Unity Among Brethren – Psalm 133: 1-3

Unity Among Brethren Introduction According to popular definition: unity is the state of being united or joined as a whole. Anoth...

Unity Among Brethren

Introduction

According to popular definition: unity is the state of being united or joined as a whole. Another definition put it as being in harmony or one in spirit.

Lack of unity is one of the greatest ways to destroy an organization or group both inside and outside of the church. If we are fighting against each other, we become neutralized and of little power to accomplish anything of great significance. No church, organization, or team can move forward without unity in vision, culture, and behaviours.

As important as unity is, it does not take too much to destroy unity in any organization. Something as simple as a difference of opinions on how things should be done, and the door is opened wide for division. 

Unity sometimes could be for the wrong reasons which I call false unity (would rather call it uniformity) such as:

• Building the Tower of Babel Genesis 11: The people came together after the flood and decided to work against the purpose of God for humanity to “Be fertile and increase, fill the earth” (Gen. 1:28). And after the flood, God blessed Noah by reiterating the very same words: “Be fertile and increase, and fill the earth” (Genesis 9:1).
• About 40 Jews came together and made a vow not to eat nor drink until they kill Paul: Acts. 23:12-13

This message will be centred on the importance of unity to the body of Christ looking at Psalm 133 which was composed by King David. It will also look into how to ensure and maintain unity among the people of God.

The effect of unity among the people of God Psalm 133:1

 “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!”

Psalm 133 is believed to have been written by King David at a time when the people of Israel gathered to make him King after the death of Ish-bosheth.

God instructed Samuel to anoint David king while Saul was still alive due to a fall out in his relationship with God and his gross disobedience to God’s instruction. This pitched him against Saul who decided to fight for the retention of the kingship in his lineage and the only practical way for him to do this was to kill David.

David became a fugitive in order to save his life and remained one until the death of Saul. When Saul died, his son Ish-bosheth was made to replace him but that wasn’t the plan of God for Israel; eventually, he was assassinated. When Ish-bosheth was made King, the tribe of Judah broke away to make David their own king splitting the kingdom in two but the death of Ish-bosheth brought the two kingdoms back together.

During the coronation while all Israel gathered to make David king, he was moved seeing his people united again; every tribe together sharing brotherly love and this brought about his expression of awe by qualifying this experience doubly “good” and “pleasant”

When the people of God are united, good things happen; it brings about growth and progress in the body of Christ.

The sacredness of Unity Psalm 133:2

“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.”

David also liken unity to Aron’s anointing oil which was quite sacred and precious according to Exodus 30:22-25:

²² Then the Lord said to Moses, ²³ “Take the following fine spices: 500 shekels of liquid myrrh, half as much (that is, 250 shekels) of fragrant cinnamon, 250 shekels of fragrant calamus, ²⁴ 500 shekels of cassia—all according to the sanctuary shekel—and a hin of olive oil. ²⁵ Make these into a sacred anointing oil, a fragrant blend, the work of a perfumer. It will be the sacred anointing oil. ²⁶ Then use it to anoint the tent of meeting, the ark of the covenant law, ²⁷ the table and all its articles, the lampstand and its accessories, the altar of incense, ²⁸ the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the basin with its stand. ²⁹ You shall consecrate them so they will be most holy, and whatever touches them will be holy. ³⁰ “Anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them so they may serve me as priests. ³¹ Say to the Israelites, ‘This is to be my sacred anointing oil for the generations to come. ³² Do not pour it on anyone else’s body and do not make any other oil using the same formula. It is sacred, and you are to consider it sacred. ³³ Whoever makes perfume like it and puts it on anyone other than a priest must be cut off from their people.’”

The above passage shows how very important and significant the anointing oil was and for David to liken brotherly unity to such; signifies how immensely important it is. God cherishes and loves our togetherness and encourages his people to always be one which was one of the strong prayers that Jesus prayed before he ascended to heaven according to John 17:20-21: ²⁰ “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

Unity brings spiritual refreshment and blessing Psalm 133:3

“It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.” There the Lord commanded the blessing”.

God commands his blessing where peace is cultivated; by which is meant, that he testifies how much he is pleased with concord amongst men, by showering down blessings upon them. The same sentiment is expressed by Paul in other words ( 2 Corinthians 13:11 Philippians 4:9 ), "Live in peace, and the God of peace shall be with you." --John Calvin

Illustration of the Dew of Harmon by Lois Tverberg:

“In the dry land of Israel, rain doesn’t fall for six months between May and October. Between that time dew, tal, is just as essential as rain, coming nightly in the summer as the fruit is growing. Without it, the fruit will shrivel and not mature.

