A Song of Ascents. ¹Behold, bless the Lord, all servants of the Lord, who serve by night in the house of the Lord! ²Lift up your hands to the sanctuary and bless the Lord. ³May the Lord bless you from Zion, He who made heaven and earth.

This delightful, brief psalm calls for reciprocal blessings between the Lord and His people and is a fitting finale to the collection of fifteen “Songs of Ascents” (Psalms 120-134). As noted in Psalm 120, we don’t know the specific occasion for which these were used in Jewish worship and liturgy; we can surmise that the Jewish pilgrims may have sung these as they ascended in procession to Jerusalem for one of the great annual religious festivals. Latter Jewish teaching suggests these were used during the three annual Jewish festivals.

In the first two lines, the psalm seems to call on the priests and the Levites (here called “servants of the Lord”) who had been doing their usual work in and around the temple. In fact, their work was around the clock:

Now these are the singers, heads of fathers’ households of the Levites, who lived in the chambers of the temple free from other service; for they were engaged in their work day and night. (1 Chon. 9:33)

Given that they are instructed to lift up their hands “to the sanctuary,” it was probably a proclamation at the end of their shift, to finish with a focus on the Lord. In other words, as they transition from their official duties and begin to walk back to their families and the rest of life, they should turn back to the temple and its inner sanctuary, and bless the Lord with uplifted hands.

How can anyone bless the Lord, since, as the last verse emphasizes, He is the Creator of everything and therefore owns everything? The answer is simple: we give Him our praise and worship, signified by uplifted hands. The Lord desires our praise, and as Scripture says, “You [God] are holy, O You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel” (Ps. 22:3). Our praise is, then, a blessing to the Lord.

The last verse pivots to the “servants of the Lord” blessing individuals as they leave the temple. This is suggested by the singular pronoun “you” (in the original Hebrew). As the Levites bless God, they encounter individuals along the way for whom they invoke the blessing of God. We who have the privilege of actually giving something to the Creator of the universe are reminded of His benevolence toward us as individuals who believe. As we seek to bless the Lord in praise and worship, we would do well to remind ourselves that He desires to bless us as well. Let us speak blessing to our own souls.

“The Lord make His face shine on you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance on you, and give you peace.” (Num. 6:25–26)