Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Beauty of Unity Among God’s People (Psalm 133) | Charles Spurgeon

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The Beauty of Unity Among God’s People (Psalm 133) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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  You know, I was thinking about this the other day when you look
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  at a massive piece of industrial machinery like a giant turbine
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  or a factory assembly line. Oh yeah, like the really heavy
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  duty stuff. Right.
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  The stuff that takes tons of force to operate.
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  The biggest threat to that machine breaking down is almost
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  never external. Oh, I see where you're going.
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  Yeah, I mean, it's not a sudden storm taking off the roof, and
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  it's not a catastrophic outage that wrecks the parts.
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  The thing that destroys the machine is entirely internal.
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  It's friction. Spot on you.
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  Just have metal grinding against metal over and over again.
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  That's it. You get 2 gears that are, you
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  know, even a fraction of a millimeter out of alignment and
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  over time they will literally tear each other.
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  Apart. Yeah, they shear the teeth right
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  off the cogs. It's violent.
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  And they generate a massive amount of heat in the process
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  too. They just keep getting hotter
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  and hotter until the whole system seizes up.
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  It stops working altogether. But then you know when you apply
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  the right lubricant to that exact same system, suddenly
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  those same gears pulling the exact same massive amount of
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  weight run completely silent. It's true, it almost feels
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  unnatural how smooth the operation becomes when it's
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  properly oiled. It changes the entire physical
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  dynamic of the machine. The tension is gone, the heat
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  dissipates, and the energy actually goes toward producing
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  something useful. Instead of just destroying the
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  parts involved. Right.
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  So I want you to keep that image of the grinding gears and the
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  silent, lubricated machine in your mind, because that is the
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  reality we're getting into today.
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  It's a great visual for what we're going to talk.
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  About Welcome to Reformed Thinking.
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  I'm so glad you could join us today.
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  This is where we take the historical texts that shape our
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  understanding of faith and theology and bring them right
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  into the present moment. So for you listening right now,
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  the mission for our time together is zeroing in on a
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  short but incredibly dense text. Very dense.
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  Yeah, from Charles Spurgeon's classic work The Treasury of
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  David, we're going to unpack his commentary regarding Psalm 133.
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  And, you know, it's a text that a lot of people might just
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  Passover quickly. Oh for sure, it's only three
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  verses. Right.
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  It's incredibly short, but it packs an astonishing amount of
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  imagery into those 3 verses. I mean, you can spend weeks
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  looking at the mechanics of what the author is describing.
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  Here, Well, let's start by setting the scene properly,
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  because to understand it we have to look at how this Psalm was
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  actually used by the people of Israel.
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  Yeah, the context is everything. It was part of a collection
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  called The Songs of Degrees, or sometimes they're called The
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  Songs of a Sense, right? And the pilgrims of Israel would
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  sing these hymns as they literally walked uphill to
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  Jerusalem for their yearly festivals.
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  We should linger on that for a second.
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  Yeah, because we hear the word Pilgrim and we tend to think of
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  something very sanitized, like a nice Sunday stroll.
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  Oh, right, like a parade. Yeah, but this is a hot, dusty,
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  exhausting and often very dangerous uphill climb.
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  And they're traveling in these huge, sprawling groups, which
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  means you have all the natural friction of travel.
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  Oh, absolutely You have tired children, hungry adults, people
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  stepping on each other's toes, literal dust in the air.
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  I can't even imagine the whining.
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  So much whining. Is the stark contrast when you
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  look at the hymnal they are using for this specific trip,
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  because the previous song they would have sung just a page
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  before this one is Psalm 110. Which is heavy.
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  It's so heavy. That is a text full of war,
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  blood, lamentation and judgement.
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  Yeah, talks about shattering kings.
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  Right. And filling places with dead
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  bodies. It is a violent, harsh reality.
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  But then they turn the page to Psalm 133, and suddenly it is
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  entirely about peace, sweetness, and light.
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  The tonal shift is just massive. I mean, they're walking up to
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  the city, leaving behind the battles, the daily grind, the
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  constant threat of enemies, and they are suddenly focusing their
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  minds entirely on the beauty of gathering together in one place.
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  So the core theme here is the rare and beautiful nature of
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  brethren dwelling together in unity.
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  So OK, let's unpack this. Let's do it.
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  Because while the concept of getting along sounds simple
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  enough on paper, the commentators Spurgeon pulls
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  together reveal A staggering amount of of divine architecture
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  behind it. We aren't just talking about
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  being polite at a dinner party. No, not at all.
