Psalms 133:1-3

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.

True socialism

The subject of this poem is genuine socialism or unity of souls. Not theological unity, religious dogmas divide but can never unite. Not ecclesiastical unity; no laws made by any Church, though signed by all its members, can unite souls. Not mechanical unity, the unity of organizations either political, religious, or commercial. Unity of soul implies unity in the supreme affection, the supreme aim, the supreme rule.

I. It is good.

1. Because it harmonizes with man’s social constitution. It is what man’s social nature craves for, his greatest hunger is for loving companionship. It is what man’s social nature needs. He needs the ministry of friendship from the cradle to the grave. It is what man’s social nature pictures as its grandest ideal. Social unity is regarded by all peoples and nations as the perfection of society.

2. Because it harmonizes with the teaching of the Gospel. Christ inculcated this unity, and prayed for it, that “they all may be one.” The apostles everywhere exhort to it, “be of one mind one toward another.”

II. It is delightful.

1. It is delightful to witness. To “behold” it in the family, the Church, the nation. All jealousies, envies, rivalries, wars, banished from the scene, and utterly unknown. “Peace like morning dew distils, and all the air is love.”

2. It is delightful to experience What a delicious fragrance there is in social unity, to feel one with all, and all with one another. This gives to the social atmosphere a delicious perfume.

III. It is beneficent (verse 3). It does not mean that the dew falls alike upon the two mountains, but that the moisture that gathers on Mount Hermon is caught up by the sun, and falls in refreshing showers on the distant heights of Zion.

1. This unity is peaceful. How silently falls the dew! How serenely moves society where all its members are inspired with love one towards another, no clash, no jar, no grating of the wheels.

2. This unity is refreshing. It gives to the whole social sphere perpetual freshness, verdure, and beauty. (Homilist.)

Church unity

Short though this psalm be, it is difficult to find a sweeter. Some link it with the period of David’s call to the throne, and imagine that it was suggested by all Israel coming to him at Hebron, and saying, “Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh,” and then anointing him king. The strength and health of a nation lies in its unity. And this is true, likewise, of a Church. Note--

I. The grace. What is meant by “dwelling together in unity”? It is no mere absence of quarrelling, for that may be owing to the quiet of death. Enter the mortuary attached to the hospice of St. Bernard. There are the frozen corpses of those who have perished ha the snow. They stand upon their feet against the wall. Some have been there for years waiting for friends to recognize and claim them. And there are no quarrels there. But it is the chili of death that keeps them so still. Nor is it dwelling apart in order to have peace. As Abraham separated from Lot. It is a humiliating way of obtaining peace. As if two souls were like two chemicals--kept apart they will do no harm, bring them together and they will explode and shatter everything. Nor is this unity merely engagement in one work. But it is for a member to be actuated as by one soul. One soul in many members. It includes serving one another in love, and it has often to be cemented by forgiveness. Now, such calls for special notice. “Behold.” And it is “good.” For it is God’s will for us. It obeys the new command of Christ. It is one of the chief proofs of our discipleship. It makes the communion of saints good and edifying.

II. The illustrations. This unity is said to be like--

1. The anointing oil upon Aaron’s head (Exodus 30:23), which shows that it was made of several different compounds, all precious in themselves. Various are the spices, all “principal” in themselves. The myrrh of love. This takes the precedence. Full measure of this must be found. With this, also, there must be the sweet cinnamon of gentleness, the sweet calamus of meekness, the cassia of longsuffering, and the olive oil of forgiveness. No wonder that the compound was most fragrant. Aaron was not qualified to minister until thus anointed.

2. The dew of Hermon So this unity comes from above: cools the air and makes fruitfulness abound. Uniteth not for men.

III. Its benefit. “There the Lord commanded the blessing.” Not for us is it to command a blessing; we can but beg for it. But where is it that the Lord thus commands His blessing? Not where anger and strife, discord and division abound--these have turned many gardens of the Lord into howling wildernesses. But where love reigns--where the holy oil anoints pastor and people alike. May this oil never cease to flow upon the Church, and this Hermon never lack its dew. (Archibald G. Brown.)

