Tuesday, October 25: Psalm 133- Unity in God's family.

How precious is unity to the Lord? It is a pretty big deal if I read Psalm 133 correctly.

How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard, down on the collar of his robe. It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the LORD bestows his blessing, even life forevermore (Ps 133).

Now I admit that the image of oil running down the head to the beard isn’t exactly appealing to me. My immediate reaction is ‘Yuck, what a mess!’ But then I work to step into the word picture, it comes alive. Oil anointed Aaron when he became priest of Israel, so this is a sacred moment being described. The oil is a sign of God’s anointing so gobs of oil signals gobs of anointing. Putting these together pictures the overabundance of God’s anointing on Aaron, the priest of God among the people of God. And that is precious and wonderful.

I sit early in the morning. It has been a dry week and yet the grass is thick and wet with early morning dew. Morning dew on the ground is another precious sight. Grass frons lap it up. Small animals ingest life giving water as they scurry and taste and forage. Dew is a beautiful thing and in dryer climates it sustains life. Dew truly is a blessing bestowed from the Lord.

How important is unity?  It is a precious to the Lord as abundant anointing upon the priest. It is as precious to the Lord as dew is to life…

Now my meditations push me to consider unity in God’s family… denominationally divided, how do we exude unity?

Core beliefs... Israel had 12 tribes and yet the core beliefs are what kept them one (at least during the best of times).

The Lord God as singularly worshiped… there is no other God but the Lord revealed in the NT as Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit. Certainly this is a core belief so it could be implicitly included above but it is essential so it stands alone for me.

Celebrations… this causes me to appreciate in a deeper way Christmas, Easter, and Good Friday. On those days, like the great pilgrim feasts of Israel, God’s world wide body of Christ stands together and proclaims our core truths.

Unity… it is a big deal to the Lord. How am I enhancing unity? How are you???

Lord, I believe in the holy catholic universal church and the common-union of saints. I believe, no matter our human differences we are one in Your sight. Help me, Jesus, to take these beliefs and make them a practical reality of how I live. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.