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  We are talking about a spiritual mechanism that defies our basic
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  human nature. And that is a crucial
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  distinction we need to make right out of the gate.
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  We are looking at a state of being that does not just happen
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  by accident. No, you have to work for it, or
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  well, it has to be created. Right.
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  According to historical scholars like Joseph Addison Alexander,
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  King David is the likely author of this sparkling little sonnet.
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  OK And when you look at David's life, he knew the bitter taste
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  of division first hand. I mean, he was uniquely
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  qualified to write a song about unity precisely because he lived
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  through the absolute misery of discord.
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  Oh he had a front row seat to how bad things can get.
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  I mean his own sons tried to kill him and steal his throne.
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  Absalom. Right.
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  Yeah, Absalom. It's one of those heartbreaking
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  stories, a father running from his own kid.
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  He had a front row seat to that, and he also had the historical
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  record of his ancestors. Think about the history of
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  Joseph's brothers. Oh wow.
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  That was a defining Family Division in Israel's history.
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  It was a household absolutely consumed by jealousy to the
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  point where they threw their own brother into a pit.
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  And sold him into slavery. Right, right.
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  That fracture almost destroyed the promised lineage.
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  David knew all about that history, and he also lived
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  through the national alienations of his own era.
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  The Civil Wars. Yeah, he saw the civil strife
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  and the fractures among the tribes before he even got to the
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  throne. He knew what family friction and
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  national friction felt like in his bones.
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  So when he sings about unity, it's not naive.
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  Not at all. It's not some utopian fantasy
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  written by a guy sitting in a pristine, quiet tower.
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  It is the sigh of a man who knows how rare peace actually
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  is. He knows the gears usually
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  grind. He knows the default human
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  setting is war. We default to selfishness, to
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  splitting apart, to defending our own territory.
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  Yeah, my stuff, my space. So when genuine peace happens,
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  it is a massive disruption of the normal order.
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  Which brings us to the very first word of the Psalm, David
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  Wright's Behold. Such a great opening.
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  Now, I have to be honest with you, when I read the word
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  behold, it feels a little archaic to me.
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  Sure. Yeah.
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  Why does David start with that command?
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  I mean, either people are getting along or they aren't,
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  right? Why make it a spectator sport?
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  Isn't unity just something you feel in the room?
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  You'd think so. Yeah, why command us to actively
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  stop and stare at it? Because, as the text asserts,
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  true unity is a wonder seldom seen.
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  Since it's not our default setting and we are naturally
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  prone to division, when genuine Unity happens, it is an absolute
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  anomaly. It's a freak occurrence,
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  basically. Pretty much.
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  God himself looks at it with approval.
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  Therefore we are commanded to inspect it.
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  We are told to pause, to gaze upon it, because inspecting it
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  actually charms us into imitation.
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  Oh, I like that. Charms us into imitation.
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  We have to note it well because if we just glance at it, move
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  on, we will completely miss the mechanics of how it is working.
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  I see what you mean. You can't just enjoy the smooth
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  of the machine. You have to open the hood and
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  figure out why the gears aren't grinding.
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  You have to study the lubricant. Yes, so the text says.
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  Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell
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  together in unity. I love the astronomical analogy
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  that comes out of the commentary here.
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  Oh the stars, yeah. It compares the specific
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  combination of the words good and pleasant to the conjunction
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  of two stars of the first magnitude.
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  E is a striking visual for anyone who has ever looked up at
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  the night sky. It really is because in regular
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  life things can be good for you, like taking bitter medicine,
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  right? Or going through physical
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  therapy, or accepting a really harsh truth from a friend.
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  Those things are good, but they are not very pleasant to
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  experience in the moment. They hurt.
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  Yeah, they sting. And on the flip side, things can
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  be highly pleasant, like a terrible habit or eating an
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  entire chocolate cake in one sitting.
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  Sounds pretty pleasant to me. Right, but they are definitely
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  not good for your long term health.
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  Obviously not. So to find a state of being
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  where the goodness and the pleasantness overlap entirely,
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  where it is as pleasant as it is good, and as good as it is
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  pleasant, that is an incredibly rare overlap.
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  Classical commentators breakdown this exact overlap using 3
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  distinct classifications, and this is incredibly helpful for
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  understanding the depth we are dealing with here.
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  OK, let's hear them. They say this unity is first
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  bonum utile. Bonum utile.
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  Yeah, which means it is useful and advantageous.
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  There is a tangible practical benefit to brethren dwelling
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  together. So it actually accomplishes
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  something in the real world. It is not just a theoretical
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  feeling of warmth in your chest. Right.
