Circle of Blessing
15th Sunday of Pentecost September 21, 2025
The texts for this sermon are Revelation 5:13, Luke 1:67-75 and Psalm 134
We close our series on the Psalms of Ascent with its final pilgrim song. This song expresses in lyrics a theme that resonates and repeats throughout the Old Testament and, in fact, is carries through into the New.
It begins with the word ‘Bless’. This call to bless is first introduced in Genesis 12 when God calls Abraham:
Go forth to the land which I will show you and I will make you great
nation and I will bless you….You be a blessing.
God reaffirms this promise in Genesis 22:17
Indeed I will greatly bless you and I will greatly multiply your progeny
In Gen 28:3 Isaac blesses Jacob
And may God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you
Then in Gen 32:26 we have Jacob demanding a blessing from the one with whom he wrestled when he says
I will not let you go unless you bless me.
In Numbers 6:24 we have the great blessing of Aaron, a blessing God composes for Aaron to speak to the people:
The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make the Lord’s face to shine on you and be gracious to you.
The Lord lift up the Lord’s countenance upon you and give you peace.
Upon entering the Promised Land for the first time, God instructs the people saying
When you have eaten and are satisfied [in your new land]
you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land
which God has given you.
And then in Nehemiah 9:5-8 centuries have passed and they have forgotten this command; they haven’t blessed God or others. Then a scroll is discovered buried in the walls of the temple and when they unroll and read it, they are awakened to their sin. An assembly is called of all the people and the people confess their sin:
Then the Levites said:
Arise, bless the Lord your God forever and ever! O may Your glorious name be blessed and exalted above all blessing and praise! Thou alone are God. You have made the heavens. The heaven of heavens with all their host, the earth and all that is on it. The seas and all that is in them. You did give life to all of them and the heavenly host bows down before You.
These are but a few examples of the word ‘bless’ in the Old Testament
In the New Testament we find it in Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew 5:
Blessed are those who are
humble in spirit
who mourn
who are gentle
who hunger for righteousness
who show mercy
who are pure in heart
who make peace
then in verse 44 Jesus concludes with
Bless your enemies and pray for those who persecute you
In Romans 12:14 the Apostle Paul reminds his readers to
Bless those who persecute you; bless and curse not
In James 3:9, the writer reprimands his readers by for their duplicity when, speaking of the tongue he says:
With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people
who have been made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth
come both blessing and cursing. My friends, these things ought not
to be this way.
These are but a few examples of this great theme woven throughout scripture.
The Hebrew word for ‘bless’ used in Psalm 134 is ‘bârak’ which means to kneel, to adore, to salute. The word ‘bârak’ was also used as a euphemism for ‘curse’ as in an act of treason.
So to ‘bârak’ is to kneel, to surrender, to recognize one’s proper place and posture in relationship to God and in this surrender, we render to God adoration and praise and gratitude; not doing so is akin to an act of treason--a profound betrayal.
Last Sunday, Psalm 133 called us to Behold. Behold! Awaken! Pay attention! Today Psalm 134 calls us to Come: to come and bless the Lord. Just as Behold was an emphatic command, the word Bless is also an emphatic, imperative call. It is a command. We are given no option. There’s no room for negotiation.
Who is to bless?
All who serve by night in the house of the Lord.
In Nehemiah the confession was led by the Levites; the tribe set apart to serve God’s house. The psalmist is making reference here to the Levites but in this case, they stand as a symbol of the People of God---all of God’s people serve God’s house. All of God’s people are to bless. We as believers are God’s people. We are to bless.
And how is it we bless? We turn your orientation to the sanctuary---we orient ourselves to that which is holy, that which is sanctified, approved of by God. We raise our hands---an image meant to describe our reaching out and forward toward that which is holy, that which is approved by God in both our attentiveness and our service.
This is a picture of concerted praise and adoration by kneeling before the God of all in surrender with willing and eager service—setting aside our own agenda in devotion to God’s agenda. And what is God’s agenda? How is it God says we’re to embody God’s will for heaven and earth? Through adoration, certainly, but an adoration that is expressed ‘in humble service to’ another. It is adoration through concrete, practical expressions of goodness to others.
In Romans 12 Apostle Paul gives a good summary of what this is to look like lived out in daily life.
I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
3 For by the grace given to me I bid every one among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith which God has assigned him. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; he who teaches, in his teaching; 8 he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who contributes, in liberality; he who gives aid, with zeal; he who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
9 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; 10 love one another with brotherly affection; outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Never flag in zeal, be aglow with the Spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints, practice hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; never be conceited. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 No, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
In this text, Paul describes what this posture of blessing looks like.
So let’s go back to verse 2 of Psalm 134. That sentence concludes with the same imperative command it began with Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord begins the sentence, it ends the sentence, it encircles.
Now we get to verse 3 and here we hear the most amazing thing. The psalmist writes
May the Lord bless you!
May the Lord who made heaven and earth. The Lord of all creation, look upon you and bless you.
The word bless here in verse 3 is the same one used in vs 1 and 2: ‘bârak’. May the God of all creation kneel before and seek your good. The Psalmist could have used a different word for bless, the one in Psalm 133 meaning to confer prosperity but the Psalmist chose ‘bârak’: to kneel.
God the Almighty kneels to us. God serves us. God sees to our good. Which is exactly what God did through Jesus the Christ, God Incarnate who, in the words of Philippians 2:
emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross… Therefore, my beloved… God is at work in you, both to will and to work for God’s good pleasure.
Do we comprehend this? Do we feel the gravity of this? The inexpressible glory of this?
We began this journey with the Psalms of Ascent where we awaken to our true situation, to the fact that we’re not living where God wants us to live; we’re not being all of who God wants us to be. So, we embark on a journey--a journey meant to take us to the place of forgiveness, of grace, of promise, of transformation, a journey to holiness. (Psalm 120)
But we soon run into rough terrain and we seek refuge in our old ways of coping when we realize we should depend on God to help us. (Psalms 121, 123) But this trust doesn’t come easily in that we still stress over our security but we remember that worry and stress are not helpful or God-honoring. (Psalm 126)
And so we change our posture and turn our whole-hearted attention on God like a devoted, eager servant. (Psalms 127, 128)
We align ourselves with others doing the same and we find ourselves in a community unified in its desire to serve God, discovering how good and nourishing such a community is. (Psalm 133)
And now, low and behold, we discover that the God to whom we’ve been attending turns and kneels before us, adores us, means good to us, showers us with forgiveness, love and a grace that rescues us, restores us, makes us whole, transforms us to who it is we are meant to be to God’s glory and the benefit of God’s heaven and earth—and all who dwell therein? (Psalm 134)
Is not that glorious good news? And whole-heartedly embracing it, will it not lead us forward?
Linda Quanstrom, Pastor
Cornelius UMC
Cornelius OR