Benediction

Would you take your Bible's place in turn to Psalm 134 as we come to the end of this spiritual programage in these songs of a sense this long obedience in the same direction this pilgrimage at least in our minds and in our souls and in our experience began long time ago in Psalm 120 began with repentance even though that's not mentioned in Psalm 120 it is a Psalm about repentance because the Hebrew word for repentance means to turn around to do literally 180 degree turn and go in the opposite direction and so here is a saint who becomes distressed discontented unsettled by the world around him in my distress I called to the Lord and he answered me delivering your Lord from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue what shall be given to you and what more shall be done to you O deceitful tongue warriors sharp arrows with glowing coals of the broom tree woe to me that I sojourn in Mishek that I dwell among the tents of Kadar how long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace I am for peace boom when I speak they are for war this little fella this little woman who ever he or she is becomes discouraged about living in a world that is always unsettled always full of violence and anger and contempt and godlessness and there's a turning around turning back to look for something more and as this divine discontentment gives liberty to change which repentance always does he begins his walk in a long obedience in the same direction he begins the walk of discipleship within the worshiping community you know that's how it is with us repentance always begins the Christian life and experience that was John the Baptist message he said repent for the kingdom of God is at hand bring forth fruit in keeping of repentance those were the first words of our Lord Jesus Christ in public ministry first runs recorded into the gospel of Mark the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand repent and believe in the gospel that was Peter's first sermon in the new Christian age on Pentecost repent therefore and be baptized all of you and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit that was the essence of Paul's apostolic and gospel message he told the folks at Ephesus that he had not ceased to declare everything concerning what was godly to them especially repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ when the author of Hebrews wants to encourage the saints to move beyond basic infant life in the Christian church he says therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works in faith toward God that's the very foundation repentance in faith when Jesus Christ at the end of the Bible speaks to the seven churches of Revelation he says to the first one remember therefore from where you will fall in and repent until the last one those whom I love I approve and discipline so be zealous and repent repentance deciding to turn around and move in a God word direction is always the beginning of salvation of the Christian life of the Christian community and of course married with it is faith faith that as we turn and move towards God God will move towards us and bless us now is there any guarantee what about all the things we give up what about all the change that God's going to do what about all the difficult things the Lord's going to send us to remember he just said to the seven churches those whom I love I discipline is there any guarantee that at the end of this long journey this long obedience in the same direction for all of this repentance that there will be a reward well the last of the pilgrims Psalms say yes Psalm 134 if the end of the journey of repentance in faith is blessing 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 one little word blesses this little short Psalm the second shortest Psalm in all of the Psalter only only longer than Psalm 117 the word is bless come bless the Lord all you servants lift up your hands and bless the Lord the Lord bless you from Zion he who made heaven and earth it's the little Hebrew word better a car which means to favor as we bless the Lord as we favor him with praise and worship God will bless us with his grace we bless the Lord and the Lord blesses us Eugene Peterson says there is no better summarizing or concluding word in all of the Bible than this little word blessing it describes what we most prize in God's dealing with us and what is most attractive when we evaluate our way of living every life and every act of worship must conclude with a blessing what we call a benediction so here are these little pilgrims they begin weeks ago months ago maybe and they're divine discontent to gather together in the midst of that frustration someone said will come with us come with us to pilgrimage and so he says I was glad when they said to me come let us go to the house of the Lord and through his physical and spiritual journey he moves from divine discontent to spiritual blessing he moves through layers of struggle and then aspiration and then fulfillment until finally he reaches the holy place in Zion now he's been worshiping there for several days perhaps as long as a week in some of these holy days like Passover and Tabernacles and Pentecost and it's time for the holy day to be done and the holiday to end it's time to turn around and go home and so in his last act of worship perhaps the evening before he leaves maybe the last Sabbath service before the holy day holy week feast day festival is over or maybe the morning of his departing he sings this little song and Tiffany it's a reciprocal song like our calls to worship the people say something to the priest the priest says something back