Psalm 133 - Church Unity in Christ
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
Thanks for being here today. We are in our Summer of Psalms series. We're on week seven. We already had seven weeks of Psalms. And we have a handful more, but we are just really enjoying diving into these different Psalms. And the Psalms are ordered very intentionally in the Bible, but I kind of like that we're just jumping around and we get to, keeps us on our toes a little bit, but we get to explore these different topics and these different characteristics of God through prayer and poem and lament. And it's just a beautiful picture of the Bible and of the gospel. And so I'm really, I've been enjoying it and I hope you guys have too. Today, we are gonna be in Psalm 133. Super long guys, it's a whole three verses, okay? But actually what I would love for us to do to start us off is if we could all just stand, if you're able and read this Psalm together. Pastor Chris mentioned this is a psalm of ascent. This is something that was sung by the people. So stand with us, it'll be on the screens. You can look at it in your Bible if you would like, but it'll be on the screens. “How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity. It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron's beard, down on the collar of his robe. It is as if the dew, ermine were falling on Mount Zion, for there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore. Amen.”
You may have a seat. Now, if you're like me, you might say, oh, hey, that first verse, that was really good. I like that one. What is going on with the rest of this chapter? We need some context, all right? So we'll get there. But I promise this chapter is actually really, really rich when we dig into it and just so hang in there, stick with me here. But just kind of as a little aside, if you are in your own Bible study and you're reading something like this, and you're like, what are they talking about? It's okay. Dig a little deeper, take some time. I had to Google a lot, all right? I had to look at commentaries and dig further than what was just on the service. The Lord is good and the Holy Spirit can speak to you with just a Bible. I believe that it is alive and it is active. But if you do come across something that you hear, just like, I don't know, take some time, read some commentaries, look at some credible sources, look at maybe the original meaning, 'cause sometimes things get lost in translation as we get to English. But take some time. Studying the Bible is not reserved for pastors and Bible scholars. We do not have the market on this. You guys have so many resources. I just really encourage you to take that time. And even as you hear us talk on a scripture, go home that week and dig in for yourself. We want you to own your faith and your Bible study. So I encourage you to do that as you come across things that maybe aren't as clear or you're struggling with. The Lord is so good. And if you ask Him, He will respond. He will speak to you and meet you where you're at. So for a little context of our chapter today, this is, as mentioned, a song of ascent. there's 15 Psalm of Ascent or Song of Ascent in the Book of Psalms. And these were meant as pilgrim songs or praise songs that the Jews sang as they went into Jerusalem for the festivals throughout the year. And Jerusalem is actually on a hill. So they were literally ascending to Jerusalem. And some traditions even say that the priests would sing them as they ascended the steps into the temple as well. But this idea was that they were praising on their way to praise God. They were worshiping even before they got to the temple and as they were ascending up to Jerusalem. So there's a variety of authors of these. They weren't all necessarily written together or at the same time or even by the same people, but they have been compiled in the book of Psalms together. It's Psalms 120 through 134. Those are the Psalms of ascent. So we're gonna look at a little bit closer here at these, at Psalm 133.
So let's just look at the first verse. How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity. Some other translations say how delightfully good when brothers and sisters live in harmony. Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. It's good. It is a good thing when God's people live in harmony and unity with one another. We live in a world and a culture where people make money off of divisiveness. between headlines and clickbait, they thrive on dividing us. But we are called to unity. Now, this doesn't mean we're going to agree on everything. Right? The church is made up of unique individuals, different personalities, preferences. And I would argue that actually lends to the beauty of the body of God and to our unity. So that's not a problem to have differences. but it can create some friction at times. The Bible says that iron sharpens iron, meaning we make each other sharper and better. But what happens when you sharpen iron, you get some sparks sometimes, right? So sometimes there might be some sparks in the body of Christ, but we still are called to unity. And it is good. It says it right here. It is good and pleasant. Now verse two and three need a little bit more context. We need to dive in a little bit deeper what David is talking about here.
