Psalms 133+134

Introduction

We’ve reached the final two Songs of Ascents: these psalms which were written for the pilgrims who were making their way to Jerusalem for one of the annual religious festivals. Or perhaps, some of them may have been written for the exiles who were returning to Jerusalem from Babylon. And in today’s two psalms, we can imagine that the psalmist is packing his bags and he’s getting ready to return home. And he thinks back over his time in Jerusalem and it’s been wonderful. But now it’s time to return home and he asks those who serve in the temple to keep praising the Lord.

Psalm 133

In Psalm 133, he’s thinking back over his time in Jerusalem and it’s been wonderful. How good it is, he says in verse 1, and how pleasant it is, when brothers and sisters live together in unity. He’s thinking about his time in Jerusalem. Many of the Lord’s people have gathered there for one of the religious festivals. And they enjoyed peace and harmony and unity among themselves. The psalmist has been part of a great crowd of people who have stood side by side to offer sacrifices to the Lord and to worship him in his holy temple. And so, it’s been good and pleasant. If something is good and pleasant, then you want it, don’t you? Something that is good and pleasant is desirable. And that’s what the psalmist found in Jerusalem with all of God’s people.

Do you remember the first Song of Ascents where the psalmist complained that he was surrounded by liars and men who hated peace? Woe to me, he said in that psalm, because of the people who were around him. But his time in Jerusalem has been the opposite, because he’s been surrounded by people who love the Lord. And it’s been good and pleasant.

And he uses two images in verses 2 and 3 to describe what it is like when brothers and sisters live together in unity. I’ll take the second one first, because it’s perhaps easier for us to understand. He says in verse 3 that it’s like the dew of Hermon falling on Mount Zion. Hermon was a mountain and it was nowhere near Mount Zion. And so, the psalmist probably means Hermon-like dew or abundant dew. Brothers and sisters dwelling together in unity is like one of those mornings when you go outside and the grass is dripping wet with dew. And the dew is refreshing. It revives dry and lifeless grass. And so, the psalmist is saying that his time in Jerusalem with all of God’s people to worship the Lord together has been refreshing like that. His tired and weary soul has been refreshed because of the fellowship of God’s people.

And notice how he says in verse 3 that the dew falls on Mount Zion. So, the fellowship he has enjoyed and the refreshment he’s experienced is a blessing that comes down from God to his people. Just as God sends the dew, so he blesses his people by giving them peace.

So, brothers and sisters live together in unity is like dew which God sends on the ground. And it’s like precious oil, poured on Aaron’s head. Aaron was Moses’s brother and the first high priest. And when the psalmist describes oil being poured on Aaron’s head and running down on his beard and down the collar of his robes, he’s referring to Aaron’s ordination. You can read about it in Leviticus 8. And the oil signified how Aaron and the other priests were set apart for this holy work by the Holy Spirit.

God sending dew on the land is great, but God providing his people with priests to represent them before God and to offer sacrifices for their forgiveness was even greater. It was one of the Lord’s greatest blessings on his people. And brothers and sisters dwelling together in unity is a blessing like that. It’s one of God’s good gifts which he gives to his people. He enables us to live together in peace, because he enables us to love one another and to bear with one another.

And the psalm ends with the psalmist saying that there, on Mount Zion, the Lord bestows his blessing. So, he’s blessed his people with peace and unity. But he also blesses them with life for evermore. He gave his Old Testament people life in the Promised Land, where they enjoyed his blessings. And life in the Promised Land was a foretaste of everlasting life in the Promised Land of Eternal Life in the new heavens and earth, where all of God’s people will dwell together in unity and peace and where we’ll worship the Lord together for ever and for ever.