Solidarity

Solidarity is but another name for unity, How the solidarity--the interrelation, the interdependence--of our twentieth-century life, by means of which we are enabled to know so much more, do so much more, be so much more, than men could when seas were separations instead of chances for ferries, when telegraphs did not make the round world throb, puts emphasis on the power and blessing of the unity which is the psalm’s theme.

I. What this unity is.

1. It is not a levelling uniformity. It does not mean that one gathered into the unity must think, feel, do, precisely as does every other one also gathered into it. There is large chance for individuality in a real unity.

2. It does not mean an outward and iron compulsion. A minister was once asked if his Church were united. “Yes; all the members of it are frozen stiff together.” That was not unity.

3. It is association. In a real Christian unity there is a holy tendency toward this togetherness.

4. It is a general and including similarity of aim and feeling.

5. It is variety of gift and service, each ministering in its own way to the common end (1 Corinthians 12:12).

6. It is mutual esteem.

7. Mutual forbearance.

8. Co-operation for the best interests of the brotherhood.

II. What this unity does.

1. It attracts (verse 2). It diffuses its gracious influence far and wide, and at the same time calls into the sphere of its influence. People love to come to it and be with it. How true this is of a thoroughly harmonious and united Church!

2. It refreshes (verse 3). It brings the refreshing of shared, of achieving, of rejoicing service.

3. It commands the Divine blessing.

III. Application.

1. Each one of the brotherhood is charged with the preservation of this unity.

2. Failure to keep it deprives our Lord of one of the evidences of the truthfulness of His mission.

3. The unity we most deeply need is thorough personal unity with the one Lord and Brother, that thus we may really enter into the power and blessing of this great grace of unity with each other. (W. Hoyt, D. D.)

A good and pleasant prospect

I. The sight propounded.

1. The duty commended--unity or agreement (Eph 4:3; 1 Thessalonians 5:13; Colossians 1:20). There are two ways especially in which the Gospel is a Gospel of unity betwixt man and man.

(1) It is so, as it teaches it, and commands it, for so it does at large and in the proper scope and intent of it; it teaches us as to deny ungodliness, so to deny uncharitableness: and as to live righteously and godly, so likewise to live quietly and peaceably in this present evil world.

(2) It also works and transmits it where it comes in the power of the Spirit going along with it. As it is a transforming doctrine in other respects, so especially in this amongst the rest as changing the hearts of those that do truly believe it, and receive it into a disposition like unto itself. It changes and alters men’s evil natures, and transforms them into contrary qualities; it takes away their natural fierceness, and makes them mild and tame, and to live in peace with other men.

2. The subjects of this unity--brethren.

(1) Brethren by nature and blood, and carnal generation, such persons as are children of one and the same natural parents: these are such of whom unity is required, who are brethren in the first, and primitive, and original acceptation of the Word by us; and there is nothing more unworthy when it is otherwise.

(2) Brethren in a civil sense, by custom, contract, or employment, or civil association, which is that which does more properly belong to yourselves; these are likewise brethren, and have peace and love and unity charged upon them.

(3) Brethren in a spiritual sense, from the principles and considerations of piety and Christian religion, these are again brethren: that profess the same faith, that worship the same God, that are members of the same Head, that expect the same heaven and salvation and future inheritance. There are none who have a better title to this appellation of brethren than such, and consequently none who have peace and unity more required of them, even in that consideration likewise.

3. The manifestation of this unity--dwelling together. Unity is much expressed in communion and sociableness of conversation, and as expressed in it, so likewise preserved by it, and nourished and kept up from it: those that forbear to meet in their persons, they do not so easily meet in their affections, nor in their hearts one with another; whereas that it is a very great help, and means, and conducement to this. It makes friends and Christians so much the better to understand one another, and to be accepted with each other’s dispositions, to know one another’s natures, and to discern one another’s graces, and to be sensible of one another’s perfections, and so consequently to receive the more comfort and benefit one from another. There is a very great advantage in such occasions and opportunities as these are, both for the doing and receiving of good.