All right, so let's look at two. It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron's beard, down on the collar of his robe. The purpose of oil in ancient times was often to welcome people into your home or into just to be welcoming. It was also meant to refresh or revive. It was a very dry climate, And so the oil literally helped to make you not so dried out. It was a welcoming act to anoint someone. And here, this particular verse is talking about Aaron, who was the first priest of the nation of Israel. He was the high priest. So when it's referring to the oil on Aaron, this was a special kind of oil. This was anointing oil. It represented holiness. It was used in atonement and sacrifices and to be put on the priest. And it was not to be replicated. It was unique, it was special. It was set aside or made holy for the purpose of the priest. So it is rare. And David here is comparing unity to this oil. Unity is precious and holy. The unity of the body of Christ is precious and holy. Theologian Charles Spurgeon said, "What a sacred thing must brotherly love be "when it can be likened to an oil "which must never be poured on any man "but on the Lord's high priest alone." That's how special it is. That's how important it is. It's different. It's set apart. It's holy. It's more than just getting along or putting up with each other. It's being unified in Christ. We also see here that unity is certainly good and pleasant.
We talked about that with verse one, but here David talks about the oil running down. And he says it three times, running down, running down and down. And the number three in the Bible is usually pretty significant. It gets your attention. It represents along with the number seven, perfection. And it wants you to know the importance or the certainty. It will happen. It is certain. And so this statement, it's validating, him repeating this is validating the claim that unity is good and pleasant. Certainly, for certain, unity of believers is good and pleasant. The oil is also really abundant. So we see that unity is an abundance from God. It talks about how the oil runs down from his head to his beard, to his collar. That's a lot of oil. (laughs) Right? And when we're talking about Aaron specifically, and the atoning oil and how special and rare it was, that would be a lot to use up of this really significant oil. But it is abundant, and it represents that it's a gift from God. So unity, it's an abundant gift from God. Lastly, unity is a sweet aroma. Have you all ever smelled essential oils, like pure essential oils? They're strong, right? They put off a strong scent. So imagine a drop of oil versus a covering of oil, literally dripping down. They would have smelled air and come in from miles away. Right? A couple of years ago, I think our scent, Oaks, is probably about two. I found, or I realized one of our essential oil bottles was missing. It's like finding a Sharpie without a cap on. It's a little nerve-wracking, you just never know what's happening. And so I'm like, "Okay, got to find this bottle of oils, we don't have oils, what's going on?" So I'm looking around the house, and I walk by one of the kids' rooms, and I smell it. And I'm like, "It's in there." So I go in, and I'm literally just sniffing, following my nose, trying to find this bottle of essential oil. And thankfully, I found it, and it wasn't a huge mess, and the Lord provided. we were able to find it, but I had to rely on this scent in order to find it. Unity of the body of Christ is a sweet aroma. When we are unified in Christ, we put off a scent to the rest of the world. It's an aroma to God as an offering to Him, but it also lets the world around us know that we are different. Now the inverse can be true. If we are divisive, if we are causing problems, if we are creating division, we are going to be a stench to the world. But if we live in Christian unity, if we follow the biblical way of living with each other, It can be a sweet aroma to those around us. It'll get people's attention. It'll be inviting, it'll be welcoming. And hopefully, ideally, it'll point people to Jesus. Now, just to be sure that we know that unity is beautiful and good, David gives us one more analogy.
Verse three, it says, "It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion, "for there the Lord bestows His blessing, and even life forevermore. Had to Google Mount Hermon and Mount Zion, it's fine. You know, it's okay. But what I found is Mount Hermon was actually really known for its dew. It produced a lot of dew to the point where they would wake up with wet tents in the morning. So it was a lot of dew, lush greenery. But Mount Zion and a lot of Israel in general, it's just dry. And so David is likening the dew of Mount Hermon of Mount Hermon to the unity, as if it were coming down and refreshing the rest of Israel. Dew is meant to refresh and revive. It's meant to encourage growth and life and vegetation. And David is saying that's the same as the unity of believers. The dew of Mount Hermon didn't literally come down and water Israel or water Mount Zion. But it's this metaphor of the abundant-ness, of the impact of surrounding areas that our unity as believers can have in our own lives, in our families, in our communities. It goes far and wide. And if the church isn't unified, we will bring chaos. We will bring discord. And I would argue we will bring spiritual death to the world around us. But our unity can bring life and refreshment to ourselves, to our own souls, and to those we encounter. The end of verse three says, "For there the Lord bestows his blessing, "even life forevermore." This word bestows also can mean commands or a point. So it's not a recommendation. It's not a suggestion. The blessing of unity is a command. There are many reasons that we have to live in community. Some more obvious than others, but he lays one out here, life forevermore, eternity. We are going to be unified in eternity forevermore. So why not start now? If the church is a picture of heaven, then we should be practicing unity now. We should be unified in Jesus right now. It's just a taste of what's to come, and it's gonna be so much better, but it can be good now too. So how do we practice Christian community, or Christian unity? We know that it's good. The Bible says it is. It's good, it's pleasant, it's commanded, it's desirable, we should want it. but how do we actually practice it? Well, I came up with a few ways. This is not an exhaustive list by any means, but you're gonna want lunch.