to them the people say to them the priest and the Levites 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 these priests these Levites to lead them in worship one more time before they go home to their regular mundane lives and at the end of that service the priest responds by giving them a blessing May the Lord bless you from Zion he who made heaven and earth this is where we get our pattern of worship from the Christian church did not invent its Sunday morning worship they drew it out of the Old Testament worship out of the synagogue life and every worship service whether in the temple or in the synagogue would end in a benediction in fact in numbers chapter 6 the Lord spoke to Moses saying speak to Aaron and to his sons that is the priests and say to them thus you shall bless the people of Israel you shall say to them the Lord bless you and keep you the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace it is this pattern of ending our worship and our community time together with a benediction the Latin word for to bless or literally to call good upon others that forms the warp and roof of our worship the transition from Psalm 133 to 134 could not be more obvious look at the end of Psalm 133 and look at the third verse for there in Zion in the temple for there the Lord has commanded the blessing life forever more may the Lord bless you from Zion he who made heaven and earth here's here's a very simple rule but it's so simple that most of us doubt it that when we bless the Lord the Lord blesses us and we show favor to God by worshipping him God favors us with grace and goodness and great things you say with a pastor that sounds a little health and wealth only because only because evangelicals are not Hebrews only because we've intellectualized and hella knives the faith so much that we eliminate any liturgical or rhythmic or physical things that might give us a blessing until we come to these we seem to make an exception for baptism in the Lord's supper water bread and wine there a huge part of our life in worship in our community this brings us into the community in faith and this continues to nourish and sustain us all through life we do believe that somehow with these physical things God communicates to us a blessing not through the things but through the act of worship that is entered into by faith we don't believe that Jesus Christ is in that bread and in that grape juice or that he's attached to it somehow but we believe that he is spiritually and really present here and that the eating and drinking of bread and wine guarantee that we can feast upon him for nourishment through faith how come it is that we don't believe the same thing when someone would lay their hands upon us and bless us you see we've become so American with our sacred 18 inches of space and so intellectual that the idea that God would continue still to bless people by touching them through someone else is foreign to us but not to these people on a long obedience in the same direction is they leave the house of the Lord and go back to the warping booth of their daily life they want the Levites and priests to touch them and to bless them and they do two little stanzas in these three verses first one God's people bless the Lord second stanza God blesses his people look at the first stanza where God's people are to bless the Lord come bless the Lord all use 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 the people summon the priest to bless the Lord to favor God literally in Hebrew come favor God use servants of the Lord who stand watch night and day in the holy place lift up your holy hands and favor God obviously they're talking to priests servants of the Lord who stand by night in the house of the Lord but Hebrew worship wasn't like our church life it was a 24-7 thing there was something going on in that temple 24-7 seven days a week 365 days a year without one day of interruption for a millennium and more there was at least continuous prayer on the hour every hour being offered up by a battery of Levites and priests in different arrangements for cycles of prayer praying for people individually and corporately all through the nation of Israel but in addition to that when people were home at sleep the Levites were chopping wood for sacred fires trimming oil lamps cleaning and polishing brass and gold and silver baking and replacing the show bread every day mixing oil and incense offering prayers standing guard singing offering sacrifices the temple services never shut down the first chronicle says that these Levites were on duty night and day they lifted up their holy hands continuously even when no one was watching and they blessed the Lord on behalf of the people the people addressed here in particular appear to be the guards the Levites who stood guard over the temple gates and on the walls of the city come you who stand guard by night in the house of the Lord bless the Lord Joseph Exel says these are the Levites whose charge it was to patrol the temple through the hours of night and darkness to see that all was safe and in right and holy order we do whatever such priestly duties and ministerial work was called for the charges given to these watching priests these night wardens in the sacred house of the Lord we've already met them by the way in the Psalter we had to time this morning we can turn back to Psalm 84 where there's a hymn written for them and buy them for a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in tents of wickedness these guards who dressed in somewhat of a priestly uniform they had a long white ephod and a golden coverband they had on a brass breastplate