GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
PSALM 133 (NASB, New American Standard Bible)
Psalm 133
A Song of Ascents, of David.
This is the next-to-last of the fourteen Songs of Ascents (Psalm 134 is a benediction). It is “a celebration of the true unity and fellowship which God’s people enjoy when they gather in his presence” (Brug, p. 427). The cycle began with grief about the “deceitful tongues” among which our pilgrims were living “in Meshech… among the tents of Kedar,” which was “not so much a place as a region where Bedouin nomads ranged their flocks of sheep and goats east of the Jordan (Isaiah 60:7)” (Smith, Jeremiah Vol II, p. 355). Now the pilgrims have arrived at Mount Zion and the temple of the Lord, in the fellowship of those who are all worshipers of the same true God.
Some critics argue against David as the author of this and many other psalms. One of the arguments here is that the signature, “of David,” is missing from the Targum, or Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Bible. However, the Targum of the Psalms was written sometime between 600-800 AD, and the signature “of David” is present in the Dead Sea Scrolls manuscript 11QPs-a, which clearly says ldwd, “of David.” 11QPs-a was copied during the Herodian period of the early New Testament, between 30 and 50 AD.
Psalm 133 is probably too brief to outline, but we should notice the three comparisons. Now that the worshipers have arrived at the top of Mount Zion, completing their “ascents,” everything begins to run happily down from there: the oil down Aaron’s beard, the dew turning to streams running down the slopes of distant Mount Hermon, and the blessing of the Lord, running down on those in the fellowship: everlasting life.
1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
for brothers to dwell together in unity!
Saint Ignatius compared the unity of the church to the “the strings of a lyre,” or to a choir, where “by your unity and harmonious love, Jesus Christ is sung. Each of you needs to join this choir, so that in harmonious unity you can receive God’s pitch in unison and sing with one voice through Jesus Christ to the Father. He will hear you and recognize through your good works that you are members of his Son. It is to your profit that you be in blameless unity, so that you may always participate in God.” (Ignatius to the Ephesians 4:1b-2)
“Brothers” here does not refer to children of the same mother, but children of the same heavenly Father; brothers and sisters in the faith. These brothers can be complete strangers (“even though they are strangers to you,” 3 John 5), but they go through the same troubles on account of their faith. “You know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of suffering” (1 Peter 5:9). On account of our shared faith, we accept one another, forgive one another’s faults, and encourage one another to godly living.
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.
The same Hebrew word (tov, טוֹב) translated “precious” here is the word for “good” in verse 1. The good unity is like good oil.
When Aaron was consecrated to be high priest of Israel, he was dressed with a linen shirt or tunic and had a special robe with the sacred vest called the ephod (Leviticus 8:7). “Moses took the anointing oil and anointed him in the tabernacle and everything in it” to consecrate him and his sons (Leviticus 8:10, 12). Here, the oil is depicted running down his beard and down onto his robes. This was the oil that symbolized God’s blessing on his people, because God had established fellowship between himself and them. It’s easy to imagine the people looking at Aaron later on: “There he is, the one with the turban and the oil staining his robe!”
Although Bible interpreters “have long puzzled over the semantic (linguistic or logical) connection between brotherly unity, the fragrant oil upon Aaron’s beard, and the dew on Hermon’s slopes” (Dahood, Psalm 101-150, p. 250), it is clear to anyone with faith. Our connection with God is something God has accomplished through his grace. When brothers and sisters in faith recognize their fellowship, it’s like the fellowship granted to Aaron the first high priest, and it’s also like the blessing of dew on Mount Hermon—it’s a blessing that doesn’t stop. It’s a foreshadowing of the ultimate blessing that will not stop: everlasting life.
3 It is like the dew of Hermon
coming down upon the mountains of Zion;
for there the LORD commanded the blessing—
life forever. (NASB)
Mount Hermon is immense, visible from most of Palestine. Its summit is actually in Syria, but its foot rests near the border of Dan. It is called Mount Siyon (שִׂיאֹן) in Deuteronomy 4:48, which is not the same as Mount Zion (צִיּוֹן) here, although some older Bible dictionaries made that connection. Hermon rises from a hot desert ghor more than 10,000 feet. A 19th-Century author reported in the wordiness typical of the day: “The vapours exhaled by the sun from the vast swamps of (Lake) Huleh rise during the day to the higher regions, and, congealed by the snows of the mountain, descend nightly in most expedious distillation, saturating everything on its sides” (Tristram, Topography of the Holy Land [1871] p. 274). Another writer simply said that the dew of Mount Hermon makes it seem like there was a very heavy rain every morning.
This blessing of God reaches all the way to Zion—not the dew directly, and not only the water coming together as the Jordan River, but all of the many blessings of God. Like the oil of anointing and the joy of Christian fellowship, God draws us to himself along with all other believers of all times into one great cloud of witnesses; all the host of heaven standing on his right and on his left (2 Chronicles 18:18). We who confess Christ as the only Savior are one with them all. Some of our human stubbornness sets us apart from one another in this lifetime, but in the forgiveness and peace of heaven, we will be one forever and ever.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota