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They Shall Plant Vineyards and Eat the Fruit
Christ Church on July 23, 2023
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Psalm 134: Bless Thee Out of Zion

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INTRODUCTION

Our covenantal relationship with God is a relationship that is tied completely around with blessing. The servants of the Lord are called and summoned to bless the Lord, and in return the Lord blesses us out of Zion. One of the characteristic notes of this psalm is that it is filled with blessing.

THE TEXT

“A Song of degrees. Behold, bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord, which by night stand in the house of the Lord. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord. The Lord that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion” (Psalm 134:1-3).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

This very brief psalm appears to be a conversation, and there are different scenarios that could contain such a conversation. Perhaps the Levitical guards for the Temple are addressing the priests who serve there at night, and then the priests reply to them. From an extrabiblical source that there were 24 Levites, 3 priests, and the captain of the guard there. So that is a possible scenario.

But as this is the last psalm of ascents, I take it as something of a recessional. The pilgrims who have come to worship God at His Temple have risen early to return home (for many of them a long journey). So they have risen while it is still night, and as they are departing Jerusalem, they address those who still have the night duty at the Temple. As a farewell, they exhort the servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the Lord, telling them to bless the Lord (v. 1). They urge them once again to lift up their hands in the sanctuary, and to bless the Lord there (v. 2). And in return, the Levitical guards and the priests extend their blessing to the departing pilgrims. Jehovah, the one who made heaven and earth, bless you out of Zion (v. 3).

WHEN NOTHING IS HAPPENING

This scene occurs at night at the Temple. This is not in the daytime, when the services are being conducted, or the sacrifices being offered. Everything is quiet. Nothing is happening. To which we might reply, “What do you mean nothing is happening?” Jehovah God is being blessed by His servants. He is being blessed by the night watch, and in a solemn and quiet hour.

This psalm is saturated with the presence of Yahweh. Only three verses, and yet Jehovah is mentioned five times. And where the covenant God of Israel is present, what else is present? Blessing is present—blessing is mentioned three times.

When we are tempted to think that nothing is happening, perhaps we ought to stop and remember in the quiet that God is being praised. Jehovah is being blessed.

LIFT UP YOUR HANDS

We are told at the conclusion of this psalm, that God made Heaven and earth. He made the material creation, and that means that He made us as creatures with bodies. We are beings who have the sun go down on us, which is why we must have night watchmen. And when we are in the house of the Lord, we have to stand there. According to the custom of the Jews, the high priest could sit in the Temple, but the other priests would stand. Who stand in the house of the Lord.

They watch with their bodies. They stand with their bodies. They lift up their hands because their bodies have hands. There is nothing inherently unspiritual about having a body. In fact, your body is the instrument that God wants you to use for offering up true spiritual worship to Him. Physical worship offered in obedience is spiritual worship.

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect”

Romans 12:1–2 (ESV)

“I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting” ).

(1 Timothy 2:8 (KJV)

Your body, a living sacrifice, is your spiritual worship. Your hands, hands which are holy, are the way you lift up your prayers.

This is why we have wanted to worship God together, collectively, as though we have bodies. And in our worship, we have wanted to conform to various biblical postures for the body in our services, doing it all together as a single liturgical movement. This is why we stand together for the reading of the Word, why we kneel together in confession. This is why we raise our hands all together in doxological praise at the conclusion of the service. This is a public service where God is being worshiped by the congregation. We believe that this is what Paul was referring to in his letter to the Colossians: “For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ” (Col. 2:5). The word for order there is a military term, and could be understood as something like regimentation. Paul rejoiced at their martial discipline in worship.

OUT OF ZION

We are not told that the God who made earth will bless us out of Heaven. Nor are we told that the God who made Heaven will bless us out of earth. We are told that the God of all things, the God who made Heaven and earth both, is going to bless us out of Zion. We lift up our hands in the sanctuary, blessing Him, and He blesses us out of His sanctuary, blessing us. He works through His church.

