Just over a year ago Psalm 133 was used as a devotion at the
local minister’s association. It seemed relevant and poignant as here were a
widely diverse group of church leaders gathering together, meeting regularly
for fellowship over lunch…
It got me thinking, is this really what the Psalm is saying
is the unity that commands God’s blessing? Or does it call for something
deeper? It got me thinking about the psalms of ascent and what they might have
to say, how they build to the point where this psalm about unity and community
is the last, the climax, before there is a benediction and the collection
finishes. They are important questions because as EM Blaiklock says, ‘humanity
has seldom known Unity.’
The underlying image for unity in the first line of Psalm
133 is adult brothers with their own families living together, working the
family farm, tending the family flocks. That was the corner stone of the Jewish
agrarian society… But even then, scripture
tells us that this image of brothers together isn’t always ideal. Just think of
Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, joseph
and his brothers, even Jesus had his brothers and family come and try and take
him away from his messianic ministry, as they were concerned about his mental
health.
At the heart of it of course is the realisation that our
faith is not a private individual thing, rather that being called into a
relationship with God is being called into community. Jesus was asked what is
the greatest commandment, to which he replied to love the Lord Your God, with
all our hearts and minds and souls, and was quick to add, before anyone could
make it a private devotional thing, and love your neighbour as yourself. We
proclaim that each time we gather together for worship, and demonstrate it as
we show love to each other between times.
When you look at the Psalms of ascent there is a
progression, a spiritual journey that lays the basis for that picture of unity
amongst God’s people. It starts with a common discontent. A common journey, taken
with the common protection and guidance of God. The realisation that we
individually share the common experience of dependence on God, on his saving us
from the traps and trials, We share common pains and sorrows and the common
hope of God’s abiding presence and grace, that all good gifts come from God and
his providence. Eugene Peterson sums it up by saying “how great to have
everyone sharing a common purpose, travelling a common path striving towards a
common Goal, that path and purpose being God.’
AS Christians we share a common spiritual poverty, a common
saviour, in Christ we from all over and everywhere have become sons and
daughters of the most high God, we are
filled by the same spirit, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, “our community with one
another consists solely in what Christ has done.’
Of course, you just have to look at Church history to see
that keeping that pleasant living together in unity takes hard and arduous
work. Paul writes to the church in Corinth, which is beset by divisions and
factions, He writes to the church in Philippi in part to encourage two church
leaders who have fallen out to be reconciled. The Epistle to Philemon is asking
for a runway salve to be reconciled to his master, because know both are
beloved brothers and partners in the gospel. The rest of church history seems
to follow a similar pattern and struggle.
Eugene Peterson suggests the two word pictures that psalm
133 uses to describe God’s people living together in unity give us insight in
how to hold on and work at that Unity…
The image of oil being poured over the head of Aaron comes
from Exodus 29, and is Aaron being ordained and anointed as a priest. We are a
priesthood of all believers When we view the other person as a priest set aside
for God and as God’s anointed our relationship is profoundly changed. They
become people that God has bought into our lives to minister God’s grace and
word to us. A source of God’s grace given in Christ.
If you’ve woken up on a camping trip and unzipped the tent
and every blade of grass glistens and shines with the dew that has fallen over
night, you are aware of the freshness and newness that the image of dew falling
on Mt Hermon has. When we have the expectation that God will do new things in people’s
lives there is the ability to have unity. In Christ’s abiding presence by the
Holy Spirit that God is moving, making it possible to produce Christlike fruit,
just as the dew on Hebron provides the water for the fertile parts of Israel.
The final line of this Psalm says the lord bestows his
blessing even life for evermore… in our community of love in Christ we can
catch a glimpse of life lived in eternity with God. We read the conclusion to Acts
chapter 2 and the coming of the Holy Spirit and the result was a community
where peace was established because right priorities and relationships were
established. There was no want, there was shared joy and hospitality, God moved
in their midst and people from outside came to know Christ. It’s a glimpse a
foretaste of what eternal life is like. The best way to describe our triune
God, our three in one, is as a community of love, three beings so in unity they
can only be described as one, and salvation and eternal life is that we are
welcomed into that community of love, with God and with each other, here on
earth and for all time.
So my prayer is that we may grow in our love for one another
as we grow in our love for Christ, and people will catch the vision of the
kingdom of heaven in our midst.
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