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  It means resources are shared, burdens are lifted, and the
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  community can actually withstand outside pressure.
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  It gets work done. It does.
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  Second, they call it bonum honestum.
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  OK, Anastum meaning honest. Moral really, Meaning it is
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  morally excellent. It is good in its very nature,
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  it is entirely righteous and aligns with the character of
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  God. And 3rd, it is bonum jukundum,
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  meaning it is pleasing and sweet to the senses.
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  The commentators point out that pleasure is a kind of goodness
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  that people will part with almost anything to obtain.
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  Oh, people spend their whole lives chasing pleasure.
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  Exactly. So when you combine all three,
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  useful, morally excellent and deeply pleasing, you are looking
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  at something extraordinary. And to try and capture that
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  sheer pleasantness, that sweetness, the commentary offers
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  these incredible physical analogies.
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  I will love these. I want to spend a few minutes on
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  these because they really ground an abstract concept in sensory
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  experience. First, the historical writer
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  William Bridge says true agreement is like the highest
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  strains of a vial when the strings are tuned to perfect
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  harmony. So think about the physics of a
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  string instrument for a moment. OK?
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  The strings on a vial or a cello are literally under immense
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  physical tension. They are being pulled tightly
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  across a bridge in opposite directions by the pegs.
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  Right. If they aren't tight, they don't
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  make a sound. That tension is absolutely
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  required for the instrument to work.
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  And they are different strings too.
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  They have different thicknesses, different gauges, and they
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  naturally want to produce completely different notes.
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  Spot on. But when they are tuned
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  correctly, that tension produces a resonance that is just
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  beautiful. They do not lose their distinct
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  identities as separate strings. AG string is still AG string.
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  Right, but the frequencies they vibrate at complement each other
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  so perfectly that they make one sound.
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  That harmonic resonance actually amplifies the overall sound.
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  Oh wow. The unity of those strings
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  creates a volume and a beauty that none of them could ever
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  achieve vibrating on their own. That makes perfect sense.
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  The tension is still there, but it is channelled into harmony
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  instead of friction. Then the commentary gives.
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  It's an agrarian visual analogy. It says unity is like the visual
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  satisfaction of a fully clothed cornfield, even when it is cut
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  down. For an agrarian society like
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  ancient Israel, looking at a golden swaying field of grain
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  was the ultimate image of security.
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  It represents provision. It is the result of a
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  coordinated harvest. Every single stock of grain in
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  that field grew together, and now they are gathered together.
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  There is a deep instinctual satisfaction in looking at a
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  field that has yielded its crops successfully.
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  It means the community will survive the winter.
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  Right. It brings an immense sense of
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  relief and joy to the observer. You aren't going to starve.
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  And the third analogy moves from sound and sight to physical
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  taste. The honey.
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  Yeah, the commentary compares the pleasantness of unity to the
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  taste of sweet honey, specifically in opposition to
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  bitter things. Hearing a perfect acoustic cord,
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  seeing a golden harvest, tasting raw sweet honey, David is trying
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  to tell us that theological unity is not just a sterile line
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  item on a church doctrinal statement.
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  It's not a bullet point. No, it is a sensory delight.
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  It should physically feel good to experience.
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  It really should, and there is a fascinating linguistic insight
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  into why this delight is specific to the word brethren
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  used in the text. Oh, the Hebrew root.
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  Yeah, the Hebrew word for brother actually shares roots
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  with words meaning one or alike. OK, that makes a lot of sense.
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  It indicates A nearness, a similitude of affection.
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  When the text speaks of brethren, it implies that they
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  ought to be as one. They should move together in
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  their affections and their actions.
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  So it's not just talking about biological siblings.
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  No, it is a shared spiritual DNA.
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  They share the same father, so they should share the same
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  family resemblance and how they treat one another.
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  That makes the historical anecdote about Abraham's so
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  relevant. Here, the commentator Henry
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  Smith points out how Abraham acted as a media to keep peace
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  with his nephew Lot. A classic story.
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  Right. Their herdsmen were fighting
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  over land and water rights. The tension was incredibly high
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  and they were on the brink of a violent skirmish.
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  Just a turf war basically. Yeah, total turf war.
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  But Abraham steps in willingly, gives up his own rights to
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  choose the best land, and simply says to Lot, Are we not
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  brethren? He completely de escalates the
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  situation by appealing to their shared identity.
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  Smith says that Abraham used the word brethren as a mediator,
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  almost like a lawyer, to end quarrels.
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  Lawyer. I like that.
