A song of ascents; by David.

133 Look! How good and how pleasant it is
when brothers truly live in unity.
² It is like fine oil poured on the head,
which flows down the beard—
Aaron’s beard,
and then flows down his garments.
³ It is like the dew of Hermon,
which flows down upon the hills of Zion.
Indeed, that is where the Lord has decreed
a blessing will be available—eternal life. (NET version)

We’re in the home stretch now with this short burst of a psalm. Like when a marathon runner makes his last turn and can see the stadium up ahead, there’s a final push to make it in. There’s expectation here, but also a necessary reach.

In every triplet of this series of 15 ascent Psalms. we’ve seen specific need expressed in the middle psalm of its set of 3. The theme of each triplet ascends this way in the whole series. From ENTRY to TESTING to FRUIT to PERSECUTION and finally now to the dream of FINISH; the anticipation is heightened. But this last effort is the hardest. And all the more so because this is not a solitary song. It is not a singular race. This whole last triplet is a corporate expression now. Here it is a group, a family, a nation that needs to make it in together.

The Bible is honest about human effort, and especially the track record of brothers getting along well — not a pleasant picture! From the first set of brothers (murder), to Jacob’s sons (treachery), from David’s brothers and his sons to Jesus’ own brothers before His resurrection, we have conflict repeated. Unity is not a facile thing; it cannot be superficially pronounced especially for those who have to “dwell together”. Jews say about themselves “two Jews, three opinions”. How then does any group, hammering out differences, come to any place of real unity?

Unity is not one group silenced or cancelled so the other can claim peace. Coerced unity is the enemy’s game. True unity is hard and courageous work. It is the last battle, and was most on Jesus’ mind for his followers — and what He asked of His Father before He was arrested. Jesus’ torch, and His prophecies have been passed to us — wether we also get arrested or not.

Dr. Martin Luther King said it this way: “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools”

Unity means not to live in one’s own monologue but rather a teachable dialogue. And according to Rev. King, it takes the oppressed to have to bring the issue up. The ones comfortably in power won’t care to know otherwise. When a news anchor (former political strategist) says there aren’t two sides to the story, he is advocating for his monologue and has lost his way as an open minded “journalist”. Unity happens when two sides do the hard work of listening, of trying to respect, and coming to some kind of reasonable understanding.

“Come let us reason together” says the Lord. Think of that! Why would God even care to listen to our argument, our problem! And this is the key: no unity is possible without God’s help.

This core truth is evidenced in Psalm 133. The solution to our problem of unity only comes through Him, and when it does it is a true wonder. That’s why the Psalm begins with an exclamation of astonishment and humility. The resolution toward unity has to come from a source higher than any human’s meagre position.

Just as life is sustained by the material sustenance of water from on high, so also unity is sourced from above: a spiritual anointing from God. Both the material and the spiritual are illustrated in parallel here. Then Aaron is referenced: he was the first priest to the Hebrew nation. The human priest was simply not effectual until he was anointed by God with oil, and then symbolically that sustenance flowed from him to the group.

Simply and urgently put: human unity does not happen apart from God’s entrance into the situation, and our recognition of need so that He does, invited.