Psalm 133 is our text for our sermon today. Really, in a sense, an enticement, an encouragement, a challenge to that very truth we were just praying, that God would unify His church together. Psalm 133, ascending to God, brothers together in the blessing of life. We've been walking through the Psalms of ascents together. And so that you're tracking with us, as we've just finished Psalm 132, we've now followed the ark, so to speak, into Jerusalem. Here we are in the holy city. All these Psalms of ascents, crying out from far off in the wilderness, progressing, progressing, progressing, ascending, ascending, ascending, have now brought the pilgrims to the dwelling place of God, to Jerusalem. And here, this psalm is going to show us a little bit of what we find there. Here we find the true community that mankind was made for. Here we find the true community that we all long for. You can see it all around us in our human societies today. We live in so many ways as strangers amongst one another. Yes, we exist together on a certain bare level, but We often lament our lack of community. It's all over the news today, the divisions and dissensions in human societies. No doubt, just to pull one example off, you heard about the leaked draft of the SCOTUS decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization this last week. A leading legal scholar writes this in response to it, the damage to the court will be deep and abiding. Anyone who has worked in the building knows that trust is indispensable to the functioning of the institution. The leak has destroyed trust. And so he laments, perhaps someday the court will get it back, but not in my lifetime, probably not in my students' lifetime. For decades, at least, there will be the mere simulacrum, a pretense of trust. There will not be trust. We feel that we're living in a society like that, don't we? There's no actual community together. Unity is both a great necessity of life and the great problem of life. Is there a place of true unity and goodness where our hearts are in harmony, where our relationships are in harmony? If so, that must be the most beautiful place on earth. And with that in mind, listen to Psalm 133. 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 collar 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." This psalm is short, very short, but extremely dense. It's an extremely dense meditation on the unity of creation coming to fruition in Christ in the New Jerusalem. Now, of course, this picture is painted from David's perspective as at his time in the outworking of God's plan of salvation. You see, it's a song of ascents of David. But even so, even being written from that time period, it is a foretaste of glory. This psalm does not tell you how to achieve unity, it actually aims to help you desire unity and then show you where to look for it. We have in this poem here a pilgrim envisioning the fulfillment of his journey. David, of course, as he desired to bring the ark to Jerusalem so that God would dwell as a king with his people, no doubt envisioned this in his mind's eye, even in writing this. But then by placing it in the Psalms of Ascents, in the Psalter, the scripture puts this Davidic psalm into the mouth of the pilgrims arriving at Jerusalem to worship the Lord. And coming together for worship, they look around and they see, behold, as the psalm says, They see the union of God's people in the city of God, at the temple of God, enjoying life together with God. And in doing that, they are anticipating the completion of all of God's good purposes in Jesus Christ. So I simply want to talk about this psalm from two perspectives today. The unity given in creation the psalm builds off of, and then the unity given fulfillment in life forevermore in Zion. The psalm starts off with, how good and how pleasant. These are the exclamations that open this psalm. Behold, look at this. And in fact, this psalm and the next one, the final two psalms of ascents begin with that very word, behold. They want you to pay attention to what you are now seeing coming to this place. Behold, what do we see? How good, how pleasant. the psalm exclaims. In doing so, it is evoking all of creation and what God has made, which we were designed to manifest. When God created the heavens and the earth, he repeatedly said, it was good. It was good, it was good, it was good, and it was very good. as he completed his work. I believe God, when he says it was good, he means good in every sense of the word. All the way from, yes, it's useful. Sometimes we'll call something good because it helps me get the job done. A knife that cuts onions and does it well is a good knife, right? It's good. Very practical, but all the way on the spectrum to even beautiful. everything that is transcendent, all that is right and true, it is good. And when God formed and filled this world, he did it to be a display of his glory, to show his character even in his handiwork. So this world was good, it was useful, also beautiful. God created mankind then in his image to see, to savor, and even to surrender to his harmonious goodness. because beauty really is the shining out of the goodness of God. You can never separate beauty and goodness and truth. Beauty is the shining out of the gift of goodness. So for example, something we all experience, when you marvel at the mountains, perhaps you did that driving to church this morning. When you marvel at the mountains, what you're perceiving is God's goodness. Your soul is recognizing unity, harmony, There's something really good here. It is as it ought to be. But rocks and trees are a lower level of unity than the unity of living souls, persons, spiritual beings. God formed Adam, but it was not good for him to be alone. So God made Eve as a perfect complement to be in unity with Adam. And he made them, in the covenant of marriage, to be a one-flesh unity. He gave them dominion over the creation to harmoniously bring out his good rule on the earth. You see, here is a unity that's beginning to come out even in the creation story that is spiritual