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  Right. If we treated the word brother
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  as a lawyer to end our own quarrels today, man, it could
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  save modern people a staggering amount of strife, not to mention
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  literal legal fees. When you remember your shared
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  identity, the minor squabbles over territory or personal
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  preferences suddenly lose their sharp edge.
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  It forces you to zoom out and look at the bigger picture.
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  The Puritan writer Thomas Watson synthesizes this beautifully
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  when he talks about the tears of division.
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  Tears like the weeds. Yeah, he says Satan
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  intentionally sews these tears to divide men from God first,
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  and then he works to divide 1 man from another.
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  Watson notes that when we give into this natural inclination to
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  divide, our communities end up looking like a coat of diverse
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  colors. Just scattered opinions,
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  fractured groups going in 100 different directions, everyone
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  fighting for their own little patch of ground.
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  So instead of a unified garment, it looks like a patchwork quilt
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  that is falling apart at the seams.
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  Precisely. The goal instead is to maintain
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  oneness of judgement and affection.
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  Though there are several strings on the vial, as we discussed,
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  they must make one sweet harmony.
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  But achieving that harmony requires sustained action.
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  Text says it is good and pleasant for brethren to dwell
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  together in unity. Dwell.
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  That's the key verb, right? And here I have to push back a
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  little on our modern cultural idea of tolerance.
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  Today, we often think of unity as just putting up with someone
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  for a limited amount of time, just gritting your teeth.
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  Yeah, you. Bite your tongue and smile
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  through a 2 hour Thanksgiving dinner with your extended
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  family. Or you keep your head down in a
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  staff meeting and you call that peace.
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  You think you have achieved unity because nobody threw a
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  chair. But that is.
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  Absolutely not what the text is demanding.
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  Tolerance and dwelling are two completely different categories.
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  Yes, the historical. Commentary argues that the word
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  dwelling means residence and continuation.
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  Continuation. It is easy.
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  To fake politeness for a couple of hours, anybody can hold their
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  breath for a minute. But holding out, maintaining
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  peace and actually living in close proximity over the course
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  of a lifetime? That is a much steeper climb.
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  It is the difference. Between a temporary truce and
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  actual lasting peace, a truce just.
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  Means we stop shooting, right? A truce is just a pause in
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  hostilities because both sides are tired of fighting or because
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  they're forced into the same room.
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  Dwelling in unity requires a shared life.
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  It's. Active highly.
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  Active. It cannot be forced superficial
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  uniformity where everyone just pretends to agree.
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  You cannot legislate that people genuinely love each other.
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  No, you really. Can't true.
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  Dwelling means you are actively maintaining the relationship.
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  You're resolving conflict when the gear start to grind again,
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  and you're choosing to remain together even when the initial
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  friction returns, which is incredibly.
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  Hard. So hard.
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  And because it is so hard, David does not just leave it as an
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  abstract command. He pivots smoothly to the first
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  visceral sensory metaphor to describe what this unity
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  actually looks like in practice, moving into verse. 2 right?
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  Verse 2 says it is like the precious ointment upon the head
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  that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard that went
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  down to the skirts of his garments.
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  So we are. Moving from the conceptual idea
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  of unity to the physical inauguration of the high priest
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  in the ancient Tabernacle and to make.
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  This concrete, we have to talk about the sheer volume of this
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  oil. It's a lot of oil.
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  We're not. Talking about a little dab of
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  oil on the forehead, the historical records provide some
• 16:54
  staggering statistics on how this anointing oil was made.
• 16:58
  Oh, the recipe. Yeah, the wholly.
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  Anointing oil was manufactured in massive batches.
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  We are talking about 750 ounces of solid spices, incredibly
• 17:09
  fragrant things like myrrh, sweet cinnamon, and cassia 750.
• 17:13
  Oz compounded. With five quarts of olive oil,
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  that is a. Massive quantity of highly
• 17:18
  concentrated, incredibly expensive perfume it is.
• 17:22
  Imagine taking 5 quarts of thick sticky liquid and pouring it
• 17:25
  over someone's head. It's aggressive.
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  It's so aggressive. To an outside observer it looks
• 17:30
  like a complete mess. It ruins the clothes, It gets
• 17:32
  everywhere. Honestly, it looked like a
• 17:34
  tremendous waste of valuable resources and that perception.
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  Of waste is actually a central feature of true love, really.
• 17:40
  Yeah, the. Commentator Alexander Balmain
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  Bruce offers a brilliant insight here.
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  He says this action is magnificence, misnamed by churls
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  as extravagance and waste, misnamed by.
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  Churls A churl being someone who is stingy, Yeah.
