Psalm 134

1 Oh, praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, you who serve at night in the house of the Lord.
2 Lift up holy hands in prayer, and praise the Lord.
3 May the Lord, who made heaven and earth, bless you from Jerusalem

Ever work the swing shift? or the midnight shift? the Temple actually had a night shift.

I worked a swing shift at a grocery store and a midnight shift at a dairy. By their very nature, these shifts seem to be less productive. At the grocery store we probably had five customers between 10:00 pm and midnight...hardly enough to pay the light bill. At the dairy, I was the only living being in the plant. My job was to make certain dairy products were either started, or finished, for the morning crew.

Lots of idle time...with very little to do...and no supervision to invent chores.

Christians have a lot of idle time in their spiritual lives. Let's see...church at 9:00 on Sunday. Yup, that's about it. The rest of the time I'm on my own with my spiritual life.

How do I spend my idle spiritual time?

"Those of you who work the midnight shift...lift up holy hands and praise the Lord!" Well, technically our Psalmist was speaking to those Levites who served in the Temple. But, we get the point. Pretty much any time in our week between two Sunday worship services could be called the "midnight shift" in our personal temple.

So...what are we doing? Does rushing home to watch the NFL constitute "praising the Lord?" I know it involves "lifting up our hands!" (holy or not).

I believe the challenge of the psalm is simply this: during our week, we may not feel we are in a position to formally study scripture, or theology, or doctrine...we lack the expertise and the resources. However, there is nothing to prevent us from praising God.

And...since our idle spiritual time is such a significant portion of our lives...it seems our whole lives ought to take on the character of praising God. Do our friends know us as God praisers? When asked if they know Lee Thompson, would my friends at work say "oh, yes...he's the guy that runs around praising God all day?"

It should be the case. And then, "may the Lord who made heaven and earth bless you..."

Live boldly out there today...