with a bronze shield and a bronze spear they had a white turban with a white sash around it that flowed down the back were spectacle to behold and they were especially popular with the people of Israel because they stood by the dates and stood by the doors and they ushered people in and asked people left they put their hands on them and gave them a blessing they were as one commentator said they had first place in the hearts of the Hebrew people because of their very tangible invisible presence the communicated both protection and blessing to the people of God you know really nothing has changed in the last 3,500 years except the titles in fact instead of just a few hundred thousand priests now there are billions around the world you are chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the exiles of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light all of us here are a priesthood of believers all of us made holy by the baptism of Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit to enter into God's presence and to lift up our holy hands and bless the Lord we are a nation of priest a chosen people for this great privilege some of us are called to gather the people together come let us worship the Lord and to preach the Word of God to teach the Bible as the priest did others are called to stand guard over the church to anoint with oil to lay hands on people and pray for them as our ruling elders will immediately after this service others have the priestly duty of keeping order of unlocking the doors and taking care of the money and making sure that the stranger and the sick and the needy the orphan the fatherless the widow all these people are taking care of we call these people congregation pastor elder deacon but they are simply doing the work of the priesthood blessing the Lord through their worship and work that's what worship is did you know sometimes we think about so much as an entertainment sometimes we enter maybe the majority of time our attitude is whether we like it or not we probably give the sermon and the worship service a grade every Sunday I'm glad I don't see those grades but we've got the thing turned around we are the performers God is the audience and we are called with every fiber of our being to bless him bless the Lord oh my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name bless the Lord oh my soul and forget none of his benefits who forgives all your iniquity who heals all your diseases who redeems your life from the pit who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy who satisfies you with good things so that your youth is renewed like the Eagles bless the Lord oh you his angels the mighty ones who do his word is obeying the voice of the word bless the Lord all his host his ministers who do his will bless the Lord all his works and all the places of his dominion bless the Lord oh my soul yes I say bless the Lord one of the things that we have lost in modern society is something called the hours of prayer once you turn over just a few pages to Psalm 119 Psalm 119 look at one little verse verse 164 Psalm 119 164 David writes seven times a day I praise you it should be translated seven times a day I bless you for your righteous rules seven times a day David said he stopped and prayed and worshiped and thought about God and gave God a blessing that became known in the ancient church and in the early church as the hours of prayer we know that the apostles Jesus Christ the apostles kept those hours of prayer we're told in Acts chapter 3 verse 1 that Peter and John were going up to the temple of the hour of prayer at the 9th hour that's 3pm in the afternoon and in chapter 10 it says the next day as they were on their journey and approached the city Peter went up on the house top in order to spend prayer at the 6th hour that's 12 noon so Peter was keeping these at least four hours of prayer 6 in the morning 12 noon 3 in the afternoon in the evening prayer in the Medieval Church these became codified in what was called the seven hours of prayer they followed the Roman calendar or the Roman watch where a guard was on duty for three hours and the bells in the forum the bells in the city of the old capital of Rome would ring to tell you when the guard was changing at 3 May or Prime was 6am terrorists 3rd hour 9am 6th noon non the 9th hour 3pm Vespers in the evening in the middle ages those forum bells were replaced by the church bells that rang for the hours of prayer and 3 more hours were added to make it a full 24 hours complying at 9 o'clock at night mappings or sometimes called vigils or knock turns at midnight and lords or the dawn prayer at 3 in the morning the Anglican Church reduced these to morning and evening prayer in their book of common prayer and even early into our century I can remember as a child the churches of Columbus Ohio whether they were Protestant to Catholic opened up at 6 in the morning and didn't lock their doors till it got dark at night and there were people on duty there to pray with you in the morning and at noon and at evening boy life has changed mainly because I suspect our churches would be vandalized perhaps worse but also because of our work and our communing our school hours and our workouts and our long office duties after school sports two parents working in carpooling all of this busyness that materialism and the fluence brings us we have no time for a daily rhythm of blessing the Lord secularism has robbed us of this the source of blessing and now it's been reduced for us for one morning a week and that perhaps for most Americans on a very sporadic and irregular basis but the fact remains when we bless the Lord he blesses us if we don't he won't now you can talk about this all you want to lunch and call that works righteousness I'm just telling you that's one of the rules of life you bless the Lord the Lord blesses you some you say well pastor I don't do that and I'm very blessed really really with all of our divorces all of our stress and financial worries troubles with kids unconverted youth kids genocing the faith and God and Christ and college adult children living in sins and in bondages restless church hopping a low boiling anger and a slowly seating frustration in our souls you want to tell me that we're blessed that we're happy what's the problem I'm going to try the impossible here sometimes it's good to go for it even though you know you're going to fail like playing the buck eyes you can try if you're some little team it's great to be in the crowd you're going to you know it's not going to work so I'm going to go for it I think the reason why and all of our activity we're not being blessed as we could or should is because we've chosen the wrong activities upon which to hang our blessing we've chosen our music and our friends and our activities some of them may be religious activities like sore sports or Boy Scouts or activities at school at a Christian school maybe or at church those are the three things we hang our hats on music friends i.e small groups and our activities but you know they're not much of an anchor for the soul music changes with the generations most of it doesn't remain long friends come and go and activities are just waiting for the next economic downturn the next coach to be fired and not play you the next injury on the ball field that ruins your career going to the NFL all your great dreams doesn't take much but God has said why don't you build instead of on those three things on these three things why don't you build your life around the rhythm a blessing me on the Sabbath day morning worship evening worship community in between now you're saying pastor you work this into every sermon and we're not sure it's in the Bible all the time guilty as charged because we're not seeing that that's not the pattern of your life and that's why your life is not as blessed as it could be or as it should be David well says in his book the courage to be Protestant church life subsided in importance for many people only because Sunday morning they could and would often go to church in their living rooms in front of their television sets the truth is that without a biblical understanding of why God instituted it the church easily becomes a liability in a market where it competes only with the greatest difficulty against religious fair available in the convenience of one's living room and in a culture that is distracted by entertainment this conquest of the market accomplished silently and without any fanfare has not only greatly diminished the church but one has to say has also greatly diminished what it means to be a Christian believer and the quality of the Christian life folks keeping holy the Sabbath coming to the community of faith establishing a rhythm of one day for the Lord and five for our active that is not a good idea that is God's design for life and the commandment of his word the proof is obvious if we turn to the book of acts that said they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to prayers and it says that all kinds of wonderful blessings were pouring into their lives but then again that's mechanical but here's a promise from a prophet named Isaiah if you turn your foot from the Sabbath day doing your pleasure on my holy day and call that Sabbath day of the light this holy day of the Lord honorable if you honor it not going your own ways or seeking your own pleasure or talking nightly 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 past you don't realize how difficult it is to get the children up from that's get him fed and get him the Sunday night church I imagine it's just about as difficult as you get him dressed in the sock or you get him out at the ball field five times a week isn't it isn't it it's a matter of what you choose and more than that listen to me this is where I'm going for the impossible it's a matter of what you believe what you really think but you really trust him to bless your life the Lord bless you from Zion Jesus Christ bless you from his church old idea bad idea or living reality and promise of God you make the choice you look at your own life and ask God in heaven father am I being blessed like I could be and if the answer is no then it's not because God has gotten stingy it's because the formula in your life is off it's wrong so here are these people asking the priest to leave them in worship and as they bless the Lord as they kept this little rhythm of Sabbath day temple worship pilgrimage on holy days community congregation covenant life they receive a blessing now God blesses his people may the Lord bless you from Zion he who made heaven and earth see the connection in Psalm 133 the Lord is commanded the blessing there now the Lord bless you from Zion he who made heaven and earth it's a benediction the Bible's full of them errands blessing the apostolic blessing now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all they can be as elaborate as now may the God at peace who brought again from the dead that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of his eternal covenant even Jesus our Lord to equip you with every good thing to do is will working in each of you that which is pleasing in a site through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever or as simple as the