top of page

Morning Manna | Psalm 133 | Dwell together in Unity

Writer's picture: Bro. Caleb TaftBro. Caleb Taft

Psalms 133:1-3

1 A Song of degrees of David. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! 2 It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments; 3 As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.



Our psalm starts with "behold" because unity is a rare treasure. As a man would stop in his tracks to watch some rare bird flying or some especially beautiful sunset, so does God stop us in our tracks to "behold" a rare treasure among his people, unity. This treasure is when brethren dwell together, that is when we who are in Christ are at peace and unity with the rest of the body. How Good and how pleasant is an exclamation, it is very good and very pleasant, it is a shame that we don't possess this treasure and enjoy its goodness and pleasantness more often. We have been reading about King David and In Israel there was unity when he came to Hebron to be anointed King,. All the men and all the tribes had it in their heart to make David King, The bible says they were of one heart to make him king, I believe we have as good a lesson on unity in those words as in all of Scripture. When we determine to make Jesus King then we will dwell in unity with those who have the same heart and how pleasant it will be.



The Psalmist says that Unity is like the precious ointment they anointed Aaron with. First, the head was anointed, then it ran to the beard, and then it went down to even the skirts of the garment. First of all the ointment was precious, that is it was a rare and expensive ointment, unusual and costly and therefore precious. We can have unity with the body of Christ because Jesus had unity with God the Father [John 17:21] That is what makes unity such a precious ointment, that it was so costly. Jesus paid for it with his own life, death, and resurrection. His high priestly prayer in John 17 is a prayer that as he is one with the Father, we would be one with Him. What a precious gift, what a perfuming Gift, the ointment for the high priest would be spiced with all manner of precious spices and would have a distinct scent. So is the unity of Christ spiced with all manner of his graces, unity has within it mercy, forgiveness, love, peace, joy, and many others and a life spiced with the graces of God will do as did this ointment, it will descend. The Oil did not ascend but it descended. It came from the head, then to the beard, and then it kept going downward until the whole body was anointed. So does unity it descends to even the lowest members of the body. In the Body of Christ, it matters not if you are the poorest or the richest when we dwell in unity we all have the same graces that Christ had. The poorest and the richest can joy and rejoice together, the old and young, the white and black oh the unity of Christ in the Body of Christ, How Precious and How good it is!



Our last illustration of unity is that it is like the dew of Hermon, that descends upon the mountains of Zion. Dew is a gift from heaven, every morning his mercies are new and we wake up to find the ground united under the dew given by God. Upon the mountain, it would fall first and because it was first it would accumulate throughout the evening until by morning time it would have accumulated so much that it begins to pour down the sides of the mountain and into the streams and rivers that would come down further into the surrounding towns being the gift of heaven in flowing torrents. Here again, we have another wonderful picture of the source of our unity, Jesus Christ the highest and greatest. His unity with the Father is the high peak of unity, He was one with the Father, it doesn't get any more united than that, and he was given the Spirit without measure, it was by the Holy Spirit that he was empowered to do all that he did, that is the source of Unity, the Trinity or the tri-unity of God. If Christ is our head then we too are one with Christ and therefore one with God, that is we are united to God. So when we are united with the Body of Christ we are living up to our heavenly position. Before we can practice the possibility of unity we need to see the reality of unity, that we are united in Christ because he is the source of Godly unity. So, draw near and behold this precious gift of unity. In the closing sentence of this Psalm, we are reminded that One-day peace and unity will flow from Mount Zion, Jerusalem, not as a spiritual metaphor to the body of Christ but in actuality. When Jesus sits on the throne and all the world is untied under his rule, this world will be untied under King Jesus in the ages to come. As David was brought to Hebron and all the people were united under him, soon and very soon the enemies will be defeated and Christ will sit on his throne and for the first time since the Garden of Eden, this world will dwell in unity with one another and her maker. 

11 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments

Rated 0 out of 5 stars.
No ratings yet

Add a rating
bottom of page