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Psalm 133 - Unity and Oily Priests · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

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  Welcome to Tabernacle Talk. Tabernacle talk is a Bible study
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  podcast brought from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
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  I'm your host, Brian Self. We hope this podcast encourages
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  you to know Christ, grow in his word and show his love to
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  others. Let's dive right in.
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  Welcome back to Tabernacle talk. Today we are in Psalm 133 and we
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  are in the second to last of the song of a sense.
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  And it's been kind of a journey that we've been walking through
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  as we have been learning these road trip songs that the people
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  of God sang 3 * a year as they were going up to the various
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  festivals. And in a lot of the psalms that
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  we were starting with in the songs of ascent, I think
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  beginning in Psalm 120 or so, we heard a lot about trouble, about
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  enemies, about difficulties, about the need for even God's
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  vengeance. But now as we have gotten into
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  some of these last psalms of a sense, we can see the joy that
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  comes as the people of God gathered together, as they
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  rejoice in the time that they get to worship, and as they look
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  forward to everything that God both has done and will do in the
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  future. So this Psalm is very short.
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  It's only three verses, and it's got a wonderful truth for us.
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  The inscription for this Psalm reads a song of a sense of
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  David. He says how delightfully good.
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  Or if you have maybe a more formal translation, it'll say
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  something like how good and how pleasant when brothers live
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  together in harmony. It is like fine oil on the head,
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  running down the beard, running down Aaron's beard onto his
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  robes. It is like the dew of Hermon
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  falling on the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord has
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  appointed the blessing life forevermore.
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  All right, there are a number of things that we could learn from
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  this particular passage of Scripture, but I just want to
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  highlight a couple of things for US.
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  Number one from verse one how delightfully good or how good
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  and how pleasant when brothers live together in harmony.
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  David here the writer of this Psalm.
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  He knew what it was like to have some strife even within his
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  family and with his brothers. You can read about that in First
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  Samuel 1516 and 17, and probably someone's later on as well.
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  Brothers here would not just be your literal, you know, other
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  sons of your mother. This would be kind of shorthand
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  for all of your extended family, your tribe, and even your
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  nation. And here certainly we ought to
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  think, not just in our families, is there harmony?
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  Is there unity? But within our spiritual family,
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  do we find harmony and unity? How does God describe when we
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  get along together when there is harmony?
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  You guys know I'm a musician. I love being able to play the
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  piano or play the guitar. Getting to sing with other
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  people and harmony is such an intricate part of music that a
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  melody can be beautiful, but it can be made so much better by a
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  harmony part coming in that I'm not going to get into music
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  theory and all of that with you guys, but suffice it to say,
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  harmony makes everything better. There is a unity.
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  We are working together. We are not identical, but we are
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  working together for this same goal.
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  And God describes this as how good and how pleasant or how
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  delightfully good. I was reading through some
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  thoughts on this passage from Charles Spurgeon, a pastor from
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  the 1800s in London, and he said this we can dispense with
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  uniformity if we possess unity. Doesn't say how delightfully
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  good when brothers live together in melody.
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  It's here harmony, or the word unity.
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  And as we sing together with our lives, so to speak, we're not
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  all singing the same note. But when we are singing together
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  in the same time, in the same key, even though we may be
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  different notes, there are differences among us.
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  God still works, so he says. We can dispense with uniformity
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  if we possess unity, oneness of life, truth and way, oneness in
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  Christ Jesus, oneness of object and spirit.
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  These we must have, or our assemblies will be synagogues of
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  contention rather than the churches of Christ.
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  Spurgeon here highlights for us that there is a need for us to
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  be unified because we have something to be unified in that
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  is the person and work of Jesus Christ.
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  And here there are many things in life that can be good that
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  maybe aren't delightful. Like if I, you know, sin, I mess
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  up and I have to fess up to Samantha and I have to say
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  something like, yes, I did, you know, steal the cookies from the
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  cookie jar. It is good for me to confess my
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  sin. It's not particularly delightful
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  for me in that moment to come clean that I have to say, yes, I
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  did steal the cookies. There are things in life that
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  can be delightful, that can be pleasant, but that maybe aren't
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  good. You can think of what's said in
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  Hebrews Chapter 11 where it says that Moses chose rather to
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  suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the
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  pleasures of sin for a season. So sin can be pleasant, and
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  sometimes doing the right thing, the good thing, can be
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  unpleasant for the moment. But when we live together in
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  harmony and unity with others within our families, if in our
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  marriage, within our church, it is delightful and it is good.
