Psalm 133

Psalm 133 is about "the blessing of unity." Very short psalm. I actually used this in my pre-marriage counseling, believe it or not. And it says,

A very short psalm. But a very important one to understand as it relates to the blessing of unity. And the psalm is simply saying, "that it's a good and pleasant thing when there is unity." And then he begins to speak of it using this picture of oil. Now, again, when you have guests come over to your house, I'm guessing you don't take oil and pour it over their heads. But they did that in biblical times. Even during the times of Jesus, they were still putting oil on people's heads. You'll remember when Jesus went into the house of a Pharisee, He said to him, "You didn't do this. You didn't give me a kiss of welcome. You didn't pour oil on my head." (Luke 7:44-46) It was not only a symbol of blessing, but it was meant to be a way of refreshing your guests. But it is also a picture of the work of the Spirit. When people were anointed for ministry, they would often have oil poured over their head. It was that "sign of blessing." But the Psalmist gives it a beautiful picture of this "cascading blessing." He says, "The oil is poured on the head running down upon the beard; running down upon the collar." And we have this picture of the blessing coming from the top down. And the picture here is of the time when Aaron was anointed and called to be the High Priest, the first High Priest of Israel. And yet he was just one man. You think, "Well, what's the picture of unity there?" No, it's the picture of blessing. Unity is like the picture of the "cascading blessing" of the LORD. And there's such a beautiful picture here about blessing that flows from the top down. And I share this with couples when they're getting married or about to. And I talk to them about, as husband and wife... I usually start off something like this. I say, "So let me ask you a question. Would you like your home to be blessed by the LORD?" And I've never had a couple yet say no. They all say yes. "Yes, of course. Yes, we want our home to be blessed by the LORD. Thank you." I say, "Well, do you want to know one of the ways that blessing comes?" "Sure!" Then we read this Psalm, and I tell them to stay united. Well, see, that's where the rub kind of enters into the whole equation because you get married for a while and you kind of forget about this whole blessing of unity, and you just want to be right. You get into an argument, and you just want to be right. And you want to dominate. And you want to say, "You're wrong, I'm right." And suddenly, you've given into this "disunity" that is no longer commanding the blessing of the LORD but is in fact bringing danger that is going to ruin the whole process. You guys remember what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 12? Let me remind you. We'll put it up on the screen here for you.

What Jesus was saying is, where there is a protracted lack of unity, ultimately, that thing will fall apart if you're not on the same page. That's what we call it today. Well, it's called "unity,” and God blesses unity. But the reason we don't have unity, Christians, is because of pride. We often are just so prideful about, my opinion, my way. "It's my way or the highway." And I force my opinion, or I'm not willing to listen to the opinion of another, or whatever the situation may be. And it just breeds disunity, disharmony and all the devastating things that can potentially go along with that. It's one of those things that we have to take seriously. We have to look at this thing seriously and understand that God blesses unity. There's a great danger with the opposite. He also speaks of it as the "dew of Hermon," which waters the plants, and trees, and so forth, on the mountain and brings blessing. We all love to see green, rich foliage, and the LORD uses this picture, as this picture of "unity" and the blessing that comes from unity. ---