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  A miser. Someone who calculates the cost
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  of everything but knows the value of nothing, right?
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  Bruce connects this anointing of Aaron to other moments of what
• 18:04
  looks like extravagant devotion in the biblical text, like when.
• 18:07
  David was dancing before the Ark of the Covenant as it was
• 18:10
  brought into Jerusalem. Spot on.
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  David is leaping and dancing with all his might, completely
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  ignoring royal protocol. He's making a fool.
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  Of himself to his wife. Michelle, who is watching from a
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  window. It looked undignified.
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  It looked like a waste of royal dignity she despised him for.
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  Yeah, she was furious. Or think of the.
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  Anointing at Bethany in the New Testament, where the woman
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  breaks an alabaster box of incredibly expensive spikenard
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  and pours it over. Jesus.
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  Oh. Right, the disciples.
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  Acting as the churls in that moment complain bitterly about
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  the waste, they do the math and say it could have been sold for
• 18:45
  a year's wages. They want to be.
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  Practical, yeah, but love is rarely practical in that cold,
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  calculating way. True brotherly.
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  Unity operates with the profusion that the world simply
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  cannot calculate. It is an emptying of the vessel.
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  It does not measure out grace in tiny eyedropper increments.
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  Just a drop here. A drop there?
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  No, it pours. Out the whole 5 quarts.
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  I love the. Idea of Grace being
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  uncalculated. But I have to ask about the
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  physics of the specific metaphor.
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  Why the intense focus on the oil running down?
• 19:18
  David says it runs down the head, down the beard, Aaron's
• 19:21
  beard, down to the garments. 5 quarts of oil is incredibly
• 19:24
  messy and it is flowing everywhere.
• 19:27
  What is this specific visual actually telling us about how
• 19:30
  community should function? It is demonstrating.
• 19:32
  The spiritual physics of the text Christian affection knows
• 19:35
  no limits of parish, nation, sect, or age.
• 19:38
  The oil starts at the very top. It starts at the head.
• 19:41
  And who is? The head well reformed.
• 19:43
  Thinkers have long linked this head to Christ, who is our older
• 19:45
  brother and our true permanent High Priest.
• 19:48
  OK, so the blessing. Of unity always originates with
• 19:50
  him. We do not manufacture it
• 19:52
  ourselves. Right, and the fundamental.
• 19:54
  Nature of that blessing is that it flows downward.
• 19:57
  It does not. Stay confined to the head.
• 19:59
  It yields to gravity. Yeah, it has to go.
• 20:02
  Down and to understand the visual of the garments, we look
• 20:06
  at the commentary from John Gill.
• 20:07
  I was wondering. About the garments when the
• 20:09
  text. Says the oil went down to the
• 20:11
  skirts of his garments. We usually picture the hem of a
• 20:15
  dress dragging on the floor. Yeah, that's what I.
• 20:17
  Pictured like it greased him from head to toe and puddled on
• 20:21
  the ground. But Gill.
• 20:22
  Explains that the skirts actually refers to the upper
• 20:25
  part of the garment. It means the collar, the hole
• 20:28
  where the head goes through, which had a reinforced band
• 20:30
  around it so it would not tear. Oh.
• 20:33
  So the oil flows through the beard and completely saturates
• 20:37
  the collar and the chest right over the heart of the high
• 20:39
  priest, Yes. It covers the area where the
• 20:42
  high priest wore the breastplate.
• 20:44
  And remember, that breastplate contained the stones
• 20:47
  representing all the different tribes of Israel.
• 20:49
  All 12 of. Them right?
• 20:50
  The oil covers all of them simultaneously.
• 20:53
  OK, let's. Unpack the downward flow a
• 20:55
  little more, because oil would not anoint anything if it did
• 20:58
  not obey gravity. By its very physical nature,
• 21:01
  liquid seeks the lowest point always.
• 21:04
  In the same. Way love must condescend.
• 21:07
  It must go to the people in the lowest estate.
• 21:10
  If love only stays at the top, if it only circulates among the
• 21:13
  wealthy, the comfortable, the well educated or the elite of a
• 21:16
  community, it is not the holy anointing oil.
• 21:19
  No, it is just a social club that is a.
• 21:21
  Brilliant way to frame it. The Puritan writer Thomas Adams
• 21:25
  makes this exact point. He says that Christ is our
• 21:28
  anointer, our anointer. He conveys holiness and the oil
• 21:32
  of gladness to all the members of his body.
