Psalm 133

The beauty of unity of the brethren is the theme of this brief but picturesque Psalm. It utilizes two vivid word pictures to depict the realities of brothers and sisters in the LORD living in harmony one with another. Which brings to remembrance all of the ‘one anothers’ of the New Testament, especally in the book of Acts.

The first verse opens with an attention getting ‘Behold’ calling for the reader to focus upon the truth to follow: ‘How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.’ The function word here is unity, which is the key to success for the local New Testament church.

The Lord Jesus Christ in John 17, His High Priestly Prayer before the Cross, employed this concept no less than five times as He request from His Father ‘that they may be one’ in v.11, twice in v.21, in v.22 and finally in v.23. Paul, in I Corinthians spent the first five chapters zoning in on unity in the church at Corinth showing that it is the first priority for without it there is nothing but a rebellious group of self-seeking individualists.

David, in this song of degrees, gives these two powerful illustrations, ‘the precious ointment...that ran down...Aaron’s beard...down to the skirts of his garments’ when he was anointed by Moses for his ministry to God as high priest, and ‘the dew of Hermon...that descended upon the mountains of Zion’ .

Both of these illustrations show the permeating abundance of flow, covering the entire surface upon which they fell. The emphasis of ‘going down’ is here three times using the same Hebrew word showing the rich diffusion of the anointing oil, a symbol of the Holy Spirit in the work of unity, and the full, complete manner in which the oil and dew were spread over the objects upon which they were blanketing.

This is how God wants the saints to ‘dwell together in unity.’ In full and abundant fellowship which completely covers their lives, yes, in fact it should be just as profuse and rich in likeness to these two appropriate illustrations used by David.

‘For there the LORD commanded the blessing, for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.’ It was upon ‘the mountains of Zion’ that the LORD pronounced the blessing of old, but it was also there on Mount Calvary that the Lord Jesus Christ suffered bringing to those who receive Him ‘life for evermore’. This is the ultimate blessing prophesied of here showing the ultimate blessing to everyone who believes.