The Songs Of Ascent – Part 17 – Psalm 133 – Brethren Should Dwell In Unity: Good And Pleasant It Is Series

THE SONGS OF ASCENT – PART 17 – PSALM 133 – BRETHREN SHOULD DWELL IN UNITY: GOOD AND PLEASANT IT IS

Psalm 133 A Song of Ascents, of David

{{Psalm 133:1 “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!

Psalm 133:2 It is like the precious oil upon the head coming down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard, coming down upon the edge of his robes.

Psalm 133:3 It is like the dew of Hermon coming down upon the mountains of Zion for there the LORD commanded the blessing — life forever.”}}

PART A. VERSE 1

Along with Psalm 131 this is the shortest of the 15 Songs of Ascent but like all the Psalms there is a lot in all of them when we start to dig.

There really is only one thought here in this psalm and then two similes stemming from that. The main thought will occupy our biggest concentration. The Psalms of Ascent follow on from each other in a loose fashion but this one seems to have no connection with what precedes it except for one thing, and I think that is vitally important for this Psalm regarding its background.

Way back in the wilderness God appointed seven feasts for Israel but there was a special gathering later confirmed to be in Jerusalem the capital. It is described in this passage -

{{Deuteronomy 16:16-17 “Three times in a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses, at the Feast of Unleavened Bread and at the Feast of Weeks and at the Feast of Booths, and they shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed. Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you.”}}

Now not every male could possibly go to these three feasts three times a year but representatives from all over Israel did go. They would gather in small groups and as they met up, they joined until you had all these pilgrims travelling together and as they made their way up the slopes and into Jerusalem they would sing these Psalms. To a Hebrew, political and religious sentiments were always combined.

I understand that for a happy throng on the way to the feasts would be breaking out in spontaneous singing, praising the Lord. What a far cry from our nations today where in some places you’d be put in jail for causing offence if you rallied and sang to the Lord, even though the filthy, perverted Mardi Gras can blaspheme in a lot of countries and cause awful offence to Christians but no one listens to Christians.

We all have had the experience where we meet up with people we did not know when on holidays or at an event or on a cruise etc., and you all have a wonderful time. How much better all those meetings are, when we meet believers. Well this pilgrimage to Jerusalem was just like that.

Men shared their praise of Jehovah and sang together in joy. Some of that has come out in the studies we have done in these Psalms of Ascent. Now as the pilgrims are in Jerusalem at the Temple there is time for reflection on the journey, and also what it means to be together united in praise before the House of God that was the feature of the last Psalm.

Now we can see the reason why the Psalmist would have added this Psalm of David in the collection of these Ascent psalms. “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!” They were travelling in unity. They sang in unity. They praised in unity and they worshipped in unity, now at the Temple. When David wrote the psalm the Temple had not been built of course.

How applicable this Psalm is to the travelling pilgrims but is there any reason behind what caused David to write that statement about unity? Was it an observation or did it apply especially to him? It is said that David wrote the Psalm when his kingdom was established and it appeared to be one nation under God. That is the view of Spurgeon – [[ “This Psalm was composed by David upon the happy occasion of the ending of the civil war between the two houses of Saul and David; in which, having felt the sad effects of discord and division, both the king and people were more sensible of the great blessing of reconciliation and unity.” ]] David extols the benefit and excellence of the unity and brotherly communion of the faithful.

UNITY – FALSE AND TRUE

All that which opposes unity is one of the greatest tragedies of the human race. How many political parties go under a “Unity ticket” but none of them agree with each other? Trade unions with their slogan “All for one” march defiantly in the cause of socialism but they are bitter in trade union meetings – “Together, united, we’ll never be defeated,” is a common slogan for these left wing socialists “All for one and one for all,” is a slogan riddled with rhetoric but as false as a 9 dollar bill. The socialist left loves to sprout unity but it has such hatred manifest in division and disagreements, and that is because it hates God.