in nature, that is ultimately a unity of love in marriage and in family and in all that God created us to be as human beings. So God created a good world and he made a good world because he gave it this unity. And He gave us desires for it, to go out after what delights us and what is beautiful or what is pleasing or pleasant, which is what the psalmist says, how good and how pleasant. That is something that is truly desirable, truly beautiful. This is a rhetorical question, but isn't beauty arresting? Does it not capture your attention? Whenever you see something beautiful, it captures your attention. That's because it is a promise of goodness and truth, which is a reflection of God. Now what happens when we exchange the creature for the creator in our desires and in our thinking, we shatter God's good unity. The very thing beauty is given for to draw us to the unity of God is taken away. Isn't this what happened to Eve in Genesis chapter 3 verse 6? What did Satan tempt her with? She saw that the tree was good for food, right? That it was a delight to the eyes and desirable to make one wise. All those very things similar to what the psalmist is expressing here in Psalm 133. There's something really good here I'm seeing. There's something really delightful here I'm seeing. But now it was to be taken apart from God. Not as pointing and drawing us to God, but to ourselves. Sin is a disruption of the unity that God has built into his universe. When things are out of place, when things are disjointed, they are no longer good. Something is wrong with them. And that's what we see happen in the curse, right? Even mankind's work of this earth became death bringing. Even the family relationships that God had designed so good as a measure of this, as a participation in this unity become something strained and in conflict. Pardon me. Even down to brothers. What's the very first example of brothers we have in the scripture? Cain and Abel. Cain and Abel were brothers in that close family relationship and it turns into murder. And that's why the psalmist expresses here how good, how pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. You see, human society has been fractured at the fundamental level, even in the family. Now, since we all know, every single human being on this whole planet knows that that is not right and that's not what we want, the world system under the power of Satan tries to fix this problem of disunity. And the problem is, of course, we try to fix it apart from God. And the Tower of Babel is like the quintessential expression of this trying to bring order, trying to build greatness and beauty and harmony and keep us all united. We're going to create a human system which can unify us all in life. That's what the Tower of Babel said. And that's what we as sinful humans have been saying ever since. But of course, that's a counterfeit unity that does not have the unity of real life in it. And so God called Abram, launching his unifying program of blessing, which entails men living in communion with him by faith working through love. And this then continued in his covenant with the children of Israel at Mount Sinai and with his covenant with David, which sets the whole context for what this psalm is envisioning. And I've taken time to do that, to walk through that here together today, because all of that is essential to getting the pictures that this psalm is portraying before us. Based on all that, this psalm dwells on and images for us what true unity is like, even building off of the order and the way God made his world to work and his plan of redemption. You see, it says, behold how good and how pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity, and then it gives some comparisons. The whole rest of the psalm, verse two, verse three, are two different images or comparisons by which we can learn more about this unity that God is calling us to. And the two things that the psalmist chooses here to draw out our desires, pardon me, are oil and dew. oil and dew, two ordinary parts of creation, things that are present in the way God made this world, and so therefore things that are present in our everyday lives and our experience. You'll certainly see them show up a lot in the experience of the people in the Bible. But the psalmist takes these two things. And by means of this, in this image, draws out your desires after what true unity means. I'm gonna give a little comparison contrast. You're familiar with this actually, because you're exposed to it all the time. That is people trying to draw out your desires with images. And we mostly think about that nowadays with advertising, right? People put images before you to draw a desire after something. They connect one thing in life with another thing to make you think this one thing is good. Pardon me. Now, we often criticize advertising, and here's the contrast for doing this, because they try to do this falsely. That is, there is no necessary connection between the things that are put there. They simply want to evoke good feelings in you and that you will identify and project those good feelings onto whatever it is, the product they're trying to sell, right? Your sleek, new Apple iPhone, iPhone X. is connected with beaches in the Caribbean and parties and the easy life because it takes care of all your problems for you and, right, this is what we want to portray so that you will desire it. Actually, the psalm is doing something similar. The difference is it's not doing it falsely. It's actually drawing out what really is there that you should be seeing and helping you to see it so that you will desire this true unity. The first one is oil. And what we're gonna see here, maybe I can put it this way, created order being taken up into communion with God. Everything that God has made being pointed toward its true purposes in Jesus Christ. Let's just stop and think about oil for a minute. Oil, of course, a staple of life of that day, such as grain and wine. Oil is often seen as an essence of life, a tangible sign of God's blessing and favor. And