Because water was so important to the livelihood of the country, abundant rains were understood to be a sign of prosperity and blessing, like a good paying job with nice benefits would be today. But just like our lives, people could plan that part of the year would be bountiful with rain, and part of the year would be parched and dry. In the same way, we can count on some times of blessing and some times of want in our lives.

With those things in mind, Psalm 133:1-3 has been very meaningful to me. This verse speaks about the dew of Mt. Hermon falling on the mountains of Jerusalem. Mt. Hermon, in the north, receives enormous amounts of dew from the Mediterranean during much of the year — plants are drenched every night. Jerusalem is in the south and receives much less. But in a year that it receives a lot of dew, the fruit grows extremely well — it’s like a super-powered fertilizer has been poured on the land.”

 There is divine blessing and fruitfulness in the unity of the people of God; just like the dew on Mount Harmon nourishes its soil and its vegetation, oneness in God makes the body of Christ productive and strengthened to successfully fight the battle of faith with the assurance of victory.

Building a culture that enhances unity

We must be clear about Unity: we should have at the back of our mind that having deferring opinions does not indicate that we are not united but an indication that we all have free minds to reason and air our opinions but all must be guided by the vision and focus which is the end goal.

Submit to one another: When the body of Christ willingly submits to one another for the good of others, the grace and power of God seems to be unleashed in a powerful way. At the core of mutual submission is a servant heart and humility. As leaders we must be willing to submit to each other. The book of Ephesians 4:2 says; “be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” Humility must start with the leaders, not those being led.  When we willingly bow to each other, great power is released in our organization, and unity is achieved in our team!

Promote a gossip-free culture: One sure way to improve unity is to reduce gossip on your team and redirect your team to look for and see the best in each other! Often, I hear people say that they cannot help but gossip. Our human nature seems to feed off of gossip, however gossip is extremely destructive in our organizations. Gossip is simple to fight...just refuse to listen when someone offers it. As an organization, it is mission critical to agree together to embrace a gossip free culture.

Openness: We must be open in our dealings with one another and should be free to openly discuss our differences so as to allow us to confront such together and address them in love.

Love: We must learn to show absolute agape love to one another. When we love each other with the love of Christ, our hearts get knitted together.

Forgiveness: We must be willing ready to forgive one another no matter how much we feel offended. Lack of forgiveness is one of the greatest vices that can bring a group of people down. If we cannot forgive one another, it will be difficult to fellowship together, pray together, share ideas together, build together or strategies together. Colossians 3:13-14 says; ”bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. "

What is required of us all today to renew our passion for togetherness and bring about Unity in our church.

Take active and bold step to reach out ( Matthew 18:15-17): If there is someone in the congregation that you are at loggerhead with, you need to start from this moment to reconcile with that person; you are creating a broken link if you cannot forgive and reunite with fellow member for the advancement of the kingdom of God. Reach out to them today, if you still have the pain of what has been done to you, ask for the spirit of God to alleviate that pain now where you are seated and get across to that person to talk it out and end it with an embrace and pray together.

We would be deceiving ourselves if we keep living with grudges and we come together every Sunday to fellowship together, we are only coming to keep up appearances because our service can't be acceptable to God. Christ said in Matthew 5:24, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.

Let us build a borderless community: we should avoid schism or cliques in the house of God. Apostle Paul warned the Corinthian Church about division in 1 Corinthians 3:4-5 - "for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal?"

We should encourage an environment that is borderless such that is devoid of ethnicity, race, colour, culture and creed for we are all one body in Christ Jesus with one mission and goal which is to populate the kingdom of God and deplete the kingdom of the devil.

Conclusion 

 We are one body in Christ and as believers, we must be united and in one accord. It is in our unity that we can actually win the world for Christ. United in prayer, in purpose and in doctrine to ensure the blessing of God and a time of refreshment from God just like the Dew of Hermon.

Everyone is important and matters in the kingdom, we must ensure that no one is secluded amongst us; we should understand that the least member is essential to the completeness of Christ's body.

I pray that God will help us to be one in Him and create in us the desire to love one another, embrace one another, forgive one another and live according to His purpose here on earth so that we will be worthy of reigning with Him in His eternal glory, amen.