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Psalm 134

Jehovah Himself was to be the center of Israel's life and worship.  He alone blessed and sustained Jacob and his sons, and He alone delivered them from Egypt and brought them through many perils into Canaan.  He alone sustained them against many enemies and made their land fruitful.  He did these things over many years and many generations.  So He fulfilled His promise to "be a God to them, and to their children after them."  It should be no surprise, then, that Jehovah was praised and worshipped daily (not merely weekly) in Israel!

Many of the people loved Him, and they delighted in His worship day by day - they wanted Him to be praised, and they rejoiced in His glory.  The song before us expresses all that.  It's likely that the lesson from the Torah for the day of this song was to be concerned with the institution of the priesthood and with God's commands relative to His worship in the temple.  In preparation, then, the people are led to exhort the priests to their duties, and then they are led to receive the benediction from those same priests.

The song exhorts the priests "who by night stand in the house of the Lord" to "bless the Lord."  In other words, it's asking the priest to "bless the Lord" around the clock - at all times continually.  They were to "Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord." 

But we need to ask what it means to "bless the Lord"  (We don't know because we ourselves do so little of it!).  To "bless," as the term is used here, is to approve, to speak well of.  If an Israelite blesses the Lord, it means he speaks well of Him and approves what the Lord is and what He has done or is doing. In other words, he praises Him - tells Him and/or others what He is and what good things He is doing and has done. So the priests are exhorted to lift their hands (toward the Lord) while speaking well of Him and of His works. 

It can be likened to what a proud father or mother might do relative to a child who has done something well.  Speaking to relatives or friends, the parent motions toward the child and says, "Johnny has been a GOOD boy!  He's done SO well!"  Here the priests are exhorted to motion toward the Lord and to speak well of Him and of His works.

But the priests, too, love Jehovah.  Seeing how the people appreciate their work of praise and worship in the temple, they in turn "bless" the people - they approve their exhortation and call upon Jehovah to bless (approve) them.  And, knowing that God has commanded them to place Jehovah's blessing upon the people (Numbers 6:24-26), they know that these people will actually BE blessed!  The work of the priest was to deal with the people for God and with God for the people, so it was a part of that work to "approve" (bless) the people in God's stead, as well as to "approve" God in the people's stead.

Do you bless the Lord?  Do you speak often of His wonderful attributes and glorious works?  All of us in our Lord's kingdom are priests.  All of us ought therefore to speak approvingly of all His works and of His glorious being - around the clock!