And we’re able to enter the Promised Land of Eternal Life because of Christ, our Great High Priest, who received the Holy Spirit without measure and who offered himself as the once-for-all, perfect sacrifice for sins to make peace for us with God. And because we have peace with God through faith in Christ, we can look forward to being part of the new Jerusalem to come in the new heavens and earth, where we’ll join with all of God’s people from every nation and from every generation to worship the Lord our God. And we’ll unite our hearts and our voices and we’ll lift up holy hands to praise his name. And it will be wonderful. It will be wonderful, because nothing will divide us and together we’ll see the Lord our God and we’ll behold his glory for ever and for ever.

And as a foretaste of that, we gather together on Sundays. We gather together with our brothers and sisters in the Lord to hear the good news of Jesus Christ who loved us and who gave up his life for us. And in the preaching of the gospel, God displays his glory to us. And as we behold his glory in the preaching of gospel of Jesus Christ, we are united together in our love for God and in our praise of his name. And since this is what we’ll do for all eternity, then we should do everything we can to preserve the unity of God’s people and we should do nothing and say nothing and think nothing that will spoil the unity of Christ’s church here on earth.

Psalm 134

In Psalm 133, the psalmist is, as it were, packing his bags to go home. And as he packs his bags, he reflects on how wonderful it has been to be with God’s people to worship the Lord.

And in Psalm 134, it’s as if he’s on his way home. But before he leaves, he turns to the servants of the Lord who minister by night in the house of the Lord and he tells them to bless the Lord. That is, praise the Lord and give thanks to him for his greatness and goodness. And he tells them in verse 2 to lift up their hands in the sanctuary of the temple and to praise the Lord.

So, the psalmist is on his way home. But the priests and Levites are able to remain in Jerusalem for longer; and they’re able to serve the Lord in his sanctuary. And the psalmist wants them to keep praising the Lord, because the Lord deserves our praise and worship always. He deserves to be praised throughout the day and throughout the night and for evermore. So, you servants of the Lord: praise the Lord our God.

And in verse 3 it’s as if the priests turn to the psalmist and they pronounce a blessing on him from the Lord: ‘May the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion.’ They say the Lord blesses from Zion, because God was said to dwell in Jerusalem which was built on Mount Zion. So, the priests are saying: May the Lord who lives on Zion bless you.

The psalmist wants the priests to praise the Lord. And the priests pronounce a blessing on the Lord’s people. And God has blessed us through Jesus Christ our Great High Priest with one spiritual blessing after another, because through faith in Christ we are pardoned and accepted by God and we have peace with God and assurance of his love and joy in the Holy Spirit and growth in grace and his help to persevere in the faith until we’re made perfect in his presence. And so, we’ll live with him in body and soul for ever and we’ll receive that fullness of joy and those pleasures for evermore which Christ has prepared for his people. And there, beholding the glory of God, we’ll praise the Lord for ever and for ever.

And the thing is: we’ll never have to leave. The psalmist enjoyed his time in Jerusalem, where he was able to join together with God’s people to worship the Lord in the temple and to praise him for his goodness to them. He discovered that is was good and pleasant to dwell together with fellow believers. But then the festival was over and they had to separate and go to their own homes. But the day is coming when we’ll gather before the Lord in the new heavens and earth and we’ll never have to leave. How good and pleasant it is when brothers and sister dwell together in unity. Well, how much better and more pleasant it will be when we can do that for ever.

This is God’s will for us. The Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden signified God’s promise of eternal life in his presence. By eating the forbidden fruit, Adam forfeited for himself and for us the right to receive eternal life in the presence of God. But by his perfect life among us, and by his death on the cross for our forgiveness, and by his resurrection from the dead, Christ has won for us the right to receive eternal life in the presence of God, where we’ll be perfectly holy and perfectly happy for ever and for ever. And we’ll do what we were made to do which is to behold his glory and to worship him for ever.

And because this is our great hope, then we gather together on Sundays to do together what we’ll do together for ever. And so, we gather together on Sundays to behold God’s glory, which he displays to us in the preaching of the gospel. And by faith we look forward to the day when we’ll behold God’s glory on his holy mountain in the new heavens and earth and we’ll praise him for his kindness to us in Christ.