Psalms 133-135

Psalm 133 is a timely psalm for us to look at today.

We live in a time where division and disunity abound. There are a myriad of things that we can be divided on: race, religion, politics, sports teams, etc etc. We see it with every post, every news broadcast, almost every headline there seems to be an attempt to sow seeds of division. 

The church must be a breath of fresh air to a culture of division. There has to be something that transcends our differences and that must be the Gospel of Jesus! Satan knows the weak points of the church and plans to divide us because he knows we are weaker when we are divided and stronger when we are unified! 

Look at the 1st verse in this psalm, “Behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity.” Another translation says, “When brothers live in harmony.” Think about a song with me for a minute. Notes played by themselves and are not arranged in a unified fashion, sound like noise and chaos. When notes are arranged in a certain order, put to a certain tempo, then they make music, melodies and harmonies that are pleasing to the ear! 

The church of Jesus Christ should be like this! Apart from one another, singing our own notes we can just be noise to the world, but when we come together, unified around the gospel of Jesus, then we should be music to a divided world

The psalmist goes on and says in verse 2, “It is like the precious oil on the head, running down the beard, on beard of Aaron.” This is a picture of the anointing of Aaron as priest over the Israelites. The imagery is the covering over the whole head and face by the anointing oil. “As the anointing oil covered the face of Aaron, so unity should touch and scent every relationship among the people of the Lord.” 

The third picture of unity is in verse 3, “Like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For where the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forever more.” The dew was a source of water for the crops of the nation of Israel. The picture here is that God has given us a covenantal community which gives life to us and to those around us!

You see, Annistown Road Church is a unique church in that we have a diversity of races, and nationalities that come together to worship the Lord! Our church is, and should be, a picture to a lost, divided, and dying world of what unity can and should look like; of what life can look like! 

Satan will do anything to try to divide us and we must fight against it and love one another first and foremost! There will be opportunities to be divided over social justice issues, politics, worship styles, paint colors, carpet colors and the list will go on and on but we must chose the gospel and to love one another so that the gospel is louder than our differences! That our love is louder than what sets us apart! 

O church can’t you picture it! Close your eyes for a minute and see Revelation 7:9-10, “After this I looked and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

Lord please make it so today! “ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN!” Let us not forget that we are brothers and sisters first, bought with the blood of Jesus! Let us love one another like Jesus has loved us! We will be a Revelation 7:9-10 church who loves and is unified regardless of our differences because Jesus loved us even through we were lost in sin!