Several of these psalms are labeled “a song of ascents” – this appears to indicate that these were songs that were sung by marchers in the procession as they were working their way uphill along the road up Mount Zion to come to the temple: ascending to the holy place.

Their songs include a lot of celebration. “How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1). The next line, about pouring oil over Aaron’s head until it runs off his beard (133:2) might not be all that appealing to us; but the extravagance of that much perfumed oil represented almost-unimaginable luxury in a time and place where most people were poor and no one had yet invented showers: and it represented the astonishing blessing ordained for us by our God: “life forevermore” (133:3).

The worshipful marchers call to one another, and to us, to offer up hearts fully devoted to God: “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). And in the marketplace of the gods of ancient times, they remind one another of the Lord’s full sovereignty over all. “I know that the Lord is great; our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the Lord pleases he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps” (135:5-6).

Worship thus puts us in touch with community, with eternal life, with celebration, and with confidence in God’s rule: and enables us to declare that God’s steadfast love endures forever. Indeed, every verse in Psalm 136 is a couplet where the second phrase is that specific line: “his steadfast love endures forever” (136:1-26). The goodness of God, seen in creation (136:4-9) and in history (136:10-22), prompts our hearts to “give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever” (136:26).

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Your abundant steadfast love does indeed endure forever, O Lord! You have been gracious to us, in our neediness and in our failures. You have fed us, and blessed us, and guided us. Give us hearts full of worship, we pray, and communion with one another, in the confidence of your sustaining grace, throughout our earthly days and unto life forevermore.

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