By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friend Church
April 07, 2024
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Psalm 133:1–3 (ESV)
1 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.
This past week I have reconsidered many things within my life. When I stand before you and speak, I am not only speaking with each of you, but I speak to myself as well. And often some of the hardest words that I say, are directed at my own spiritual condition.
Last week we celebrated that great day of hope. The day when Jesus, who had been beaten, crucified and pierced in the side by a spear, who was wrapped in burial clothes and laid in a tomb sealed with an imperial signet and left to decompose. The day when Jesus, who was sealed in the dark recesses of Sheol, rose from that state of separation and death and reentered life. I spoke about that day, and I asked what it is we actually believe?
That question chased me this week. I sat many evenings in my big blue chair contemplating that question as I prepared for our Tuesday talk and as I considered this week’s passage. What do we actually believe?
I spoke about death in a manner we probably are not used to. I spoke of death as separation and the activities that cause separation instead of the event that occurs to all humanity eventually. Why does physical death hurt so much? It is because the separation and division that often plague our societies at that point are permanent. My little sister passed away just over twenty-six years ago; I still feel the separation. My grandfather who just recently passed through that veil, the man that frequently inspired me and my grandmother who I so eagerly wanted to please have passed through that veil. And I am here. I am left wondering if they truly knew how much they meant to me. Did they ever know just how much they encouraged me? And there are moments when I wonder if I can continue without them.
I know that is dark. Death is. It is a separation where we no longer have an opportunity to reconcile past wrongs. We no longer have the chance to share another meal. We can no longer talk face to face and live together. What is left?
The thing is death occurs all around us all the time. We experience separation even in moments where both people are on this side of that dark veil. Last week I mentioned that frequently the Old Testament writers speak about death as a personality or activity instead of an event. We primarily think of it only as an event today. The tools or the scepters of death are bereavement and widowhood, the children of death are disease, disillusionment, and famine. When we live our lives dwelling in fear we are participating in death. When we live our lives perpetuating injustice we are participating in death. When we neglect and when we drift away from the relationships within our families and our communities we are participating in death, we uphold and deepen further separation.
Do you see why that question chased me all week? Do you get a sense of why I took the time to speak the way that I did? We participate in the very activities that bring about death instead of participating in activities that promote life.
Today, we turn away from death, and we get a glimpse of the other side. Today we sit with a song of Ascents of David. Ascents is a word that speaks of climbing up a stairway. This song is taking us up. It lifts us above the clouds and the fog that blocks our view, we climb up so that we can see beyond the ridge that hinders our sight. We consider a song of hope and encouragement.
“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!”
Notice the double positive. In poetry and songs similar descriptive words are often doubled to emphasize the sentiment. In this case we have good and pleasant. These are both nice words, but I do not think the English translation does enough to capture the intensity of what is written. When I say that something is good, what comes to mind? Sure, it is positive, but the Hebrew word means desirable. It is something that we want above all else, something we will work for, maybe even sacrifice short-term benefits to obtain. “Behold,” Hey listen to me this is not just good it is the best!
Pleasant also leaves a great deal out. It is pleasant and believe me I love pleasant. I would gladly take a pleasant relaxing afternoon over a one that is filled with stress. But again, the Hebrew has more strength behind it. This word a word used within the Song of Solomon during the discourse between the lovers:
Song of Solomon 1:15–17 (ESV)[He] 15 Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves.
[She] 16 Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful. Our couch is green; 17 the beams of our house are cedar; our rafters are pine.
Pleasant just does not cut it if you ask me. That is like saying that the passionate words shared between young newly-weds are, “you’re ok.”
No this is not just ok. “Behold, how good and pleasant it is…” Listen this is better than anything else. Hear me right now, you will not find anything better, this is the most important thing you will ever pursue. It is desirable, it is breathtaking.
What has this amount of value? When brothers dwell in unity.
I want that to just sink in for a moment. David was a man of passion. He was a man that would strip down and dance in praise. It is like the guys in the world cup pulling their shirts off in celebration of a sweet goal. But it is not a goal or a victory that he is celebrating. It is not landing a good job, or setting up a date with the person you have a crush on. He is this passionate, using the same adjectives that his son would later use to describe his romance, about unity.
I looked in nearly every bible translation that I own and most translate it good and pleasant. A couple translated pleasant as delightful which is nice. And it is not wrong, I am by no means saying that I could do a better job. But I just do not think we are receiving the Ascent that David is trying to convey. This unity or harmony which David is speaking about is something worth more than life itself. Yet when we use words like good and pleasant our mind seems to just shrug it off. We get the feeling that it would be nice to have, if it becomes available, but it is not something we will put a great deal of effort into achieving. It is like when asked if you would like fries with your burger, sure why not. Or would you like to round up a cent to donate to some charity, go ahead I do not care. Would you like some unity?