• 21:35
  Because grace flows downward, it ensures that the lowest, the
• 21:38
  least spiritual, the most struggling, or the least lovable
• 21:41
  person in the community still receives the fragrant overflow
• 21:45
  of the head. The oil does not.
• 21:47
  Ask for permission to flow. It just goes.
• 21:48
  It runs where? It is not necessarily sought for
• 21:51
  distributing the blessing to the inferior parts of the mystical
• 21:54
  body. It does not matter if you are a
• 21:56
  prominent eye or a hidden toe if you are connected.
• 21:58
  To the body the oil will reach you, it diffuses.
• 22:01
  Its blessing entirely by descending.
• 22:03
  That's the only way it works and.
• 22:05
  Right after this heavy, claustrophobic indoor scene of
• 22:09
  the Tabernacle. I mean with the heavy scent of 5
• 22:13
  quarts of concentrated perfume hanging in the air.
• 22:15
  Overwhelming. Scent Yeah, David does a.
• 22:17
  Cinematic shift We move from an indoor human scale ritual to a
• 22:22
  sweeping outdoor landscape featuring massive mountains and
• 22:25
  continental weather systems. That's quite a jump.
• 22:28
  Verse 3. Starts as a dew of Herman and as
• 22:31
  the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion.
• 22:34
  It is a massive. Change in scale we go from a
• 22:36
  human beings collar to a 10,000 foot mountain peak, but this.
• 22:40
  Verse raises a serious geographic puzzle.
• 22:43
  Oh yeah. If you look at a topographical
• 22:45
  map of the region, Mount Hermon is way up in the far north.
• 22:48
  It is the highest peak around, often covered in snow, right?
• 22:51
  Zion, on the other hand, is a much smaller elevation in the
• 22:54
  South. In Jerusalem, they are miles and
• 22:57
  miles apart. So how in the world can the dew
• 22:59
  of Herman fall on the mountains of Zion?
• 23:01
  It sounds like David failed a geography test, it sounds like.
• 23:04
  A mistake until you understand the meteorological reality of
• 23:07
  the region, which commentators like Friends the Lich and the
• 23:11
  19th century explorer Henry Baker Tristram explain in great
• 23:14
  detail. OK, what did they?
• 23:16
  Find well mount. Herman shoots up 10,000 feet
• 23:19
  straight out of the ground and right at its base in the upper
• 23:22
  Jordan Valley, you have the impenetrable seething swamps of
• 23:26
  Merom. So you have a.
• 23:28
  Massive, humid, marshy swamp right at the base of a freezing,
• 23:32
  snowy mountain. Exactly.
• 23:34
  Under the intense tropical sun of the Middle East, the water
• 23:38
  from that massive swamp vaporizes and rises rapidly into
• 23:41
  the air. Evaporation.
• 23:43
  It hits the snowy. Freezing peaks of hormone and
• 23:45
  instantly congeals. Then the cold northern wind
• 23:49
  catches that massive amount of suspended moisture and sweeps it
• 23:52
  southward. Oh wow.
• 23:53
  It carries it over the land all the way down to the lesser
• 23:55
  elevations, dropping it as an incredibly heavy dew.
• 23:58
  That is amazing. It is an actual naturally
• 24:00
  occurring weather engine. It is a massive conveyor belt of
• 24:04
  moisture. Tristram actually camped at the
• 24:06
  foot of Hermann during his explorations, and he recorded
• 24:10
  his visceral experience of this specific dew.
• 24:13
  It wasn't a light. Mist No.
• 24:15
  He said it was not just a romantic mist that makes the
• 24:18
  grass sparkle in the morning. He said it penetrated absolutely
• 24:21
  everything. The heavy canvas floor of their
• 24:24
  tent was completely soaked. Their bedding was covered with
• 24:27
  it. Their metal guns were dripping
• 24:29
  water. Dripping water.
• 24:30
  From dew. Yeah, dew drops.
• 24:31
  Huh. On every single surface, it was
• 24:34
  a complete saturation that took a dry, dusty, arid land and made
• 24:38
  it fiercely fertile. Now the reformer.
• 24:40
  Martin Luther offered a slightly different take on this farce.
• 24:43
  He suggested it might be an optical illusion.
• 24:45
  An optical. Yeah, that high.
• 24:46
  Mountains appearing to touch heaven seem to drop dew on the
• 24:49
  smaller hills below them in the line of sight.
• 24:52
  Yeah, OK. But whether you view it through
• 24:53
  Luther's poetic lens or the proven scientific reality of the
• 24:56
  atmospheric wind currents, the theological effect is exactly
• 25:00
  the same. The higher, wealthier mountain
• 25:03
  is providing life giving moisture for the lower, drier
• 25:05
  hills. William Digby.
