What Ancient Temple Workers Would Have Us Learn Today

In reading the Psalms, we easily miss the little Psalms. Instead, our time and our meditation get caught up in the acrostic grandeur of Psalm 119 or the penitent piety of Psalm 51 or the emotional agony of Psalm 22 or 73. How is a short, three verse Psalm supposed to compete with these massive masterpieces? But sometimes this littleness belies the Psalm’s usefulness, for example in the case of Psalm 134.

A Song of Ascents
Behold, Bless Yahweh, all the servants of Yahweh
Those who stand in the house of Yahweh in the nights.
Lift up your hands in holiness and bless Yahweh.
May Yahweh bless you from Zion, who made heaven and earth.

We can find quite a lot of usefulness in it as Christians today, and we can find that moving through our thoughts in four categories: context, command, consequence, and conclusion.

1. Context

Psalm 134 is the last of the Songs of Ascent. These songs were likely associated with the regular Jewish pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the regular religious feasts. While there are some competing theories about the original historical context of the songs, all tie these Psalms to original religiouis practice of the nation as it was centered in the temple. In other words, Psalm 134 is associated with temple worship.

Now this was evident in the Psalm itself—it addresses “those who stand in the house of Yahweh in the nights,” that is, temple workers. You ask, “Who are these temple workers?” I answer, “Some collection of priests and Levites.” The kings David and Solomon established a regular rotation of priests and Levites to serve first the Tabernacle and then the Temple (cf. 1 Chron 9:33; 23:26, 30). This work was centered on worship; indeed, the admonition of verse 2 to lift hands in holiness points to prayer. But the work also involved purification rituals, support of the sacrificial system, music and services, as well as various tedious maintenance chores.

2. Command

Perhaps what is most initially striking about Psalm 134 is that pilgriming Israel—who themselves may not have been to the temple in months—call on those who regularly live and work in the temple to worship! The nation emphatically commanded these priests and Levies to worship the God whose work they were already performing. In doing so, Israel implemented a liturgy to wake her own worship leaders out of their routine tasks and call them to prayer and praise. The three imperatives, beginning and ending with a call to bless Yahweh, form a “prayer sandwich” with the call to “lift up hands” in prayer in between. The command underscores the need to intentionally worship.

3. Consequence

Notice that there is no indication that the speaker ever changes in this Psalm. So the addressed audience of verses 1 and 2 is the addressed audience of verse 3. Verse 3 wishes Yahweh’s blessing on those serving in the temple. But structurally, this sets up verse 3 as a consequence for obeying the commands in verses 1 and 2. Yahweh’s blessing comes to those who bless and worship him.

4. Conclusions

Now it’s all well and good to understand that Psalm 134 connects Jewish temple workers to Yahweh’s blessing through their own worship of him. But we can connect the principle to ourselves as Christians today.

In the Old Testament, the Tabernacle and then the Temple served as the location of God’s presence with his people. We do not have a tabernacle or temple today. Instead God’s presence with his people is in his Spirit’s indwelling of the church. Instead of requiring a priesthood from a subset of the nation to service the temple, God has made the church a kingdom of priests (1 Pet 2:5–10), in which all believers are gifted to serve the whole body (1 Cor 12:22). Or in other words, you, Christian, are a temple worker today. You, Christian, stand nightly in the house of Yahweh. Insomuch as you serve the church, you fulfill your required acts of service as a priest, a duty all the more practical when the church lies deeply divided by pandemic-era lockdowns, post-modern politics, and sordidly fruitless internet squabbles over meaningless trifles.

In our priestly service, Psalm 134 calls us to reflect on how, in our service, the fundamental and irreplaceable imperative is to ourselves worship Yahweh.¹ We must ourselves practice personal piety. We must pray. We must read Scripture. We must meditate on it. We must assemble at church. We must partake in the liturgy of our local bodies with Godward focus. And in that we will experience the blessing of Yahweh, who made the heavens and the earth, and as surely as that power maintains the universe today, will reward those who seek him.

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¹ Or as a dear friend of mine once boldly proclaimed to a university student group, “First of all, we want to make sure we are worshipping ourselves.”