This psalm is likely by David, which means that he was composing a psalm for use at the Temple on Moriah by faith, and that he apparently felt free to use the name of Zion.

This is a very basic liturgical movement. We all assemble in God’s presence, at the heavenly Jerusalem, in the city of the living God, on the slopes of the heavenly Mount Zion (Heb. 12:22). We come to the house of God, and at the conclusion of the service, we all lift our hands, as this psalm says, and we bless the Lord. We sing a doxology of praise. We bless the Lord. And then I, as a designated minister, raise my hands a declare a benediction, a blessing, through which you receive the blessing of God.

This is not a trite verbal exercise, like saying bless you when someone sneezes. When you receive the benediction of God by faith, something substantial is being placed across your shoulders. You are supposed to carry the weight of that goodness with you throughout the week. And what is that goodness that is so weighty? What is it that God wants you to carry around until next Sunday? He wants you to carry around His favor. He wants you to take it with you everywhere you go.

We are a gathering of forgiven sinners, and as far as our sanctification goes, nothing much can be done with us unless we are making a pilgrimage to Heaven once a week. Never forget that you are worshiping the God of Heaven and earth in two places—in Heaven and on earth. When the call to worship pronounced, and we all stand, the Spirit gathers us up and the spiritual roof retracts, and we are brought to the heavenly Zion. “But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels” (Hebrews 12:22).

GOD OF NATURE, GOD OF GRACE

The Creator God is certainly capable of blessing us. He made heaven and earth, after all. We therefore know that He can bless us. But we are in covenant with Him—He is Jehovah, Yahweh, the God of the covenant, which means that He is the God of grace. And as the God of grace, He has promised to bless us. Not only can He bless us, He will bless us.

And how has He done this stupendous thing? There is only one answer, only one possible answer. The great Puritan preacher, Richard Sibbes, once answered the question of whether preachers should preach anything but Christ. He replied, “Nothing but Christ, or that tends to Christ.” He is the entirety of our message, but this does not bind us up in a cramped space. This Christ we preach is Lord of Heaven and earth.

“For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea. For all the promises of God in him [in Christ] are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us”

2 Cor. 1:19–20 (KJV)

“Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve [worship] God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.”

Hebrews 12:28–29 (KJV)

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A Covenant Primer (Further Up #9)

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INTRODUCTION

As we consider our moment in history, it is important that we not lose sight of the way God has always dealt with His people over the course of history: through covenant. Covenant is the name of the relationship God has determined to have with His people and ultimately the whole world. But because of who God is, the dominant theme is death and resurrection – which means that God will always keep His promises. We keep covenant in history by believing that.

THE TEXT

“Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should omake the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise. Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Gal. 3:16-24).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Paul has been explaining covenant history to the Galatians who have been “bewitched” into going backwards, covenantally speaking (Gal. 3:1, 2:18). Specifically, they have succumbed to the Judaizing heresy that wanted to accept Christ as Messiah but continue under the Old Covenant, making distinctions between Jews and Gentiles, circumcised and uncircumcised (Gal. 2:12). Paul’s argument is that God does not forget or annul any of His promises (Gal. 3:16-18). What God was doing in the time of the law has to be understood in terms of what God began to do with Abraham. The law is not opposed to the promises of God, but it was a schoolmaster to bring us to maturity in Christ (Gal. 3:19-24).

THE COVENANT SCHOOLHOUSE

Paul uses the term “law” somewhat interchangeably with the Mosaic law and the Old Covenant. Clearly he’s talking about Moses in Gal. 3:17, but as he goes on, he seems to be talking about the entire Old Covenant leading up to Christ (Gal. 4:21-22), the era of “tutors and governors” (Gal. 4:2). This image underlines the fact that God’s covenants do not expire and become obsolete and therefore maturity means understanding how they were preparation for growing up into our inheritance in Christ (Gal. 4:7).