• 25:07
  Seymour captures this perfectly with his poetic translation.
• 25:11
  He describes the moisture floating southward in the night
• 25:13
  and pearly gems on Zion. Light.
• 25:16
  Beautiful. Phrasing, but let's bring.
• 25:18
  This weather pattern out of the ancient Middle East and apply it
• 25:21
  to how communities operate. What is the spiritual
• 25:24
  application of this massive meteorological event?
• 25:28
  The text is showing us that the Alpine Lebanon, the higher
• 25:31
  elevation with the excess moisture, is actively
• 25:34
  ministering to the minor elevation of the city of David,
• 25:37
  which desperately needs that water to survive.
• 25:39
  This is a. Direct, undeniable picture of
• 25:42
  how a unified community is supposed to function is all
• 25:45
  about those with abundance distributing it to the needy.
• 25:48
  Distributing. Abundance, yes.
• 25:50
  And we need to be clear that abundance is not just financial
• 25:52
  money. It is material wealth, sure, but
• 25:55
  it is also theological knowledge, emotional joy,
• 25:59
  physical energy, and spiritual steadfastness.
• 26:02
  The dew flows from the one who has it in excess to the one who
• 26:05
  is poor, ignorant, exhausted, or sorrowing the North.
• 26:09
  Ministering to the South, the High Peak, watering the dry
• 26:12
  valley precisely. A church or a community that is
• 26:16
  fertilized by this kind of dew thrives far more through
• 26:20
  generous downward activity than through showy architecture or
• 26:24
  reputation for respectability. I mean you can.
• 26:26
  Build the most beautiful, structurally sound cathedral in
• 26:30
  the world. Oh definitely.
• 26:31
  You can have the finest choir and the most educated speakers,
• 26:34
  but if the high peaks in that congregation are not actively
• 26:38
  watering the dry valleys sitting in the pews next to them, that
• 26:42
  community is completely dead. It's a sterile.
• 26:45
  Environment it is. This text beautifully depicts
• 26:48
  brethren from the North and the South meeting in Jerusalem for
• 26:51
  the annual feasts, leaving their regional differences and their
• 26:54
  tribal wealth disparities behind and sharing the refreshing grace
• 26:58
  they have been given the person. With a surplus of joy pours it
• 27:02
  on to the person experiencing a drought of grief.
• 27:04
  It is a. Deliberate redistribution of
• 27:06
  grace. You do not hoard the snow on
• 27:08
  your own peak. You let the wind carry it to
• 27:11
  where it is needed. And that brings us to the final
• 27:13
  part of the text. We have spent all this time
• 27:16
  looking at the what's the good and pleasant overlap?
• 27:20
  The five quarts of oil flowing down the garments, the freezing
• 27:24
  dew blowing down the mountain, all these visuals.
• 27:26
  Now we. Must uncover the why why does
• 27:29
  this unity actually happen? Why do selfish people ever
• 27:32
  choose to act like this? David finishes the song by
• 27:35
  saying for their the Lord commanded the blessing even life
• 27:39
  forever more this is. The theological bedrock of the
• 27:42
  entire text. We're dealing with the concept
• 27:45
  of a commanded blessing. Commanded.
• 27:47
  Blessing John Calvin. Points out that God testifies
• 27:50
  how pleased he is with conquered by showering blessings upon it.
• 27:54
  But he does not just suggest a blessing, He issues a royal
• 27:57
  sovereign decree. The writer.
• 27:59
  George Swinnick gives a brilliant analogy to explain the
• 28:02
  difference between our commands and God's commands.
• 28:04
  I love this one. He.
• 28:05
  Compares our. Words to the words of an
• 28:07
  absolute monarch. Think about it.
• 28:09
  If I walk up to a blind man on the street and tell him to see
• 28:11
  kudos, or I tell a lame man to walk, absolutely nothing
• 28:15
  happened. Nothing at all.
• 28:17
  I can command. It all day long.
• 28:18
  I can shout it, but I cannot enable it.
• 28:22
  I have the vocabulary, but I do not have the authority over
• 28:24
  physical reality. But where the word?
• 28:26
  Of a king is there is actual strength.
• 28:29
  Swinnick notes that God's words and God's work go together.
• 28:33
  They are completely inseparable. They happen at the same.
• 28:35
  Time Look at the. Biblical account of the old
• 28:37
  creation. God said let there be light, and
• 28:40
  light had no choice but to exist.