so oil can refresh and oil can beautify. What does Psalm 23, 5 say? You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over. Pardon me. And because of that, those very characteristics, it could be a special gift to honor a guest. It could be used to promote healing, like we learn in the parable of the Good Samaritan. In two texts, it is actually specifically called the oil of gladness. The Messiah is anointed by God in Psalm 45, 7, with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. Your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. In Isaiah 61, 3, the spirit of the Lord is upon his Messiah to grant to those who mourn in Zion, to give him a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit. that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified." The very qualities of oil that God built right into it, so to speak, are supposed to be teaching you about the good gift of God called unity. The life-giving favor of God called unity. Now, you've noticed, I'm sure already, that this text doesn't just talk about oil in general. It talks about the good oil, or it's translated here in the ESV, the precious oil, but the psalmist uses the word good again on purpose because he's stair-stepping, he's building the image from verse one. How good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity, it is like the good oil on the head. What good oil? Obviously an anointing kind of oil, but now running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron. So it's been taken from just its general use in all of life, even its use for refreshment and anointing, and now brought into a special sacred use, the oil that God prescribed for his priests. Exodus 29 describes the background of our text here, because here God gives his instructions for how the Aaronic priests were to be consecrated to him. Pardon me. This is all about something special now. This is all about a relationship with God now. This is being brought into the very presence and order of God's work of dwelling with his people, of forgiving their sins. You see, the special anointing oil that this psalm is invoking here is like a key to open up access to the Holy of Holies for Aaron. He's consecrated to the Lord now. He is God's now. He's been anointed by God. And now he can represent the people in the very presence of God. And so what this psalmist is invoking by this oil here running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, is things like forgiveness of sins. How do we have life, an abundant richness, fatness of life? Forgiveness of sins. It means God's guidance and provision for life. God giving us all that we need. It's life dwelling in the temple in God's presence like a priest. This is what our life was made for. Now he adds into that image the image of dew. It is like the dew of Hermon. Hermon being the highest mountain in that region of the world, just north and east of Israel. At over 9,000 feet, it receives the precipitation there. And so it pictures the dew that falls on Hermon as falling on the mountains of Zion. obviously the place of God's dwelling, the place where David has established the city of the Lord, the place where God would dwell with his people. God providing life, due as the settling of water from the warm air on the cooler ground. And it's a wonderful expression of the gift of life. It's refreshing. It's invigorating. We came across the similar kind of use just a few Psalms back in Psalm 110. And pardon me, when it's speaking of the Messiah, and says that he will, excuse me, I just, ah, here we go. Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power in holy garments. From the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours. That vigor, that freshness, that invigorating life that water gives is all here because of the dew. Pardon me. When Isaac blessed Jacob, He asked that God give him the dew of heaven along with the fatness, or that's the oil, of the earth and plenty of grain and wine. Genesis 27, 28. Folks, this is all talking about God providing life, true abundant life for his people. It's talking about God providing that life for his people in answer to his covenant promises. It's God being present instead of absent. It's God being there to bless. instead of to curse. It's all of true life. In other words, what this psalm is doing here, by meditating on it, by singing it, it's stoking your desire for unity. It's wanting you to feel that oil and that dew. It is, even if you will, a very sensual psalm in all the right senses of that term. It's stoking your desire. But what is your desire to be drawn out for? What really matters? What should you want in this life? It says here, unity. The unity of brothers. Pardon me. This psalm wants you to pay attention to the world you're living in, to the very own desires of your heart, and then identify rightly where those will be found. in God creating and giving the unity of his people. Right? So that's the first thing I want you to see from this psalm. I want you to see how creation is being used here to be caught up in God's good purposes. But there's one other point we need to mention while we're on this topic here, before we go on to unity given fulfillment in life forevermore. This psalm presents another important reality by a threefold repetition. within this short, these two images. Of course, it's talking about how wonderful it is for brothers sitting down together, even in unity. And it says it's like the precious oil on the head, but then how does it describe this oil? It says it's running down, running down, coming down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron. And it repeats that, coming down, descending on the collar of his robes. And then it picks that up and ties these images together in verse 3. It is like the dew of Hermon, which, it's translated in our English version here, falls. It's the same term. Which is coming down, which is descending, which is falling down. Right? One man points out rightly here that, in short, true unity, like all God's gifts, is from above. bestowed rather than contrived, a