“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.”
– Psalm 134:1-2
What a powerful picture here in Psalm 134:1–2. This is another one of these Psalms of a sense, which means God’s people would sing this together as they would gather together in Jerusalem for a feast or for a festival of worship. And the whole picture here is them just calling one another, “Come bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord.” Then it specifies, “All you who stand by night in the house of the Lord.”
Psalm 134:1–2 Leads Us to Glorify God
God, help us to live every single moment, in every single thing we do, cognizant of Your presence with us and longing for Your glory through us.
You start to think about imagery, we see in different places in the Psalms, I think Psalm 84, doorkeepers in the house of God, they’re at the temple where God’s glory and his presence powerfully dwell in the middle of his people. And those who stood day and night there by the house of the Lord, just constantly thinking about the glory of God, the presence of God among his people, constantly living at the place of worship.
And again, this is one of those places, we just can’t leave this in the Old Testament, because we know that Jesus has made a way for us. We cant just leave it because we know we have access to God. We should still go to a place of worship. Remeber we are the place of worship. We stand day and night in his presence encountering his glory.
Psalm 134:1–2 Reminds Us Our Body Is a Temple
Just let that soak in, wherever you are right now, wherever you’re sitting, wherever you’re standing, if you’re driving somewhere, maybe you’re getting up in the morning, preparing to go to bed, wherever you are, you are the place of worship. Your body right now is a temple of the Holy Spirit of God. If you’ve put your trust in Jesus. And right now you are in the presence of God, right now, you are encountering the glory of God.
So, based on that, so we’re praying for specific things that people are sending in to radical during this pandemic, I encourage you to continue to send these things in. But Lynn writes, honestly, it’s what I love most, just the vulnerability with which Lynn writes, “I have different strongholds in my life,” she says. And she starts listing, “Food, spending money, too much time on the internet, too much time on TV, and I want to overcome these, thank you.”
What an honest, vulnerable request for prayer, confession of need. And I just think, okay, for every one of us right now, are we tempted to not honor the Lord with the way we eat during this pandemic, the way we spend money, the way we spend time on the internet, the way we spend time watching TV? If we’re not careful, we could fall into traps in all those areas that Lynn mentioned. All of us are at least one or two of those areas.
Psalm 134:1–2 Leads Us to Pray to Stewart Our Time Well
And so I just want to lead us to pray that when it comes to how we spend our time, what we eat, how we spend our money, that we would realize that every moment we are the temple of the Holy Spirit of God. We should live cognizant of the fact that we are always in the presence of God.
Oh God, we pray right now, specifically for Lynn. God, we pray that you would give her indeed victory by your grace over any, and every temptation to not honor you. Help her to honor the temple of your Holy Spirit, her body, with food, with the way she fills her mind with that which is on the internet or TV, or the way she uses the money you have entrusted to her. God, we pray for Lynn that you would help her to glorify you in all these areas of her life.
1st Corinthians 10, 31, whether she eats or drinks, may she do it to your glory. As she spends money, help her to spend money on that which matters most. And God, as she spends her time, we pray that she would meditate on your word. And that she would belong with you in prayer. Help her to avoid spending hours of time on that which is not best for her mind and soul. And God, as we pray these things for Lynn, we pray these things for each other. God, we pray that you would help us all to glorify you, first Corinthians 10, 31 with what we eat and what we drink, how we eat, how we drink, how we care for our bodies during these days, especially when maybe it’s harder to exercise, or harder to stay healthy in different ways.
This Verse Leads Us to Pray for Our Health
God, we pray that you’d help us to grow in health. We pray that you would help us to spend our time wisely, to fill our minds with truth, to love you with all our heart, soul, strength and our minds. We pray that you would guard us. God please keep us from wasting time on TV and the internet in ways that are not helpful. Keep us from spending time on things that are not ultimately glorifying to you. And God, we pray that you would help us to spend the resources you’ve given us wisely to store up treasure, not on earth, where moth and rust destroy it, but in Heaven where nothing can steal where we are investing our money.
So God, we pray that you would help us to have the mindset of those in the Old Testament, who stood by night at your house. God help us to realize that every moment that we are in your presence. And God help us to glorify you in every single thing we do. Help us to know that when we are living for your glory, it will be really good. It will be best for us. In Jesus name we pray, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
