So, if you would turn in your Bibles this evening to the middle of your Bible, to the Psalms, to Psalm 133, Psalm 133, you'll find that on page 659 in the Pew Bible, Psalm 133. Last time, which was in June, we considered Psalm 132, and we reached the climax of the pilgrim's journey that brought them up Mount Zion from an unbelieving world through trials and toils and snares to Jerusalem and into the temple where they worshiped the Lord in his house. And this psalm tonight and our next one, Psalm 134, the last song of ascents, we find ourselves still in the house of the Lord worshiping. That's the context, the setting. In Psalm 132, the Lord made promises to Zion. We considered those, and one fruit of those promises is celebrated in Psalm 133, and that's the unity of God's people. It's a psalm of David, you'll see in the heading. Of course, we always try to figure out if David wrote it when, and I think there's a fair argument to say that he may have written it when Israel united around him to install him as king. After years of strife, years of battle, all of Israel came together with a whole heart and a single mind that is in unity to make him king over all the people. And what a wonder that was after all that had happened. And then, as we considered last time, as soon as he was ordained king, the first thing he did is he brought to the center of Jerusalem the reminder, the symbol of the one who gave them this unity, and that's the Lord God. They brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, the center of worship. These two psalms are very closely related to one another just as the history is related one to another. Others have suggested that it's a psalm of David simply because it remembers and applies a promise made to David by the Lord, and that's certainly true. So whether either case, it doesn't matter, and they both may be true, this psalm is designed to help us see something, to understand something, and encourage us to maintain that something, and that something is the unity of God's people. A unity that is extolled as extraordinary. That's verse 1. It's bestowed from above, verses 2 and the first half of 3, and it's established forevermore, verse 3. That's what we're going to hear as we go through this. Now, hear the word of the Lord, Psalm 133, a song of ascents, a song of David. Hear now the Word of God. Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collars of his robes. It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore. Here ends the reading of God's Word. Well, in verse 1, the psalmist opens by extolling the extraordinary nature of the unity of God's people. Behold, he says, look. Eyes up. Look. Look around. That's what he's saying. Look around. Look at all of those gathered here to worship the Lord tonight. Behold. You need to know this is extraordinary. You say, really? It feels the same every Sunday night and every Sunday morning, week after week and year after year. It seems so ordinary. What do you mean it's extraordinary? Well, it really is. It is because it's extraordinary to have sinners, even natural-born brothers and sisters, to sit down and to dwell together in unity. More than being in the same place at the same time, but being at the same place for the same reason, for the same purpose, and in coordinated action doing the same thing. That's rare. Think about it. Think about your family. We know that family unity is a good thing. It is a good thing. But we all know from personal experience, I think it's safe to say we all know from personal experience that this good thing is often fleeting, it's easily broken, and sometimes it exists for all the wrong reasons. Even the most unified family is not a perfect family. Remember Jacob's family? How could we forget? His sons sold their brother into slavery. Now, we might think that was extraordinary. But that was an ordinary act by ordinary sinners. That was not a surprise, except to Joseph. Ever since the fall, sinners, even natural-born brothers, have not been able to dwell together in unity. Just think, I'm just going to list a few. We could go through pages. Cain killed Abel right out of his chute. Jacob stole Esau's blessing. And they split up, not only for a short time, but forever. And King David's sons, after this pinnacle of unity, King David's sons fought one another and they divided the nation until the nation was no more. What a mess. What an ordinary mess. So how extraordinary it was that the Lord united the twelve tribes of the sons of Jacob. He combined them into one holy nation, a nation of Israel that even debtors and lepers and slaves were brothers in the Lord, the people of God. What an extraordinary thing. And how extraordinary it was that the Lord called them and gathered them together from the far reaches of the land to the temple on Mount Zion where the Lord dwelt with them and they with the Lord and with one another in worship. I don't know what the farthest drive here is, something 35 minutes, maybe a little more. Extraordinary it was that they walked for days to come together to worship the Lord. And yet we know that it did not last. It did not last and that could not last because the Messiah had not yet come to pay the price that would make it last forever. It was a preview. It was an exercise to show us what could be. And we today can remark about how extraordinary it is. How extraordinary it is that the Son of God came into this world in the flesh and so that all who believe on His name are given the right to be called children of God and joined to this family. How extraordinary it is that God gives us faith to hear the Gospel, to believe the Gospel, to be joined to Christ and thereby joined to one another and to be gathered into the one body of Christ to worship Him. How extraordinary it is that the Lord calls and gathers us from every tribe and language and people and nation to Mount Zion that cannot be touched and to be built