Lord and his grace be with your spirit but they're all a blessing and they're not just formulaic ritual these blessings are powerful because words have power and nothing has power like the word of God and therefore the minister the priest the elder the pastor to call down God's favor upon the people is how they end and how they begin their rhythm of life and work and worship every single week may the Lord bless you keep you may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ may the spirit of the Lord be with you it's God who is coming down to enrich his people the source of this blessing is obvious may the Lord bless you from Zion the place of redemption the place where the sacrifice of Christ was prefigured the place where there was the washing the way by blood sacrifice of the sins of God's people redemption and creation he who made heaven and earth redemption and creation God made us for himself God redeemed us out of sin a second time we were born and then born again into this life of blessing what is amazing to me is those are the same two reasons for keeping the Sabbath holy creation and redemption in Exodus 20 the first time God gave this command he said for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and all that is in them and rest on the seventh day therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day the Lord made the Sabbath day happy and made it holy and the second time that command was given the emphasis on son and creation but on redemption you shall remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God brought you out from that place with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day and make it holy creation common grace redemption saving grace God revealing himself to us all through the creation ordered throughout the week and in his person of Jesus Christ on this redemptive day called the Sabbath those are the sources of God's blessing these little pilgrims are going home this was the big family vacation this this one trip to Israel once a year was the highlight of their life and now they were saying goodbye it was back to life as usual back to school back to work back to the neighbors we don't like and so as they leave they turn one more time and they look there on the city walls or the guards in white and gold and they say lift up your holy hands to the Lord and bless the Lord and the guards smile back and say the Lord bless you from Zion he who made the heavens and the earth go and be blessed I told the people the other night when I was a little boy growing up in the Catholic church the Lord would often bless me through my pastor I would talk to him about things and he would say well let me give you a blessing so I kneel down he would put his hands on my head and he would say now may the blessings of Almighty God the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit be with you and abide with you always amen the last time I received that blessing from my pastor before he died was when I was in uniform as a brand new lieutenant in the army I was about to report for duty so he blessed me that God would keep me safe spiritually and physically and return me home one piece wouldn't it be great maybe I can't get the Catholic out of me maybe that's it but wouldn't it be great if we began here to touch now I know that's unsettling but this is Yankee saying it if we began to touch each other and give each other a blessing wouldn't it be wonderful if we ordered our lives according to God's priorities and Saul and experience God's favor wouldn't it be wonderful if God blessed us because we blessed him because you see that's what the end of our spiritual journeys all about it's to glorify God to bless him and to enjoy him forever to be blessed by him and I think in heaven there'll be a whole lot of touching and a whole lot of blessing maybe it's time for us to begin to practice that here what do you think that's pretty Father we do not take these things as an aside it's hard for us to ignore all the dozens of benedictions or blessings throughout the Bible old and New Testament alike and your process for laying your hands on people through another like Jesus Christ of the children see touch them and bless them we would pray that you would touch us and bless us to do that you have to order our priorities a new bringing us into the fellowship of your Lord's day and into the rhythm of one day set aside for you for Christ and community and covenant life that means that for some of us this morning you need to open up our hearts bring us to repentance and faith the beginning of this spiritual journey and make us as new creatures who've been born again part of your blessed community there are those who are with us this morning that have not done this they've not surrendered to Christ but believed in Him they've never been baptized with that ceiling blessing never joined the church we would ask you to favor them with grace that brings them to Christ and the spirit that would move in their hearts to be obedient to your great commission and to be baptized and join this church or some other Bible-believing fellowship till that time we pray that they would refrain from the Lord's table and you would bring those who are in blessing with you and union with Christ to a deeper and richer fellowship of that blessing through this supper and we pray that you would favor us this day with a benediction and that we would meet in a tangible way in our bodies and a spiritual way in our soul Jesus Christ at this supper and receive His favor for we ask this for our sake as we bless your name through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen