, from the preaching of God's Word, don't miss the connection between your worshiping God and your receiving a blessing, the greatest blessing that there is on the face of this planet from God. It's exactly what we read in Isaiah 58. You may want to turn there just for a minute tonight. At the end of Isaiah 58, we read this wonderful blessing that I don't think you can find anywhere else in scripture. If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable. If you honor it, not going your own ways or seeking your own pleasure or talking idly, then you shall take the light in the Lord. And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth. I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob, your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. I challenge you, there can't be, I can't find within scripture a greater blessing set forth for the people of God than the worship of God. And so as the Levites labored, as they labored within the temple, as they stood through the midnight hours, continually serving this one who had made them on behalf of the Israelites, they were being blessed. And they were proclaiming that blessing to all of the people. It seems that the ultimate end of this blessing is to become one with Christ, isn't it? Wilhelmus Sobrockl writes this along those lines, the salvation of man consists in knowing, honoring, and serving God, such as our God, who not only is all-sufficient in Himself, but who with His all-sufficiency can fill the soul with such an overflowing measure that it has need of nothing else but to have God as its portion. We started tonight with the all-sufficiency of God, the triune God. And I want you just to meditate upon this idea tonight. that as you're worshiping God, as you're being joined together with Him in communion through the Lord Jesus Christ, and He is making you more like Him, what's happening? You're becoming more in union, more in communion with this One who is all-sufficient, and His all-sufficiency is penetrating your heart, so much so that you're becoming one with Him. who is all sufficient and so much so that you can cast off everything else and say, Christ is my all in all. I stand in need of nothing else. That's exactly what Paul was saying as he wrote to those at Philippi, I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake I've suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. That's what's happening as you worship, as you're being blessed through worship. You are gaining Christ Jesus. You're being blessed with his all sufficiency within the triune God. Yes, the children of God are enabled to bless him through sincere worship. Yes, God rested on the seventh day. He was blessed as He looks on that reflection of His nature and His creation. And indeed, God is blessed as you sincerely worship Him. Brothers and sisters, remember that you're receiving the greatest blessing as you come and worship your risen Savior. Amen. Our Father and our God, we thank You for these Psalms. We thank You for all that they teach us about Your worship. And we thank You, Lord God, that You've told us that we We are a blessing to you that we just can't truly grasp and understand, and yet you've told us that it is so. Mere men, women, and children, sinners saved only by grace are a blessing to you, and we praise you that we can join in that. But even more so, Father, we praise you for the blessing we received, even tonight, As we have entered into worship and have, through that worship, you have blessed your children. Oh, Father, we thank you and praise you. Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you've provided a way for us to worship in spirit and in truth and to be blessed beyond our imaginations. We ask this all in Jesus's name. Amen.