together into a spiritual house, a spiritual temple where the Lord dwells with us as His people and we with Him and we with one another in worship. How extraordinary it is. In Ephesians chapter 4, the Apostle Paul encourages us with the fact that in this family, in this people, the Holy Catholic Church as we read, the communion of saints as we read, there is one body and one spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. Behold, look around, take notice how good and pleasant it is and how extraordinary it is when brothers dwell in unity. That's a fact. And behold how good and pleasant it is. How good and pleasant. Now ordinarily, in my experience and in reading the Bible, things are either good or pleasant. We know that good things are not always pleasant. We know that pleasant things are not always good. When we find something that's both good and pleasant, we know we have got something extraordinary. Remember the last time the experts said to you that the thing that you really find pleasant is actually good for you? Yes. And how dashed you were when they said, oh, we've changed our mind. You've lived long enough, you've been through that three or four times, right? In the Bible, the list of good things is longer than I am tall. It's a long, long list. It uses good like we use good about almost anything. The list of things that are pleasant is about as long as my arm. The list of things that are good and pleasant, I can fit on one hand. In the book of Job, Elihu presents the character of a life of a believer who lives in obedience to God's law. In the Old Testament, in Deuteronomy, there was blessings for obedience, there was cursing for disobedience. And Elihu said that if they listen and serve God, they complete their days in goodness and their years in pleasantness. In other words, it's good and pleasant to live a life of obedience to God. That was the whole mark of the Old Testament. It's all summed up right there. Why is that so? Because we also read in Scripture, the second thing in Psalm 135, that the Lord is good and pleasant. Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good. Sing to His name, for it, that is, His name, is pleasant. Life of obedience to the Lord is good and pleasant. The Lord is good and pleasant. As we were called to worship this evening, It's good and pleasant to praise the Lord. Praise the Lord for it is good to sing praises to our God. For it is pleasant and a song of praise is fitting. We see the direct connection to the Lord in all of those things that are good and pleasant. And the last one is this in our text tonight. It's good and pleasant. This unity of God's people is good and pleasant. That's extraordinary. Well, the psalmist moves on in verses 2 and 3 to call to mind two images that point us in one direction. They point us to the source of this extraordinary unity. Where does something like this come from? And there we find that the unity of God's people is bestowed from above. And that makes perfect sense with what we've just found about what's good and pleasant. And both of these images are very different, but they both have a common theme. They show us things that are coming down from above. Oil that flows down, running down, running down. And dew that descends or falls to the ground. And both of these things that come down from above are things that are bestowed. They're given by God to His people. That's the theme. And so we look at these pictures. The first image is in verse 2. Again, it's a comparison. When brothers dwell in unity, it is like the precious oil on the head. Running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron. Running down on the collar of his robes. This precious oil was an oil that was given to Moses. The Lord bestowed a recipe to Moses in Exodus chapter 30. A recipe that was to be used for only one thing. Never to be repeated, never to be copied. Never to be used for the wrong thing. Had a very exclusive use. It was a holy oil. It was an oil that was to be seen and to be smelled. but not to be tasted. It was the oil that was to only be poured out as a symbol for the work of the Holy Spirit being poured out to consecrate or to make holy. It was poured out to symbolize the sanctification of the worship of Israel, the place of worship, the utensils and the furniture of worship, and the leader of worship, the high priest, who led all of Israel in their sanctification. That's, Israel knew exactly what he was talking about in this psalm. That's what we're to remember is Aaron's ordination as a high priest in Israel and the use of this precious oil that was poured on him to consecrate him as a high priest. The psalmist says that the unity of God's people is bestowed from above like the precious oil on the head, on the head of Aaron at his ordination. It was poured on the head generously as this picture shows. as it ran down his beard, it ran down his robe. This interpretation says to his collar, other ones say to the hem. It went down. And as it went down, it released its aroma. That was the point of this oil. It was to release an aroma that engulfed Aaron and his sons as those who were set apart as holy. And it wafted on the wind to all the people of God to know that they were included in the work of this priest for their holiness. And it rose to the heavens. There's a pleasing smell in the nostrils of God from whence it came. The unity of God's people is like that. Like the precious oil poured on Aaron to sanctify him and set him apart for service. God bestows the Holy Spirit on his people to baptize all of us into one body and to set us apart for service. To him and to one another. That's the picture. That's the purpose of our unity. To serve him, serve one another, set apart his hold. And we see the second image in verse 3, just the first half. When brothers dwell in unity, it's like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion. The unity of God's people