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  It is a happy thing to be around and it is the right thing to do.
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  And so may we have a desire for love and care and acceptance and
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  not a like judgmental attitude, not a scarcity mindset of well,
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  if so and so gets this or has this, then somehow that is my
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  personal loss. And so I need to be against this
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  person receiving good things or I need to be upset about the
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  happiness that others are enjoying or because someone
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  isn't doing something exactly the way that I would.
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  I need to rally, you know, my tiny army against this other
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  person because they're not doing things the way that I want to
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  know. My friends, how delightfully
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  good when brothers and sisters live together in harmony and
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  unity. Choose to lay down your
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  preferences for the sake of love within the local body.
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  That doesn't mean just shut up and Stew on the inside.
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  It means release the Stew and instead choose I'm going to
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  actively participate in loving and caring for this other
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  person. What else is unity?
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  Like we see this in verse #2 unity.
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  Harmony is like fine oil on the head.
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  Now, we don't really do this in 21st century America.
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  So let me take us back one more time to Leviticus.
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  And you can. I bet you guys didn't know
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  between last episode and this episode that there was going to
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  be even more stuff on the book of Leviticus, but it's back
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  again. So in Leviticus, when Aaron was
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  named the high priest over all of Israel and his descendants,
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  his sons would be the high priest that would pass down
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  through the line of Aaron for as long as the Jewish high
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  priesthood was there. Certainly now Christ is the much
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  better high priest who is perfect, unlike Aaron and his
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  descendants. But when Aaron was anointed high
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  priest, there was a good smelling oil.
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  People would pour the oil. It was a symbol of like
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  abundance of of richness, of lots of plenty.
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  That's what it was a picture of. And you would pour it on the
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  head. And here I want to mention I'll
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  read all of verse 2. That way you can get the full
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  picture. It's like fine oil on the head
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  running down on the beard, running down Aaron's beard onto
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  his robes. So here this oil would have an
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  incredible fragrance. It would smell really, really,
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  really good. Now, I'm pretty sure if you took
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  one of like the perfumes of nowadays and you poured that on
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  someone's head, you would not get a good result.
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  A person might get sick from that happening.
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  That was not the case with this oil back here in Bible times.
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  Instead, it would just be a wonderful fragrance that you
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  would smell good for days on end and everyone that was around you
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  would experience that good smell that was there.
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  So here this fine oil is on the head and it's running down on
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  the beard where there is unity, unity and love and care and
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  harmony. It spreads further than just in
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  one place. Just it's like on kind of the
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  flip side, slander or gossip or fighting, it never just stays in
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  one place. It always goes someplace else.
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  So it is with unity and with harmony, when there is a fervent
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  desire to be on the same team with someone else that you got
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  my preferences don't matter. What matters is that we are team
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  Jesus. We are team purchased by the
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  Lamb. We are team storm the gates of
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  hell and rescue you, you know, call to sinners that they would
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  be rescued and find eternal life.
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  When we are on that team, that spreads.
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  Now, if you think of unity, just as I'm going to shut up and be
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  mad on the inside until I boil over.
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  Well, this verse doesn't make a lot of sense.
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  But that's not biblical unity. Biblical harmony is not I'm
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  going to retain all of my anger and aggression and and rage.
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  No, my friend, if we're going to live in unity, it requires us
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  to, from the heart, from the inside, say, God, I need you to
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  change my affections, change if you will, my preferences or my
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  desire to control others and instead let me be unified in
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  harmony with other people. So he says it's like fine oil on
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  the head, running down the beard, running down Aaron's
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  beard onto his ropes. The mention of Aaron here is
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  that unity, harmony has a special purpose.
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  There is a special use for this oil.
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  It's not just generic anointing oil.
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  This is the anointing oil for the high priest.
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  It's something that is set apart for God and for the work of God.
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  And you and I, we are set apart for the the work of the one true
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  God. We are priests in Christ
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  Kingdom, that Kingdom of priests that he has made us to be.
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  Spurgeon said this, this oil has a special use about it, this oil
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  of unity, of harmony. For as by the anointing oil
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  Aaron was set apart for the special service of Yahweh, Even
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  so those who dwell in love are the better equipped to glorify
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  God in his Church. He also said just like the oil
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  didn't remain confined to the place where it first fell, but
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  flowed down on the high priest hair and badooed his beard.
