Scripture
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!
~Psalm 133:1, NASB
Quote
By sticking together, snow flakes can stop traffic.
~Anonymous
This is the fourteenth of ascent Psalms written to encourage unity among God’s people as they journeyed to Jerusalem to celebrate together. It is a wonderful Psalm. The word ‘brothers’ can be translated ‘kindred’ and is by the NRSV. Peace and unity among the family is a precious thing as is unity among brothers. There is often jealously and rivalry among brothers: Cain and Abel are one example, Joseph and his brothers are another. David’s sons were at each others throats: their rivalry was so intense that two of them killed their own brothers [half-brothers]. I really like this Psalm and can’t wait to preach it.
UNITY IS A GOD THING. Unity comes down from above like the anointing oil or the dew. True Christian unity is a God-thing, not a synthetic man-made thing. If you had one hundred pianos in a concert hall: the only way to get them in tune with each other is to have one tuner and one tuning fork. If you try to tune piano two to one and then three to two, by the time you are finished, you will have 100 different tunes. Jesus is the tuning fork. For many years I thought my job was to get folks in tune with me but then I discovered the truth. My job is to get in tune with Jesus and encourage others to do the same. Man can create unity of a sort but it will be unity without harmony and we need both. You can tie two bobcats together by the tail and hang them across the clothes line: you will have unity but you will not have harmony.
UNITY IS A GOOD THING. I love the adjectives in this Psalm. The first is ‘tob’ {tove} and it means good or precious. It is used in verse 1 and 2. The second adjective is ‘na’em’ which means sweet, pleasant or pleasurable. In Judaism, kings, prophets and priest were anointed with oil. The oil would be poured on their head, then it would run through their beard on to their body. In the same way, God anointed the Church. Our head is Christ and He is the Anointed One. The precious anointing oil {Holy Spirit} runs from the head to the body. The second metaphor the Psalmist uses is the dew. I love the analogy of the dew. In the middle east, dew is a huge factor due to the dryness of the climate. It is the dew that refreshes the plants and keeps them alive. Without the dew, most of Israel would be a desert. Again, the dew is a symbol of the Holy Spirit: [1] He is faithful day after day to refresh us, [2] He works quietly without pomp or circumstance, [3] He comes from above, [4] He sustains us during the dry and difficult days and [5] He is a gift from God.
UNITY IS A GLORIOUS THING. As we said in the beginning, UNITY is rare. Families struggle with unity and so do churches. I think you will agree that our nation is divided as well. In my 38 years at DBC, I have never seen as much unity as I saw this past year and it is a GOD-Thing and a glorious thing. The Hebrew word for unity means to come together. It is a glorious sight when a church come together like we saw Sunday night. Unity gives power to our testimony. Christians have some much in common: we have the same LORD and Savior, the same calling, the same mission, the same Shepherd, the same baptism and the same purpose.
- Sorry, no veteran today. Having computer problems and did not want to go back to my building to finish the blog. Hope to be back on track tomorrow.
- Glorious day with temps soaring into the 50’s. Had a great time with Doug and brothers at lunch and got to see two good ball games last night with Brian’s JV team winning big and then Scot’s varsity winning a thriller at the buzzer. Caleb the slasher Bolton hit a 3 pointer to put DHS ahead. We beat a very talented East Limestone Team.
- Don’t you love THANKSGIVING WEEK.