I want us to sit with this word unity for a bit. It means together in cooperation, as one. Unity is community, and unity is literally within the word community, come unity. I do not think that is the proper etymological origin of the word, but it works.
There is more. When the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek there was not a word that worked well for what unity represents. They attempted to use descriptions to build an understanding. Usually, they would use a word that means single or alone, which does not sound very pleasant, but occasionally they would use the word “monogenes” which means of one kind. According to the Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, monogenes is probably the more correct translation. I bring this up for one very important reason. We are very aware of this word. It is a word within the first verse many of us memorized as children.
“For God so loved the world he sent his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
What we see as “only begotten” or as the English standard version says “only”, is the Greek word monogenes. It means one of a kind or unique. Or in a more theological sense monogenes means of one essence.
It is oneness, being of one kind of one essence that David says is the most desirable. Now, I want to be careful because it can be easy for you to misinterpret what I am saying. When monogenes is speaking of Jesus, it is saying that Jesus and the Father are of one essence. Jesus is the unique son of God and there is no other spiritual being like him, because he is God the most high along with the Father and the Holy Spirit. When David is speaking of unity in this sense, he is not saying that one kind is better. This thought process has caused and is still causing a great deal of harm and injustice in the world. What David is speaking about transcends our labels and goes back to our origin. We are bearers of one image.
Now it is pleasant when brothers dwell in unity. What are brothers? This is like the question the scribes asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” Brother begins with family or blood relatives. It says brother, but in many languages a masculine word is often used to encompass all. It is good and pleasant when families or brothers and sisters dwell in unity. I want you to think back to your own childhood if you had siblings and remember a summer vacation where you spent time riding in the back seat of the car. How far did you travel in unity? How long did it take for a parent to threaten to pull over, turn around, or your very life?
How good and pleasant it would be if brothers and sisters could ride in a car together in unity.
But this word like neighbor expands. It begins close, but it extends out to our relatives and begins to include brothers as in members of the same tribe, and then nation, and then it continues to include everyone on the face of the earth. We are all brothers just as we are all neighbors, and we bear one image.
Now we should look at the word dwell. I am going through the words because I want us to fully understand what David is saying to us. The word dwell is a verb that speaks of sitting, remaining, or even marriage. It is the activity of being and living together.
I want us to consider for a moment the word dwell as marriage. This is not what David is saying but I want us to think about what is necessary for a healthy marriage. Marriage is more than physical intimacy; marriage is a relationship of mutual support. In the origin story we were told that it was not good for Adam, the mud man, to be alone. He needed a helper, so God caused Adam to fall asleep and out of his side he formed woman. It is at this point Adam or of earth became man and woman. Ish and ishah. Two sides of a whole, working together in mutual support, as God’s ambassadors to creation.
This mutual support, or mutual profit is what I want us to think about when we consider dwell. It is more than just living within the same neighborhood not grumbling about the weeds in the yard that are infesting yours. It is working together, looking out of each other. It is helping, sharing, sticking up for them when gossip is fluttering around. To dwell in unity is to love your neighbor as yourself.
The greatest thing in all the earth, the one thing we all should strive for, sacrifice for, to work to obtain is for mutual support of our neighbors. Loving them as you would love yourself because we are all bearers of God’s image.
“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!”
Precious oil. I do not know if we fully understand just how important this precious oil was to the people of Israel. This is a unique word in scripture, it is used only five times in the Old Testament. Usually, precious is used as an adjective describing oil. The oil is precious or valuable, secured in the storehouses of King Hezekiah which he shows off to the king of Babylon. Or it is sweet cane from a distant land as used in Jeremiah, when he says, “What use to me is frankincense that comes from Sheba, or sweet cane from a distant land.” In this case Jeremiah is speaking about God’s rejection of the sacrifices in the temple.
This precious oil, which is spoken of in this passage as the only instance that the word is used as a noun. It is the oil of sacrifice. It was used within the sacrificial system and was burned at the end of the ceremony to deodorize the area of the smell of burning flesh. This gave a sensational understanding that God had taken the impurity of our transgressions away and converted them into something more tolerable, even favorable. This same oil was also used to anoint the kings and the priests. It would be poured on their head. It would soak into the skin and the hair but was applied in such a quantity that it would flow down into their beard. Still soaking into the skin and continuing to flow until it began to drip onto the collar of the robe.
That is a great deal of perfume. The idea was to show abundant blessing and honor. Honor so great that it would run off of you and could be transmitted to others, because the oil would have gotten everywhere on Aaron. And this aromatic cloud would surround him, so you would know that he was approaching, and the blessing of God was near.
David then speaks of the dew of Hermon which falls on the mountains of Zion!
Dew is an important illusion in this text. In middle school many of us learned that dew is the water that condenses on a cool surface overnight from the water vapor in the air. It is like the sweat that gathers on the sides of the ice-cold Coke can on a hot and humid summer afternoon.
