Praise God from His Temple

Scripture:
Now praise the Lord,
all you servants of the Lord
who stand in the Lord’s house at night!
Lift up your hands in the holy place
and praise the Lord!

May the Lord,
Maker of heaven and earth,
bless you from Zion.
Psalm 134

Observation: This psalm is a simple call to worship. It is three verses, divided into two parts. In the first part, the writer calls the people to worship, telling them to praise the Lord, lifting up their hands in worship, while in God's house. In the second part, the psalmist seeks blessing from God for the those who worship.

In all cases, the location of this action is God's house. It is described as the Lord's house, his holy place, and Zion (the temple mount). This is both the location of the action - the servants of the Lord stand in the Lord's house - and the origin of the blessing. This is not to say Zion - the temple - IS the blessing, but rather it is the location of God and thus the place from which any blessing from God will come.

Application: I worship God and raise my hands at church. I do this out of the lessons I have learned about God's love, goodness, and faithfulness in my life, and the fact I know I owe him my worship and my love. While I pray for blessing - and have absolutely been blessed by God - I do not seek blessing as a response to worship. I believe that is actually why this psalm is divided. The writer tells them to worship, and asks for blessing ... that doesn't necessarily mean one begets the other.

If it did, it would probably work backwards. I worship in part because I have been blessed. May honor be to those who worship simply out of their love for the Lord, without blessing! They will be the first in the kingdom, in seats of honor. And I - one who has been blessed and responded out of that blessing - will be last.

Prayer: Lord, again in the last few days I have struggled with my pride. I am an arrogant man, wrongly confident in myself and my abilities. I know the results of my pride, that I will be last in your kingdom. I am confident I will be in your eternal kingdom as a true believer in Jesus, but I know that I can never have a position of importance because I have sought such status for myself already. Please do forgive my pride. I do seek to be humble, and worry that I don't know how. I will start with praising you. I will lift my hands and praise you, in my daily life, in my worship time, and continually in my heart. I praise you in your true holy place, the temple within my heart. Amen.