The first covenant was made with Adam, and it is called the Covenant of Creation (or sometimes the Covenant of Life or Covenant of Works). While Genesis 2 doesn’t use the word “covenant” all the elements are there, and Hosea says, “But they like men/Adam have transgressed the covenant…” (6:7). A covenant is an agreement between two or more persons, sovereignly administered, with attendant blessings and curses. We can add to this basic definition the common practice of giving covenant signs and seals. In the Covenant of Creation with Adam, the agreement was that Adam would live forever under God’s blessing as he was perfectly obedient to the commands of God, but if he ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, he would surely die. The Tree of Life functioned as the sign and seal of the covenant.

THE COVENANT OF GRACE

The Covenant of Grace is what we call the overarching covenant that God made with Christ after Adam sinned. The promise is that the seed of the woman will one day crush the seed of the serpent (Gen. 3:15), and the requirement is that Adam believe. The sign of God’s covenant promise is the skins God clothed them with (Gen. 3:21). Within this one, overarching Covenant of Grace are the Old and New Covenants, and within the Old Covenant are a number of covenant renewals that function as those schoolmasters and tutors: covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and Ezra. In each covenant era, the previous covenant is not annulled, but each one functions as a teacher to bring us to Christ. Think of it as one overarching story, or like a math course where the lessons are cumulative.

What God taught us in the Noahic Covenant is still true: the death penalty is still applicable for murder, and God will never destroy the world again with a flood. But God came and expanded that covenant to include particular promises to Abraham and his seed for the blessing of all the nations of the earth. Likewise, God remembered that covenant with Abraham and brought Israel out of Egypt and gave them the law and the tabernacle. And then God gave them kings and the temple, and after exile, He renewed covenant once again under the leadership of Ezra, teaching His people how to be faithful in an era of pagan empires. All of these covenants are talking about Christ. He is the seed of the woman, the ark of the gospel, the seed of Abraham/the heir of the world, the Word made flesh who “tabernacled” among us, the Son of David, the true Temple, and our teacher (cf. Lk. 24:27).

COVENANT & SALVATION

Two additional points emerge from reading the Bible this way: First, faith has always been the way of salvation. The Old Covenant saints were saved by believing God’s promises to send the Seed who would crush the head of the serpent, and in the New Covenant we are saved by believing that Jesus is the Seed that has crushed the serpent on the cross. Second, the New Covenant is not made out of stainless steel. It is a new and better covenant, the final covenant, that is far more potent and glorious (Jer. 31) that will fill the whole world, and our election is absolutely sure (e.g. Rom. 8:35), but the Bible teaches that we stand in this certainty by faith alone. New Covenant members can fall away just like in old Israel (1 Cor. 10, Jn. 15, Heb. 10).

CONCLUSION: THE FAITH THAT OVERCOMES THE WORLD

Fundamentally, saving faith is faith in the God of resurrection: “He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able to perform” (Rom. 4:19-21). The same faith was on display when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac (Heb. 11:19). This was the faith that overcame the world through obedient deliverance and suffering (Heb. 11:34-37). It is the same with covenant history: God takes His people (and the world) into graves and out again.

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Permit the Children

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INTRODUCTION

This is a remarkable period in the history of our congregation. We have never seen growth like this before, and all of us are getting used to the new situation. Of course, those of you who have moved across the country to join us—welcome. In one sense you are refugees, but in a more fundamental sense, you are reinforcements. This is a new community for you, a new setting, a new set of friends, the works. Your experience of church is very different from what it was. But the same thing is true of all you old-timers. You are attending a very different church also.

Believe it or not, there are some things about Christ Church that take some getting used to. Some of them are trivial, and some of them are practices that we consider to be very important. Consider this message as an orientation to one of our customs that we believe to be crucial, and it is the one that has to do with the relationship of our children to the congregation.

THE TEXT

“And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them” (Mark 10:13–16; cf. Matt. 19:13-15; Luke 18: 15-17).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

This is a famous incident, recorded in all three of the synoptic gospels. Young children were brought to Jesus, so that He might “touch” them. What touching meant to Jesus is seen in how He responded. He took the children into His arms, placed His hands on them, and blessed them (v. 16). In Matthew, He laid hands on them (Matt. 19:15). In the Luke account, we see that coming to Jesus can be accomplished when someone carries you there because the word used of the children there is brephos, the word for infants. In all three accounts, the disciples were busy grown-ups and rebuked those who brought the children. “The Rabbi is a very busy man . . .” In the Mark account, it says that Jesus was greatly displeased with this. If you want to get that reaction from Christ, then try to get in between Him and a child being brought to Him. In all three accounts, Jesus requires us to allow the children to be brought to Him. The reason He gives is that “of such is the kingdom of God” (v. 14). He does not say anything like “children are a theology-free zone.” And in addition to all that, He teaches us that children do not have to become more like adults to come, but rather that adults need to become more like children in order to enter the kingdom (v. 15). Like the disciples in the story, we often get this backwards.

SOME QUICK BACKGROUND

You will have noticed that our children gather to worship the Lord together with the rest of us. We all gather together. Your children are most welcome, fidgets and all. On those occasions when you need to deal with any moral disorder that broke out in your row, then please feel free to escort your child outside. That is the sort of thing that we take in stride, and pretty much everyone here has been in your shoes.

The keys of the kingdom are held by the elders of the church, and not by the fathers. It is the responsibility of our session of elders to guard the purity of the Word and the integrity of the sacraments. If your child is baptized, he is welcome to come to the Table together with the rest of us. If your baptized child is three months old and conked out in the car seat, don’t feel like you have to wake him up for the Supper. But when he is on your lap, tracking with the service, and he notices the tray going by and wants to partake, please don’t restrain him. But at the same time, because this is not a unilateral family decision, please let your parish elder know that your child is now partaking. And if you have a child who is not baptized, but who believes in Jesus, he is still welcome to the Table with us—but he should be baptized first. He is welcome to sit at table with us, but the way to the dining room table is through the front door—which is baptism.

OUR BAPTISMAL COOPERATION AGREEMENT

The Confession of Faith for Christ Church is the Westminster Confession, but in addition to that we have what we call a baptismal cooperation agreement, which stipulates an allowed exception. In other words, for about 25 years we have successfully navigated and allowed for our differences on baptism, those differences being Presbyterian and Baptist. But at the same time, we have also cultivated a church community that is a welcoming place for the children. This issue is related to the doctrine of baptism, but it is not identical with it. One of the things we want to insist on is that all of you join with us in welcoming the children.

Some of you newcomers come from generic Baptist backgrounds, and others from a more defined Reformed Baptist background. You are most welcome here, but to get straight to the point, so are your kids. We can accommodate differences on baptism, but we don’t want to accommodate ungodly extrapolations from Baptist premises, or from Presbyterian premises, for that matter. An example of the latter would be, “Yes, he is serving 5 to 10 for armed robbery, but he is a good boy. He was baptized once, and we are hopeful that something good will kick in sometime.” An example of the former would be, “Daddy, I love Jesus . . .” “Let us be the judge of that, kid. Don’t you remember that lie you told three years ago?”

COME, AND WELCOME, TO JESUS CHRIST

This is not a religion club or a theology society that meets on Sundays. We are the body of Christ, and so coming to worship the Father here means that we are coming to and through Christ. We come to the Father in the power of the Spirit, traveling the road who is Christ. We are traveling Christ the Way all together. And as we travel in that way, we want to take great care not to place a stumbling block in the road for any of our little ones.

“And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea” (Mark 9:42).

Quite apart from the doctrine of baptism itself, it is therefore a baseline assumption for our congregation here that it would be far better for us to admit a false professor to our membership than it would be to exclude a true brother. This is an assumption that we want to see cultivated throughout the congregation—because we don’t want Christ to be greatly displeased with us.

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