1 Behold, bless Jehovah, all ye servants of Jehovah,
Who stand in the house of Jehovah in the night seasons.
2 Lift up your hands to the sanctuary,
And bless Jehovah.
3 Jehovah bless thee out of Zion,
The Maker of heaven and earth!
This fragment of song closes the pilgrim psalms after the manner of
a blessing. It is evidently antiphonal, vv. 1, 2, being a greeting,
the givers of which are answered in ver. 3 by a corresponding
salutation from the receivers. Who are the parties to the little
dialogue is doubtful. Some have thought of two companies of priestly
watchers meeting as they went their rounds in the Temple; others,
more probably, take vv. 1, 2, to be addressed by the congregation to
the priests, who had charge of the nightly service in the Temple,
while ver. 3 is the response of the latter, addressed to the speakers
of vv. 1, 2. 1 Chron. ix. 33 informs us that there was such a nightly
service, of the nature of which, however, nothing is known. The
designation "servants of Jehovah" here denotes not the people, but
the priests, for whose official ministrations "stand" is a common
term. They are exhorted to fill the night with prayer as well as
watchfulness, and to let their hearts go up in blessing to Jehovah.
The voice of praise should echo through the silent night and float
over the sleeping city. The congregation is about to leave the
crowded courts at the close of a day of worship, and now gives this
parting salutation and charge to those who remain.
The answer in ver. 3 is addressed to each individual of the
congregation--"Jehovah bless _thee_!" and it invokes on each a share
in the blessing which, according to the preceding psalm, "Jehovah has
commanded" in Zion. The watchers who remain in the sanctuary do not
monopolise its blessings. These stream out by night, as by day, to
all true hearts; and they are guaranteed by the creative omnipotence
of Jehovah, the thought of which recurs so often in these pilgrim
psalms, and may be due to the revulsion from idolatry consequent on
the Captivity and Restoration.
With this sweet interchange of greeting and exhortation to continual
worship, this group of psalms joyously ends.