II. The invitation to the observing of it.

1. As an excitement of faith. Behold it to believe it.

2. As an engagement of affection. Behold it to admire it.

3. As a provocation to obedience. Behold it to practise it, and to imitate it, and to conform unto it. (T. Horton, D. D.)

Christian unity

1. If our Christianity is genuine it must bear its own witness in the happy accord of our Churches, in the fraternal attitude of the various branches of the Church of Christ, and in the mutual love and helpfulness of believers.

2. Unity is not only essential to the Church’s vindication, but to her progress as well. The folly of the corps of a great army wasting their energies and opportunities in contentions over the merits of the various military codes and manuals of arms would justly excite contempt. A spectacle more pitiable still is that of rival denominations of Christians pausing in the great battle with sin and Satan to contend one with another over non-essential forms and dogmas. The multiplied variances and rivalries of sects are sources of bewilderment to the heathen, and stumbling-blocks in paths of missionary effort.

3. Again, unity is necessary to the development and growth in grace of the individual believer. Grace is an exotic that blooms only in an atmosphere of peace. The frosts of envy and the fires of contention blight and consume it. A Christian at enmity with his neighbour cannot discharge his duty to mankind.

4. Our estimate of the value and bliss of unity will be enhanced by attention to those intimations the Scriptures afford us concerning the life of the redeemed in heaven. There shall be the consummation of the Church’s unity. (S. G. Nelson.)

Christian unity

I. What it is.

II. Its excellence.

III. Means for attaining it.

1. The first thing needful is for each one of us to be united to Christ: without this, we shall in vain expect to be “members one of another.” “He is the Head over all things to the Church;” and to Him we must be united by faith.

2. Let us be “gentle towards all men”; willing to hope the best, and to make every allowance for the infirmities and imperfections, and even the errors of those who walk not with us in the things of God.

3. Practical co-operation. If we would “walk together as friends in the house of God,” we should act together in the service of our Master. (T. Preston, M. A.)

Unity of the Christian brotherhood

“Many things,” says Bishop Horne, “are good which are not pleasant, and many pleasant which are not good. But unity among brethren, whether civil or religious, is productive both of profit and of pleasure. Of profit, because therein consisteth the welfare and the security of every society; of pleasure, because mutual love is the source of delight, and the happiness of one becomes, in that case, the happiness of all.”

I. The nature of Christian unity among brethren.

1. They all receive the same infallible standard of belief and practice--the oracles of the living God.

2. An ingenuous and open avowal of the truths whereto they have already attained. They must not disguise their convictions in deference to the judgment of others; nor even seem to approximate towards any view which is not, according to their conscientious judgment, founded on the Word of God.

3. Cordial acceptance of Christ and His great salvation.

II. Several means which subserve its promotion. The cultivation of “a meek and quiet spirit.”

2. Habitual watchfulness against rash and uncandid judgments of our brethren. Let mutual jealousies and envyings be repressed as destructive of brotherly affection; and let there be no rivalry but that of provoking one another to love and good works.

3. Prayer--offering our united adorations, confessions, and thanksgivings at the throne of grace. (J. Smyth, D. D.)

The excellency of union

I. Its nature.

1. A oneness of sentiment.

2. A union in point of affection.

3. A sameness of principles.

4. Co-operation.

II. Its transcendent excellence.

1. Its moral fitness.

2. Its pleasing appearance.

3. Its beneficial influence.

III. The means of its promotion.

1. We must avoid a spirit of evil surmising, and guard against hard and uncharitable thoughts in reference to our fellow-professors, resolutely resisting every inclination to evil speaking and detraction.

2. As we are regularly dependent upon God for strength and support, it is of the utmost importance that we maintain constant communion with Him by fervent prayer; also that we uniformly regulate our conduct and conversation by the sacred Scriptures; steadily and conscientiously using every means which has a tendency to unite us more closely to our Christian brethren.

