What does Psalms Chapter 133 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Servants standing in house and courts are called to bless. Hands are to be raised to holy places in nights. The Maker’s blessing from Sion remains requested.

Chapter breakdown

Ecce nunc benedicite is the incipit; the heading exhorts continual praise and the inscription is a gradual canticle. All the Lord’s servants standing in His house and God’s house courts are called to bless Him. Priests, Levites and guards are not specifically identified in these verses.

They are called to raise hands to holy places in nights and bless the Lord. No sleeping city, inner sanctuary location, unbroken beacon or completed night-watch routine is narrated.

The speaker asks the Lord to bless the addressee out of Sion, identifying Him as heaven and earth’s Maker. Requested blessing is not a witnessed reciprocal reward for a vigil already performed.

The story inside

Opening: Servants standing in house and courts are called to bless. Development: Hands are to be raised to holy places in nights. Conclusion: The Maker’s blessing from Sion remains requested.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Servants standing in house and courts are called to bless.
2
Hands are to be raised to holy places in nights.
3
The Maker’s blessing from Sion remains requested.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 66353–66357
133:1. Behold now bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord: Who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God. 133:2. In the nights lift up your hands to the holy places, and bless ye the Lord.
Lines 66359–66360
133:3. May the Lord out of Sion bless thee, he that made heaven and earth.