day no. 14,661: brothers dwelling in unity

Psalms 133
Behold, how good and pleasant it is
when brothers dwell in unity!
2 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!
3 It is like the dew of Hermon,
which falls on the mountains of Zion!
For there the Lord has commanded the blessing,
life forevermore.

I led my family through this Psalm the other day at the dinner table. After another session of griping and groaning over "who had it first?" or "stop looking at me!" (who can remember?) I declared a cease fire.

I opened up this simple Psalm and from the text explained how great the privilege is to bless a home, a community, a church, a land by simply fighting on the same team. How blessed everyone, including the brothers themselves, is when they dwell in unity.

The key words are "dwell" and "unity."

Dwell means to live with, to be with, to walk along side, to live among. It is sometimes easier to produce unity by separation. If you go to your room and I go to my garage, we have unity. We aren't fighting because we aren't together. We are on the same page because we aren't in the same room. That is NOT what the Psalm is exalting as a target.

Unity means together, unification, collaboration, togetherness, knitted or woven into one. True unity is accomplished by being in the same room and being on the same team. To dwell together in unity is the goal and our challenge from Scripture is to live together. Not just live in the same house or under the same roof, but to live and move and have our being in the context of others who are also living and moving and having their being. This means we will bump into each other on occasion. There will be accidents and smashed fingers and bruised foreheads and sore hips. There will also be intentional tackles and harsh words launched like rockets. But to dwell in unity is to forgive much as we've been forgiven much.

There is more at stake than personal preference. The blessing of the land around us and our testimony is at stake. Our hospitality can be leveraged for the Gospel when those who are welcomed see a family genuinely loving each other. To see forgiveness and repentance and charity at work under a roof with so much opportunity for chaos, bitterness and revenge will produce an impression on guests.

God has commanded a blessing of life forevermore to follow such obedience. Blessing MUST come and it MUST come in the capacity of life forevermore. So blessing is not hit or miss and it is not "meets" or "somewhat exceeds," it is assured and excellent. It is a guarantee and it is garish. It is going to be over the top and should be completely expected to exceed our imaginations.

So let us DWELL together in UNITY and watch God BLESS us and our neighbors for His glory, our growth and our neighbor's good. Amen!