Dew again speaks of abundance and blessing. It speaks of an abundance of moisture, so much water is in the air that it can no longer hold it. But David says the dew of Hermon which falls on Zion. Mount Hermon is on the northeastern boarder of ancient Israel, in Bashan or the Golan heights region today. Mount Hermon was the tallest mountain in Israel, and it always had snow on its peak. It was a place that had abundant water, my research said that it averages sixty inches of rain a year. Here in Kansas City, we get an average of around thirty-eight inches. This water would run down from the slopes of Hermon, and it would gather to become the Jordan River.
We might think that that is what David is speaking about, but that is not dew that is rain. Israel is on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Warm winds would often blow into the land from the west off of the sea filled with moisture, and the cool winds would also blow south from the heights of Hermon through the valley. This hot and cold air would meet and abruptly cool forming dew to supplement the rain during hot summers. This dew was like manna from heaven. A blessing in an otherwise inhospitable location.
Like dew from Hermon which falls on the mountains of Zion!
There is more to these two places than these three simple verses let on. The precious oil is the fragrant blessing from God after the confession of our transgressions, but what about Hermon?
There is a great deal of mythology surrounding this mountain during the second temple period of history. Some stories say in the days before the great flood, the Watchers descended to Mount Hermon. It was at Hermon that the sons of God took the daughters of men as wives to produce the giants that promoted God to flood the earth. This might seem like a fairy tale to us, but around Mount Hermon there are several pagan shrines, and a place called the Pan’s Grotto, which is a deep ominous cave that some have said is the gate to hell. It is here at this place that Jesus asked his disciples an important question. Who do you say that I am? The answer Peter gave was, “You are the Christ, the son of living God.” Jesus looked at him and said,
“Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Matthew 16:17–19 ESV
Hermon was the source of transgression and the dwelling of Pan or death. But the dews come from there and fall on Zion. The interesting thing about Zion is that it is mentioned one hundred and fifty-two times in the Old Testament. Ninety-three times it is mentioned in the writings of the prophets. Fifty-three times it is used in poetry. Only six times does it occur in narrative writing. This means that the term is more symbolic than geographic.
Scholars that study the origin of words are not fully sure of how Zion came to be. It could mean to build up, to surround, or a refuge. But it could also originate from a word that means to dry up or to dry. They are not really sure, but usually when the word is used it points to the temple mount. This is interesting because the temple mount was built up. And before it became the temple mount it was used as a place of refuge for those who opposed David in his battles for Jerusalem. After the Ark of the Covenant was brought into Jerusalem, the idea of Zion being refuge fell away and the temple became prominent in both prophetic and poetic cases. But Zion does not mean Jerusalem.
In prophetic writings, Jerusalem is discussed both negatively and positively, but Zion is always spoken of in positive terms. Zion is where God dwells. And this is carried on into the New Testament, where Zion’s focus is theological and not based on geography.
The gates of hell are in Hermon and the dew of blessing falls on Zion. Fear, disillusionment, death awaits at Hermon, but the gates of hell will not prevail against the Rock upon which Jesus will build his church, Zion.
“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.”
What is it we actually believe? Do we believe fear and death? Do we believe that separation reigns and unity is a myth? We live in bondage of separation. People constantly offend, defend, argue, make complete fools of themselves. Our country is so divided that we are incapable of seeing when we are honestly trying to work things out for mutual benefit.
I live in separation. Part of it is due to my hearing deficiency where I cannot hear, so I withdraw from the conversation, and part of it is because I am human. I struggle with unity. I fight with my siblings. I argue with friends. I can be a jerk. But I recognize this in myself. I do not want to live in that separation. I do not want my life to come to a close with a shadow hanging over me or anyone else where we wonder if we expressed our appreciation for all they have done for us. I do not want to experience the sorrow of unexpressed love. That is the death Jesus swallows and that is the victory of His resurrection.
He reverses the curse of Hermon and allows the dew to fall on Zion. Are we willing to come down off the mountains of our own prideful dignity and live in mutual support of our fellow image bears in the dwelling place of God? Are we willing to live?
Previous Messages:
What Prevents Me?
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church April 28, 2024 Click here to join our meeting for worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Acts 8:26–40 (ESV) 26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to…
By This We Know Love
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church April 21,2024 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship: Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 1 John 3:16–24 (ESV) 16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.…
Be Angry, and Do Not Sin
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church April 14, 2024 Click Here to Join Our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Psalm 4:1–8 (ESV) 1 Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me…
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You did not comment on how this unity is to be achieved.
Posted by Ellis Hein | April 7, 2024, 9:30 PMWell…I did say we have to be willing come down from the mountain of prideful dignity. Disunity occurs when we neglect the mutual support. But yes I do think you are correct I could have done better at speaking to how to achieve unity.
Posted by jwquaker | April 7, 2024, 10:12 PM