So we're gonna try to keep it to just a minimum here. But these are what I feel like are pretty foundational, that in order to have unity within the body of Christ, we need these. We need to have these things in order for us to practice Christian unity. The first one is we have to abide in Christ. We have to abide in Christ. And I mean that more on an individual basis. Obviously, communally, we can do that, but if we are individually, in our own walks with Jesus, abiding in Him, that is going to lend itself to Christian unity. In John 17, Jesus has a very extensive prayer where He is lifting up His disciples, And then he prays for all Christians, all those that are coming in the future. And in verse 20, starting in verse 20, he says, "My prayer is not for them," meaning the disciples, "alone. "I pray also for those who will believe in me "through their message," that's us, "that all of them may be one, Father, "just as you are in me and I am in you. "May they also be in us so that the world may believe "that you have sent me. "I have given them the glory that you gave me, "that they may be one as we are one, "I in them and you in me, "so that they may be brought to complete unity. "Then the world will know that you sent me "and have loved them even as you have loved me." The Bible says they will know us by our love and that involves unity. The Trinity is one. And just like that, we are to model, the church is to model that we are to be in Christ, abiding in Him. And through that, we are one, just as the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one. A few, or a couple of chapters earlier in John 15, he talks about being the vine. Starting in verse five, it says, "I am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit apart from me, you can do nothing. He goes on to say in verse nine, "As the father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love just as I have kept my father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this, love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. When we are abiding in Christ, we will bear the fruit of the Spirit. Because we are one with Him, He can work in our lives to move and transform and to produce really good fruit. When we are producing or experiencing the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control all laid out in Galatians. When we are producing that fruit, unity is not only possible, but I think it's actually even easier. When we abide in Christ, we make ourselves available for the Holy Spirit to produce that fruit in our lives. And when we are loving, when we are peaceful, when we are patient and self-controlled, we get to be unified with other believers.
The second way that I think is really foundational to this is to be an active and humble part of the body. Romans 12, Paul talks a lot about this in Romans 12, This idea of being the body of Christ. Verse four through five says, "For just as each of us has one body with many members, "and these members do not all have the same function, "so in Christ, we, though many, form one body, "and each member belongs to all the others." Did you catch the last part? We belong to each other. Body parts have to work together. If you got one leg walking this way and one leg walking that way, you're gonna have problems. We have to work together. We have to be a unified body. Now that doesn't mean, again, we're not all doing the same thing. We can't all lead worship. We can't all be in children's. We can't all run tech. We all have different gifts. But we have to work together. We're gonna have differences. We're gonna have struggles. We're gonna have different disagreements and conflicts. That's expected because we're human in a fallen world. But if we are truly being active and humble in the body of believers, it will create unity. Verse nine and 10 of Romans 12 says, "Love must be sincere, hate what is evil, "clean to what is good, "Be devoted to one another in love. "Honor one another above yourselves." We have to be humble in order to love and honor others. It's really hard to love other people and honor other people when we are not humbling ourselves enough to do so. Paul is encouraging believers here to be devoted. Be devoted to brotherly love. Be devoted to Christian unity. be devoted to friendship within the body. Use your gifts, use the unique gifts and abilities that God has given you, but do so humbly and with the intent of loving your brother and sister in the Lord.