blessing far more than an achievement. In other words, what this psalm is portraying for us, even the imagery, is that unity is a gift. Unity always comes from above. Unity is a gift that precedes our efforts. Always precedes our efforts. and then crowns our efforts. Unity isn't something that we can build from the ground up. There has to be something already there, something given to us for us even to experience it. And in that way, life is very much a picture of this unity. Is your life given to you? Yes. Did you create yourself as a living being? No. In fact, you were given birth in order to come to know the very unity that you are, the very life that God has given to you. Life is unity. Death is disillusion, falling apart. Life is unity. And it's a gift from God. And that's why, folks, men can never create from fleshly resources true unity. We simply don't have the power to do it. we always have to receive and then work into what God has given so that the effects of that are actually God's gift. We don't create it, we receive it. It's a very important point about unity here. So when the pilgrim arrives at the temple in Jerusalem and looks around at worshipers united in worship, He sees with the eyes of faith a true gift of God bringing all of his good purposes to fulfillment. Brothers sitting down together, even in unity. He's not seeing a mere assembly of individuals. He's seeing a whole new reality come about, a people worshiping their God. That points us to the unity given fulfillment in life forevermore in Zion. You see that the aspirations of this psalm point far beyond what the psalmist actually experiences at the moment. He is seeing something at the moment. How good, how pleasant. This is beautiful to see brothers sitting down together. But it's all looking for something, as he says at the end here, for there, as the brothers assemble on Mount Zion, there, in this place of unity, God has commanded the blessing. And by the way, there's another evidence that unity is given and not achieved. It's commanded by God, the blessing. And what is it? Life forevermore, eternal life, true life always, God's kind of life given to man. That's what this Psalm is driving toward. And that's what we look for today. Because folks, that's what your hearts were designed to look for. You are a unity. And you were designed to find life in that. Your heart longs for that. And it longs for it on every level. Unity with the created order. You feel the groaning of the curse because you feel the created order resisting your good efforts, right? You long for unity with yourself. in your own heart and mind and soul, and not a divided person against yourself. You long for unity in your relationships with other people, a husband, a wife, children, parents, extended family. You long for a community where people get along, as we say, and enjoy loving one another, because that's where real life is found. You can have all the money in the world, you can have material goods, all that kind of stuff, but it can't produce unity. You can have technology, but it can't produce unity. Where is this going to be found? And how are we gonna see this come about? Like I said, this psalm, it provokes our desires for unity and then points us where we should look in this worshiping community in the city of God. Coming to the New Testament, Ephesians 1.10 says that in the administration of the fullness of the times, God's plan is to head up all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth. Everything God has made, everything that in his providence he's brought about is going to come to a heading up in Jesus Christ, a unity there. And when Christ came then, to the climax of his earthly ministry, just before the cross, he prayed that his people would be one. The glory that you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one. You see, what we were seeing revealed in Jesus Christ, folks, what we should see, if we had the eyes of faith to see as we look at Jesus Christ, is the true union of everything in Jesus Christ. First of all, even in the incarnation, you have God and man being united perfectly in one. In one person in which there is no conflict whatsoever between the divine and the human. No gap, if you will. That infinite gap between God and man has been bridged. Human nature is taken up into God. Jesus Christ is doing that in himself, and then in his cross work, in his resurrection, and on behalf of all those he represents, he brings mankind through redemption to know God, and to know God in a way that, as he just prayed there in John 17, that the kind of unity God has in himself finds an analogous expression in our kinds of lives, even as creatures. We begin to know true life, God's kind of life, in our own souls, in our own lives, in all of our relationships. Pardon me. And that's why, just to take the book of Ephesians as one example, it emphasizes so much this factor of unity. If you want, you can look with me at Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter four, after laying out the mystery of Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul says, I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one or another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There's a unity that's been given to you here that you didn't achieve in the flesh. It's given by the Spirit, produced by the Spirit. and you are to live in that. And that's why he says, there is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to this one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is over all and through all and in all. Folks, I hope you're seeing in that very description there in Ephesians, the beauty evoked by Psalm 133. How good you should exclaim after seeing that. How pleasant. That's what I want. Where should I look to find real unity in this world? Well, I have to look to Jesus Christ. I have to look to the Lord who gives this. But where does that gift work itself out? In his body, the church. As his people are united to him in one body, his kind of life flows. they begin to participate in the unity