Refreshing unity?
Psalm 133 is a very short, rather quirky Psalm. It begins straightforwardly enough: “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity.” So far so good – and I hope that this weekend at home together has been “good and pleasant” in all sorts of ways. It is the next verse which doesn’t quite do it for me: David says this unity is “like precious oil poured down on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard, down on the collar of his robe.” David makes a really big deal of this, and you can almost feel the oil as it runs down over Aaron’s head, down his beard and onto the collar of his robe. But to me it all sounds really sticky and messy, and I just know it’s not coming out until I get in the shower!
Actually, though, Aaron was Israel’s High Priest and David is singing about Aaron’s ordination when precious oil was poured over his head. The oil was incredibly luxurious and sweet-smelling, and probably wonderfully refreshing in a dry and dusty land where you wouldn’t have got a decent shower. Much more importantly, however, it was a sign that Aaron now belonged to God, that he was “holy”, set apart for God.
David’s point in this Psalm is that in our fractious, confused world where relationships so quickly break down, Christians living together in unity is at once a refreshing, life-giving, sweet experience – “blessing” (v. 3) – and a sign to the world that we belong to the God who reconciles the world to himself. That is why we have weekends together like this: because, by God’s grace, spending time together should refresh us and energise us, and because it shows the world that we have a great unifying God!