This subject--

1. Excites to close and serious self-examination.

2. Teaches us that discord in religious societies impedes the progress of the Gospel.

3. Describes a line of conduct for us in the future part of life. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.)

Unity among brethren

I. In what respects men are brethren.

1. By creation.

2. By regeneration.

3. By ecclesiastical ties.

II. “what course we must pursue to promote unity.

1. Form correct views of our relation to God and one another.

2. A correct sense of justice between man and man.

3. Distinguish between men and their religious opinions.

4. Make suitable allowance for the infirmities of human nature.

5. Put the best possible construction on the conduct of our brethren, and be always ready to forgive an injury.

III. Arguments for the pursuit of this course.

1. The peace of society requires it.

2. The honour of our holy religion.

3. It is one of the best evidences we can give of the genuineness of our Christian experience.

4. Life will soon be over, and Christians hope to dwell together in perfect unity in the kingdom of heaven. (T. Spicer.)

Let heaven’s brotherhood come in all the earth

“Behold!” This is more than look! Looking is a shallow thing compared with beholding. To behold is to hold yourself on to the object in view. As though the inspired poet had said, Hold your eyes, hold your hearts in the contemplation of the blessed society and joyousness of men and women whose hearts beat in perfect unison with God and with each other. Sing of your fathers and mothers, sing of your wives and husbands when their funeral is over; sing that their death is past and their blessed life begun. How good and how pleasant it is for them to be at home in their paradises, with their kindred immortals! Our brothers and sisters above know that their unity is not of their own making; they know that they owe it to the one Life--the Life of the Lord’s Love in them all. And they are quite as resolved to lead down this one Life into our bosoms as we are resolved to call it down. They are by no means losing heart, for their hearts live and beat in the all-patient, infinite Love of our common Father. On the contrary, they are fuller of hope and courage than ever; for the foretold consummation is nearing, and they are waxing stronger and stronger in the potency of Christ. The marriage of heaven and earth is coming (Revelation 22:1.). Let us believe that the hosts of our luminous friends above are intent on opening more direct pathways to our hearts, and that we and they are drawing nearer. The kingdom of heaven’s law of enrichment is through giving, for giving enlarges the capacity of receiving, “Are they not all ministering spirits,” who seek to intertwine their affections with our affections, in order to inweave heaven in our structure, and thus to make for us a more abundant entrance and welcome among them? The question which we must ask ourselves is, Are we making a corresponding use of our life in the flesh? Are we acquiring energies for future service and for higher honours and rewards? Do our deep wants awaken deep and intense prayers? Are we turning our temptations and sorrows to account by becoming more powerful in spirit? Jesus returned from His wilderness combats “in the power of the Spirit.” Were a child buried and still alive, with what anguish it would cry for help that it might be delivered and brought home! Are our cries piercing the heavens that we may be recovered from our lost estate, and inherit the eternal life with all our Father’s household? If so, we are making essential and eternal profit out of our temporary earthliness. To become members of the all-blessed family we must be individually purified, enlarged, and unified. So long as we are mere segments of corrupt and dying humanity we shall never be appeased, nor realize our Father’s purpose concerning us. We must be made whole. We must unite heaven and earth, God and nature in our personal experience. With the material universe, as a veil before our eyes, we must persistently hold the heavenly universe in our affections and thoughts. (J. Pulsford, D. D.)