that is already there, that is given, and they are to walk worthy of it. When they do that, they experience more and more of what God is talking about, the beauty of brothers dwelling together in true unity. Pardon me. And folks, that is why today, if you can sing Psalm 133 and grasp its message, You cannot help but love the church. You cannot help but have your heart drawn out in longings and desires for the unity of Christ's people. I want, I long for a community united around the worship of God. where all of us are in our proper place before Him. All of us right with Him, and therefore right with one another. All of us worshiping Him, and in that flowing out into all of our lives. Worship drives culture, as we so often say. That unity that is found at the foot of the cross, then driving all of our lives and our relationships, flowing out into our households and our families. Ultimately, even we can say, folks, flowing out into all of creation. You begin to experience oil. in a whole new way when you have a unified heart in Christ. Because it's no longer just oil. It's no longer just a meaningless thing that happens to be in this world. It's an intricate part of an amazing design that's unified all together in Jesus Christ. Do and reign. Now find a meaning in Jesus Christ. God is giving life to his people in these things. And we are joyfully receiving them and therefore being able to live for him in his presence and to give ourselves as living sacrifices, pardon me, to enjoy walking with him. All of creation becomes dear to us in this sense because we see in it Jesus Christ. And the church becomes in the heart of our lives together because we see in this Jesus Christ accomplishing his mission in the spirit. We are to walk in that unity, every member contributing to its part, its part. So the whole body grows, builds itself up in love. Folks, that's why the church is to be the very place in this world today where the love of the triune God, the love of Jesus Christ himself, is manifested among his people. Where we begin to taste in a foretaste, yes, but taste in a real sense what it means to actually love. The church is that place. I would ask you today, Do you long for the unity of God's people? This is a great challenge to us. Now, as I said at the beginning, this Psalm does not teach us how to have unity. That's not its point, actually. It doesn't go there. It tells us that we should desire unity because it holds forth that life that's intrinsic there. And then it tells us where to look. So here's my challenge to you today. If you long for unity, if you feel in your own soul that groaning of the divisions of creation, the groaning and the divisions in a society, in every society on this earth, pardon me, if you see what ought to be beautiful and yet has been marred by being dislocated in this world, where are you gonna turn to start pressing into the unity that God gives? you're gonna turn to participation in the life of his body, the church. That is going to become a driving desire of your life. It's gonna become a pinnacle expression of who you are and what you do. You will come to a place like this on the Lord's day and you will say, how good, how beautiful. God's people together worshiping him. And yes, we're seeing it at foretaste. I'll guarantee you folks, you just look at our assembly right here. Do we come this morning with some divisions, some dislocated things, sometimes in our own hearts, in our families, in our relationships? Do we come even with some dislocations in our body? Yeah. Should we deal with those things? Absolutely, right? By faith in Christ. But completely acknowledging all those things, we come here because by faith we see the reality of life as it is in Jesus Christ. How this is the fruition of everything God calls us to. How this is the place that the watching world can see God's spirit producing God's kind of life, which is a unity among his people. And we love to sit down together. That is why we come to the Lord's table. This is no mere formality, is it? In fact, the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10 will say, because there is one loaf, you are one body, right? Because you get to partake of one loaf, that makes you one body. If you don't get to partake of that one loaf, Jesus Christ, then you don't partake of the unity. This is an amazing thing, isn't it? We're seeing a reality that the world longs for but cannot achieve, and we are receiving it as a gift from God that we then live into in gratitude for Him. Would you do that today? I'm simply encouraging you to long for the unity of God's people, and to see the beauty of God's people united in worship, and to form your heart around that. And folks, when that becomes the driving desire of your heart, when that beauty, the beauty of Christ manifested in His body has captivated your eyes, and you love Him, and you long for Him and His glory to be known, and you see it in His members in His body, when that becomes real in your life, then you'll know, I'm beginning to experience what real unity looks like in this world. I'm beginning to get a foretaste of true beauty. If that's not true of you, then I would suggest to you today that perhaps your heart is worldly. That is, you're looking, your desires are looking in all the wrong places. You're being captivated by this beauty and that, all these fleeting and in some ways good beauties that God has created, but they can't find their center in Christ and his body. Your heart is worldly. You need to repent of that. You need to not live in the ignorance of your mind like Ephesians 4 says. Instead, you have to learn Christ and put off that old man and put on the new and then live as Christ instructs you to do. Do you long to see the beauty of worship? Does that sustain your soul? Behold how good, how pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. If that's true of you today, would you confess your faith? Jesus is Lord, because it's in him that we find the unity that our souls long for. Let's confess it together as a congregation. Jesus is Lord. Amen.