• 28:43
  The command carried the force of its own fulfilment in the new
• 28:47
  creation. When God commands the blessing
• 28:49
  of unity among his people, he is not just giving them a difficult
• 28:52
  rule to follow. He is actively giving the
• 28:55
  spiritual strength required for people to obey it.
• 28:58
  Oh, that's beautiful. He is.
• 28:59
  Enabling the very peace he requires.
• 29:02
  I think that is the most. Comforting part of this entire
• 29:04
  deep dive. He does not just tell us to stop
• 29:06
  grinding our gears, get along, and then step back to watch us
• 29:09
  fail miserably. No.
• 29:10
  He doesn't just leave us to it, he commands the.
• 29:12
  Blessing. Which means he funds the
• 29:14
  account, he provides the oil, he sends the wind for the dew.
• 29:18
  Yes. He provides the grace to make
• 29:21
  that unity an actual, lived reality.
• 29:25
  Because left to our own devices, we will always revert to
• 29:28
  friction. We'll go right.
• 29:29
  Back to the turf, we'll always. Go back to defending our own
• 29:32
  territory. The commanded blessing is the
• 29:34
  only thing that sustains the dwelling so.
• 29:37
  To tie this all together, we are talking about local groups of
• 29:40
  people managing to dwell together in love.
• 29:43
  But the text ties that local temporal action to a massive
• 29:47
  eternal promise. Even life forever.
• 29:50
  More life forever. More how does a?
• 29:52
  Local community getting along on a Tuesday.
• 29:54
  Connect to the concept of eternity because love.
• 29:57
  Is the defining characteristic of that eternal life.
• 30:00
  When believers dwell together in love here on earth, they are not
• 30:03
  just passing time until heaven. They have literally begun the
• 30:07
  enjoyments of eternity right now.
• 30:08
  Wow. One commentator notes that the
• 30:10
  stream of regeneration starts small, but it swells and
• 30:14
  increases, getting deeper and wider as we learn to love each
• 30:16
  other until it is finally swallowed up in the massive
• 30:19
  ocean of eternal life. That's an amazing.
• 30:21
  Picture the unity. We experience here, with all its
• 30:25
  imperfections, is the headwaters of the eternal state that is a.
• 30:28
  Staggering reality. It completely reframes how we
• 30:32
  view the people sitting across from us at the dinner table or
• 30:35
  across the aisle at church. They're not just obstacles to
• 30:39
  our own peace, they are the people we are going to spend
• 30:42
  eternity with. So to synthesize the massive
• 30:45
  scale of what we have covered in this deep dive, we started by
• 30:49
  looking at a rare astronomical alignment where goodness and
• 30:52
  pleasantness perfectly overlap the two stars.
• 30:54
  Then we listen. To the harmonic resonance of
• 30:56
  vile strings under tension. We got saturated in 5 quarts of
• 31:01
  holy oil flowing from the head of the high priest, running down
• 31:03
  past the beard to the lowest parts of his garments, reaching
• 31:06
  the chest. We felt the.
• 31:07
  Freezing life, giving dew blown down from a 10,000 foot mountain
• 31:11
  to water a dry valley and finally we heard the sovereign
• 31:15
  command of a king speaking eternal life into existence,
• 31:18
  enabling the very unity he calls us to.
• 31:21
  It is a. Masterful piece of divine
• 31:23
  architecture. And you know there's a final
• 31:25
  challenge here for everyone listening to Mull over as they
• 31:27
  go about their day. Let's hear it.
• 31:29
  The text. Proves visually and
• 31:31
  geographically that grace, whether it is depicted as heavy
• 31:35
  oil or as freezing dew, always flows downward to the lowest
• 31:39
  places. It yields to gravity In your own
• 31:42
  life, in your own specific community.
• 31:44
  Who represents the skirts of the garment?
• 31:46
  Who represents the dry mountain of Zion?
• 31:49
  That is the. Ultimate question Who is the
• 31:51
  person in the lowest, most overlooked, or most difficult
• 31:54
  position that your love, your resources, and your joy should
• 31:58
  be flowing toward right now? If the Gears of machinery are
• 32:02
  grinding in your family or your community, where are you
• 32:04
  hoarding the oil because the anointing?
• 32:06
  Was never meant to stay on the head.
• 32:08
  It was always meant to flow down.
• 32:10
  Thank you for. Joining us for this deep dive
• 32:12
  into the source material, we are incredibly grateful for your
• 32:15
  time and we eagerly anticipate the next time we can unpack a
• 32:18
  new topic together. Until then, keep an eye out for
• 32:21
  where the dew is falling.