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  I love that old English word badooed.
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  He says. Even so, brotherly love
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  descending from the head distills and descends, anointing
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  as it runs, and perfuming all it lights upon.
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  I also love this phrase that he had in here Christian affection
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  knows no limits of perish or what church you're in a nation,
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  sect, or age. Is the man a believer in Christ?
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  Then he is in the one body, and I must yield to him an abiding
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  love. We love other people because
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  they are part of the same body that we are.
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  I don't have a pinky that's mad at the ear for not being a
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  pinky. Instead, I go praise the Lord
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  that I have something that can and here because that benefits
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  us all. And so here what a joy in verse
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  2, this call that our unity. It is beautiful, it's pleasing
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  to God, it spreads out to others.
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  It has a noble purpose and it keeps on going.
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  And then in verse 3, as we close today, unity, harmony is like
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  the dew of Hermon falling on the mountains of Zion for their
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  Yahweh has appointed the blessing life forever more the
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  the mount Hermon. I've mentioned it before.
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  I think it showed up in book 3 of Psalms.
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  Hermon was the northernmost mountain in Israel.
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  It was a place of abject like idol worship before the
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  Israelites were even there. It was a place of sacrifice to
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  false gods. People viewed it especially
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  because it was the highest mountain in that area.
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  They said this is definitely where the skies and the land
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  overlap, or if you will, the heavens and the earth overlap.
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  And so the gods must live in this general vicinity.
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  And so we're going to make sure that we do false worship.
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  They they would say, we, we will do worship of the gods in this
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  place. Well, God over and over through
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  the Old Testament and especially through Psalms lays claim to
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  Mount Hermon. He says, no, this doesn't belong
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  to Baal. This doesn't belong to any one
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  of the other gods in the area. Mount Hermon belongs to me.
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  Every mountain belongs to me. And so here he says it is like
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  the dew of hermone. So because it's so high up, gets
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  a lot of precipitation, you can think even, you know, I grew up
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  in Colorado. And so you have the really tall
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  mountains. We'd call them fourteeners
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  because they're 14,000 feet plus in elevation and so on those
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  really high mountains you can pretty much always see at
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  various times of the year, you know, snow on the mountains even
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  when there's nothing down below. And so here this unity is like
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  the dew of Hermon that it is constantly present, just showing
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  up more and more and more. Even when there's not unity in
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  other places, there is unity here in the people of God.
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  May even though our country doesn't have unity, even though
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  many of our families or many of our states or cities don't have
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  a unity and a harmony in them, May you and I choose that within
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  our marriage, within our family, within our church, there will be
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  unity here. That we are going to be that
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  high mountain above any of the other mountains and that people
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  would look and they'd go, oh, I wonder what makes them able to
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  get along? And the answer, of course, is
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  Jesus Christ. So he says it's like the door
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  with hormone falling on the mountains of Zion.
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  So hormone is all the way in the north die in Jerusalem is kind
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  of like central S South Central Israel.
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  So here this isn't a direct path.
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  There wasn't a like a it's not the same mountain range.
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  So this isn't speaking literally.
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  He's using a picture saying what comes from the highest peaks
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  comes into this place of now the worship of God where God's
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  people are gathered together. We are coming multiple times a
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  year now to worship. We come to worship here in Zion.
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  And so the unity from all across Israel is now coming into this
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  place. And then David says this about
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  Jerusalem. He says for there Yahweh has
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  appointed the blessing life forevermore.
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  That's what's so cool here. Jerusalem, this place where
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  Jesus would give his life so that we could experience eternal
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  life. And why Jerusalem?
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  Why Zion? Well, it's because the Lord had
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  determined that that would be the spot.
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  And so we can look forward to that day when Jesus returns to
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  Jerusalem and when he comes with all of his Saints with him.
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  And what a day that will be. Well, I hope this little Psalm
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  has been an encouragement to you.
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  I know I was greatly encouraged through both reading it.
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  And then as always, I will recommend to you guys Charles
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  Spurgeon's work, The Treasury of David, The Treasury of David
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  that walks through the Psalms. You should be able to find that
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  online for free and 1000 different places.
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  You can find a PDF of it or find videos on YouTube where people
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  are, you know, reading through it or something.
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  It's a tremendous resource. So I just wanted to recommend
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  that to you. Thank you for tuning.
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  Then see you next episode.