The unity of believers

The oil here specified was very sacred. It was prepared with four ingredients--myrrh, cinnamon, calamus, and cassia. Its composition was thus a skilful union of diverse materials. Here were mingled the bitter, the aromatic, the sweet, the fragrant, substances very dissimilar, all compounded in the pure beaten oil. The prescription was Divine. The mystery and glory of true Christian oneness arises from its composite character. Men holding the same opinions in science, or philosophy, or theology, find it pleasant to dwell together in unity. True Christian brotherhood must be sought, not in doctrinal agreement, but in spiritual affinity. It is to be of spirits who are “in Christ.” Life in Him is the basis, and variety the charm. The music of the true Church of God is a harmony rather than a melody. The garments of our King smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia, not one fragrance alone. This truth has never been fully recognized by the Church. The Word of God is as full of commands to live in unity with the people of the Lord as it is to be separate from the people of the world. Separation from those who are His is as wrong as union with those who are not His. It is the downflowing and condescending that is common to both figures in the psalm. The precious ointment flows from head to beard, and from beard to the skirts of the garments. And the dew of lofty Hermon floats down to the mountains of Zion. The oneness of true believers is not to be cultivated amongst a select few, who have attained the lofty heights of some defined doctrinal scheme, but to pour out its fertilizing influence upon the lesser hills of Zion. And if this idea of downflowing be the true one, the figures are singularly suggestive. For the refreshment of the cool evening dew was far more precious in Zion than on Hermon. And assuredly the lesser hill had by far the greater honour. It was the lowly Zion, and not the snow-capped Hermon, that God chose for His tabernacle and the fountain-head of His blessing. It is the grandeur of the Christian life that the strong should bear the infirmities of the weak, and not please themselves. In the Hebrew the holy oil is said to descend upon the mouth of Aaron’s garments. This has suggested a curious ancient comment. By the mouth, which the Chaldaic version translates the speech, is said to be meant the breastplate or Urim and Thummim, which was the mouth of the oracle of God. And in the second figure of the psalm the suggestion is that of condescending to come into contact with that which is of higher honour. The unction of holy love is to flow over our utterance. If we think we have the oracles of God we must speak the truth in love. On the lower edge of Aaron’s robe were the golden bells which put forth sweet sounds wherever he went. All the music of our lives is to be sweetened with the consecrating unction of holy affection. (J. H. Cooke.)

Unity not uniformity

Let a difference be observed between “unity” and uniformity. The one is a Divine, the other a human thing. Acts of uniformity are the product of man. God only can make us the subjects of sacred “unity.” Uniformity we get in trees and hedges hacked, cut, and clipped, so as to reduce them to a common size and shape. “Unity” without uniformity we get in the trees of the forest, all growing according to the course of nature, of diverse shape, and size, and worth, but dependent for their wild strength and beauty on the same genial influences of nature, as they stretch out their thousand branches and myriad leaves to catch the light, and air, and dew, and showers of heaven. Uniformity we have in the classified assortment of flowers, arranged in pots or plots of ground according to their size and colour, no one sort allowed to mingle with another. “Unity” is the gathered bunch, worthy of the admiration of every beholder, whose difference of form, colour, and odour only adds to the loveliness of the flowers, which are all bound by one cord, enclosed in the one vessel, and made to drink of the same vital element,--the liquid stream of life. We are told that it is highly probable that in the wide domain of material nature there are to be found no two things alike, not even two drops of water, or two flakes of snow. Who ever knew two human faces alike? or two voices with precisely the same cadence? or two human forms identical in every particular? Is it, then, a thing of astonishment that in the mental and moral world there should be differences of thought, and judgment, and feelings? “One star differeth from another star in glory,” but amid all the varied glories of the “heavens” there is no want of “unity.” (Anon.)

Church union necessary to prosperity

Without union no Church can be prosperous. This, indeed, is applicable to all societies, whether small or great. A divided family: how unamiable! how helpless! A divided kingdom--a kingdom distracted with rival factions, and where the general welfare is overlooked: how can it stand! Its internal feuds tempt its stronger neighbour to make war upon it, and the aggression succeeds. And with still greater emphasis does this hold good as regards the Church. In this sacred territory no power is recognized except the law of love, and when this disappears the Spirit of God has no choice bug to depart. And when the Spirit is thus grieved, and flies from the scene of discord, who takes His place? Satan, who glories in dissension, and who has no other pleasure than the dark and hateful one of vexing the Church of Christ, and of luring men’s souls to perdition. In the Church, if anywhere on earth, peace should reign. If men’s minds are agitated by wars and rumours of wars, there should be one place where angry passions are unknown. Let the winds and the rains beat upon the Church: within its hallowed walls harmonious sounds should alone be heard. “In the house of God,” it was said nearly thirteen centuries ago, “in the Church of Christ they dwell with united affections, in concord, and in singleness of heart. And therefore came the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. A creature of cheerfulness and simplicity; bitter with no gall; fierce and violent with no savage beak and hooked talons; delighting in the dwellings of men, living together, and rearing their young in an house; flying side by side in their wanderings from their nests; sweetening life with society, and a natural affection; manifesting their peace with gentle kisses; and in all things living according to a law of love. Such simplicity, such love, should be seen in the Church; and from the dove the love of the brethren should take its pattern.” (N. McMichael.)