is bestowed from above like the dew of Hermon. Now, we all, I think, know what dew is. It's that nasty stuff that gets on your windshield when you park outside at night, and it gets cold. That's the way the Lord waters an arid land like ours. He drops the temperature, pulls out the moisture, and you get dew. It comes from above, and it waters the earth. And Mount Hermon was the tallest and is the tallest mountain in Israel. Some suspect it was taller in that day than it is in our day. But still today, that mountain is covered with fog almost every day. And what's fog, it's moisture. And so every night, almost every night, moisture drops out of those clouds onto Mount Hermon. It's a proverbial picture of God's blessing of his people. Even if you lived in the desert and you knew about Mount Hermon, you knew that that is where the Lord dropped his dew. That's where the Lord brought blessing on the land. And of course, anything dropped in the mountain comes to the plains. So you see, it's a vivid picture of God providing for his people. The dew on Mount Hermon. I'm trying to think if there's any snow-capped mountains down here that are snow-capped year-round. I don't think so. But I used to live in Washington, and Mount Rainier is one of those mountains. And I can tell you that any day it pops out from all the clouds, which are common there, it's a day of rejoicing. And that's even if you're not a believer to know that that's a sign of God's provision, all that snow up on that mountain. But that's the image. And like the dew that God caused to fall there, to water the earth and to make it fruitful. God bestows unity on his people, on Zion, to refresh us and to make us spiritually fruitful. He uses a similar image through Hosea, chapter 14. The Lord said, I will be like the dew to Israel. He shall blossom like the lily. He shall take root like the trees of Lebanon. He'll flourish because of my provision for him. and even more unwavering than the dew of Hermon, which is a pretty regular thing. Lamentations tells us that the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. In fact, you know this line, His mercies are new every morning. And I would say to you, that's a picture of the dew. It's new every morning. His mercies are new every morning. And that's what falls on Zion. Like the dew that falls on Hermon. And His mercies, this unity on Zion, gathers His people together for worship. The fellowship with Him, and He with us, and we with one another in worship. That's the picture. So these two pictures together show us that it is the Lord who bestows unity on His people. It is a gift of God. It's extraordinary on that mark. This unity is good and pleasant. It's like precious oil for our sanctification. It's like dew for our fruitfulness. This unity is already a reality. Everyone who trusts in Jesus Christ alone for salvation is united to Him through faith and united to one another in Him. This unity is real. It's right now. This is not a pie in the sky by and by someday maybe thing. This is. Paul writes it this way in Romans chapter 12. he says, for as in one body we have many members, thinking about our human bodies, we have lots of parts, lots of members, he says so we, the church though many are one body in Christ and individually members now get this not of it but of one of another what a beautiful picture, that's a statement of fact. That's a statement of reality. You here, believers, are members one of another as much as you're members of Jesus Christ. And that membership, that union is bound up in His eternal life and it cannot go away. It is a fact. The challenge is we have a hard time holding on to that fact because life is still messy. And we have times where our unity is frustrated by sin, by the world, by the devil. Things get in the way of us experiencing that unity. And so we can doubt the fact, but we should not doubt the fact. The Scripture is clear. It's a fact. And because it's a fact, and because we struggle with the fact in our experience, the Scripture is full of instructions for what we are to do about it. We are to pursue. We are to exert ourselves in preserving this unity and making it known. I could turn to any New Testament letter and someplace in that letter is going to be a call to unity, peace, love, concord, one another, support, something. Because this is a prevailing concern in the life of the church is that we have a hard time holding on to this reality. And so we're urged, we're encouraged, we're exhorted to preserve this unity and to manifest this unity. Paul does this beautifully in Ephesians chapter 4. He says, I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. I could say to you that is a sum, a summary of the Christian life, is that pursuit. is to show that unity in your life, your union with Christ, your union with one another. And we need to know, brothers and sisters, people of God, that we are able to pursue that with a great confidence, with great confidence, when we remember this simple fact that it cannot be disputed, that God the Father answers the prayers of His Son. God the Father answers the prayers of Jesus. Jesus' prayers are fully in accord with the Father's will and God will always answer them. And Jesus prayed for you. He prayed for me. He prayed for this very thing that we would have this unity, that we would know it, that we would experience it. He prayed in John chapter 17, I do not ask for these only, those His disciples in the room, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. That's you and that's me. And he prayed that they may all be one. Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us. So that the world may believe that you have sent me. How's the world going to believe this unless they see it in us? You see his point, his prayer. He went on, the glory that you have given me, I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one. I in them and you in me that they may become perfectly one so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you love me. Jesus did not pray for a private experience of this feels good to be unified with Christ and his people. He prayed for a life that shows it to the world that the Father has loved us as He has loved His Son and we have been joined together in Him and we are one, we're united, the people of God. The psalmist concludes at the end of verse 3 with words that are meant to strengthen our confidence and to resolve to live this life more and more with this assurance that the unity of God's people is established forevermore. This is not a temporary fact. This is not a fact that we can undo. This is not a fact that we can lose. We can frustrate it a lot, but we can't lose it. It's a fact that exists forevermore. For there, he wrote, verse 3, for there on Zion, the Lord has commanded the blessing, his blessing, life forevermore. Now that's a strange expression. I had to think about it a bit, look around a bit in the Bible to say that the Lord commanded his blessing. It's just not used very often. but I think it's a way of saying that the Lord delivers on what He promises. The Lord's promises are unchangeable because He is unchangeable. What He promises, He will do. What He does, He does by command. He does by divine decree. So that's the logic. The blessing that He promises, the blessing that He commands to be accomplished, and He did that for Zion. And the particular blessing the psalmist has in view is the blessing of life forevermore. Life forevermore. The Lord has commanded it there on Zion. And only there. The question is, when did he do it and to whom did he give it? Because this psalm is of David, we do well to remember the Lord's promise to David when he established David on his throne on Zion. We consider this a lot in Psalm 132, where it was remembered that the Lord made a covenant with David in 2 Samuel 7, promising to raise up David's offspring and to establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Psalm 21, another psalm of David, remembers the promise this way, that when the king asked the Lord to give him life, the Lord gave it to him. Length of days, forever and ever. Life forevermore. But this promise did not mean that David would never die or be buried. He did. And he was. And he's yet to be raised. Peter explained in his Pentecost sermon, Acts chapter 2, that David was a prophet, and he understood that it wasn't for him personally. He foresaw that the promise was for one of his descendants, a descendants who would die and be buried and be raised to life forevermore. David knew that the promise was to the Christ. And we know that the Christ is Jesus, who has since ascended to the right hand of God the Father to take not only the throne of David, but the throne of thrones, King of kings and Lord of lords. Jesus is the one to whom life forevermore was promised. Jesus is the one to whom the blessing was commanded to be given on Zion. Jesus is the only one to be promised life forevermore. Except the Father, for Jesus' sake, shares that life with the people. For Jesus' sake, He gives this eternal life to anyone and everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ. That He came in the world to die for your sins. That He was raised to life for your justification. That He sits at the right hand of the Father for your ascension and your resurrection one day. That He has saved you. And if you are trusting in Him, His life is your life. The Apostle John says it very clearly in 1 John chapter 5. He says, this is the testimony of God that He has borne concerning the Son. This is what God says about Jesus. He says that God gave us eternal life. And this life is in the Son. Whoever has the Son has life. So it's that life that we have by virtue of union with Christ, that life that we share with one another in the body of Christ as the people of God. It's that life that allows us to do what Hebrews chapter 12 tells us that we do. That we who have the Son have come, we have come to Zion. Right here, right now, in this place, at this time, here, we are on Zion. Not the one that can be touched with the hands, but the one that's in heaven. The one on which the heaven of Jerusalem sits. The one where there's countless angels in festal gathering. The one where the assembly of the firstborn are enrolled in heaven. The one where God the judge is. Where Jesus Christ is. Where the spirits of the righteous made perfect are. We are there. If we have this life, we are there. And that there is here. And it is here on Zion. That the Lord dwells with us. his people, in worship. And he bestows his blessings by his Spirit through the gospel of Jesus, through word preached and sacrament administered. And it's here on Zion that we, his people, brothers in Christ, that's not a sexist comment, we are brothers in Christ, receive his blessings, even the blessing of life, forevermore through faith. We dwell in unity with him, and he with us, and we with one another. to the glory of His name and our eternal well-being. Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. Let's thank God together. Our Father in Heaven, we thank You that in this Old Testament pre-coming of Christ, You give such a vivid picture anticipating the unity that we have in Him. Our union with Him through faith, our union with you through Him, our union with one another in Him. It's profound. It's beautiful. It's extraordinary. It is good and pleasant as the God who gives it. I pray, Father, that by Your Spirit our minds would be open to this reality, our hearts would be touched and motivated by it, that our wills would be clear, that we're about preserving it and advancing it. As we walk through this world on our way, To where our faith will be sight. And all that we've been given in images here will be displayed for us fully, completely, and forever. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.