Lastly, I believe we're called to choose peace. As with any family, we're gonna have struggles. we're gonna have conflict. But when we handle these things biblically, when we assume the best in others and trust the Holy Spirit in each other, unity will be maintained. Choosing peace for the purpose of unity requires things of us. It requires that we, like I said, are assuming the best in others. It requires that we have healthy conflict resolution, not that we're just avoiding it or pushing it to the side, so that we're actually addressing it in a healthy and biblical way. We have to take issues directly to the person, not gossiping, not getting everyone on our side, but directly dealing with the problem or with the person that we have a problem with. It's listening to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And sometimes that means he's telling you, calling you to a holy hush. We just gotta shut our mouth sometimes, right? Sometimes we need to say something. And sometimes we need to shut our mouth. Amen? Amen. Okay. But it's listening to the guidance of the Holy Spirit on how He wants us to navigate conflict, on how He wants us to be peace bearers in our churches and in our communities and in our homes. It's understanding and knowing that we can disagree and be unified at the same time. They do not have to be, those can co-exist. they are not mutually exclusive. I can still love Jesus and have different preferences than you. I can still love Jesus and have different political views than you. I can still love Jesus and fill in the blank. And same goes for all of us. We're not always going to agree on everything, but if it is not sin and not going against the word of God, we can still be unified within the body. And I think we also, in order to choose peace, we have to be open to accountability, the iron sharpening iron. This can be tough, again, requires humility to be corrected, to be held accountable to what you say you're going to do or not going to do. But that is going to facilitate peace within the body of Christ.
Again, back to Romans 12. Paul has a lot to say about this. Verse 18 says, "If it is possible, "as far as it depends on you, "live at peace with everyone. "Do not take revenge, my dear friends, "but leave room for God's wrath, "for it is written, it is mine to avenge. "I will repay," says the Lord. "On the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. "If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. "In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. As far as it depends on us, live at peace with everyone. You can't control anybody else. You can control yourself. You can choose to live at peace, to choose peace in a situation, not avoiding conflict, that is not what I'm saying, but doing so biblically will promote peace in your own heart, in your own life, in your relationships, and in the body. It's our responsibility to be peace bearers. That when we enter a room, a space, a group of people, that we are bringing the peace of Christ. Again, there's going to be conflict. There's going to be disagreements. There is going to be struggles. Well, we're in an election year, and we all saw what happened yesterday. There is evil in the world. There is differing opinions. But if people are on the outside looking in, which they are, we have to be unified, because people are looking for something. They are looking for acceptance and love and an answer and a savior, I promise you there is not a presidential candidate on the face of this earth that is our savior. They are looking for people to accept them and to love them and to show them the way, to show them what peace looks like, what true peace that passes understanding looks like. And if they look at the body of Christ and they see discord and division, You're not gonna come looking for Jesus. So we have an obligation, we have a responsibility to choose peace, to choose unity, to choose healthy, biblical, conflict resolution because it is good and it's pleasant. It is abundant. It is so beautiful. This chapter may have only been three verses, but we learned that it is an abundant gift from God. It really certainly is good and pleasant. It's a sweet aroma to the world around us. It refreshes ourselves and our spirits. It glorifies God. And it's a picture of heaven and what's to come in eternity. So let's practice unity together, friends. Amen? Amen, pray with me.
Jesus, we thank you for this truth, for this command to be unified in you. God, I pray over the church, both Spring Valley and the church globally, that you will unify us. God, that we will choose unity in Christ over division, over personal preference, over affiliation with certain groups or peoples. God, you have created us uniquely with different gifts and different abilities, and we praise you for that, and we honor you with those things, God. But may we choose unity over our individual personal preferences. May we seek you. May we seek your peace. God, you are the king. You are the prince of peace. You are on the throne. Through you, unity is possible. And Lord, as people struggle with the world around them or with mental health or feelings that they don't belong, God, I just pray that as they seek answers, that they will see a unified body of believers who are doing their best to bring glory to you and point people to Jesus. God, we thank you for this body of believers, for this Spring Valley family. We are so grateful that you have given us these people to worship you with, to do life with, to sharpen ourselves with. God, I just pray for unity in our church and in the church globally. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.