Pleasantness of unity

It is a pleasant thing for the saints and people of God to agree together; for the same word which is used here for “pleasant” is used also in the Hebrew for a harmony of music, such as when they rise to the highest strains of the viol, when the strings are all pub in order to make up a harmony; so pleasant is it, such pleasantness is there in the saints’ agreement. The same word is used also in the Hebrew for the pleasantness of a corn field. When a field is clothed with corn, though it be cut down, yet it is very pleasant--oh, how pleasant is it!--and such is the saints’ agreement. The same word in the Psalms is used also for the sweetness of honey, and of sweet things in opposition to bitter things. And thus you see the pleasantness Of it, by its being compared to the harmony of music, to the corn field, to the sweetnees of honey, to the precious ointment that ran down Aaron’s beard, and to the dew that fell upon Hermon and the hills of Zion: and all this to discover the pleasantness, profitableness, and sweetness of the saints’ agreement. It is a pleasant thing to behold the sun, but it is much more pleasant to behold the saints’ agreement and unity among themselves. (W. Bridge.)

Nature of vital union

The idea of unity does not demand the monotony of similarity, but unity in variety. Not the oneness of a trellis that supports the vine, or a pile of trellises, but of the plant which, with tendrils, leaf, and fruit, rears aloft in the summer air. Not the oneness of a stone or a pile of stones, but of a palace in which so many different materials and contrivances combine to shelter human life. Not the oneness of a child, but of a family of children who differ in age, character, and temperament, and chosen pursuits in life, bug are one in love and tender sympathy. (R. Venting.)

Believers united

The Rev. Dr. Cuyler, seeing at a Union meeting a Congregationalist deacon and a Quaker and a Methodist standing with clasped hands, and flanked by Baptist and Presbyterian clergymen, said, “It reminded me of the time when we college students were standing thus in the chemical lecture hall. The electric current leaped from the charged battery through the whole circle in an instant.” Thus will it be when the whole body of believers are linked to each other and to their Head. (E. P. Thwing.)

Unity by higher life and fellowship

Two men may start to ascend some lofty Alpine peak from points many miles apart down in the valley. They climb the steeps, they scale the narrow ledges that overlook the chasm; at times they are shrouded in the cloud-mist, and you begin go say they will never meet. Ah! but wait a while. Before the night falls they reach the sun-gilt summit, and, resting their weary limbs and refreshing their hungry and thirsty spirits, they find time and taste for pleasant intercourse before they fall asleep in the little hostel on the mountain-top. So many who seem hopelessly divided in opinion and creed when on the lower plane of life and experience, have only to climb to loftier heights of Divine truth to discover their oneness in the Lord, and their enjoyment of His bounty, and therein their fellowship one with the other. More abundant life is the Divine philosophy of more abiding unity between Christians. (H. O. Mackey.)

Strength in unity

Take up a thread, untwist it, and you shall find that it is made up of several threads, untwisting which, you shall find that they, also, are made up in the same way, and so on, and so on. Fit symbol of the true relationship of each member of any human family, or of the larger family of the Church, or the great Church of Churches, the Church of the living God. The various threads, so weak alone, become strong and mighty when twisted together; and, just as any cord is easiest broken where one or more of the threads are separated, so is it in the Church. Just because of increased strength in unity, in disunity there is increased weakness. If thou canst not take the place of a bigger thread, thou canst very easily take that of a lesser; and of the least the biggest are made. (Sword and Trowel.)