Category: Psalm 133 – “Community: Running down

Psalm 133:3b (MSG)

For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book Life Together, begins with a citation of Psalm 133:1 and goes on to say, “Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this. Whether it is a brief, single encounter or the daily fellowship of years, Christian community is only this. We belong to one another only through and in Jesus Christ.”

Quoting from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together, Eugene Peterson writes, “The Christian needs another Christian who speaks God’s Word to him. He needs him again and again when he becomes uncertain and discouraged, for by himself he cannot help himself without belying the truth. He needs his brother man as a bearer and proclaimer of the divine word of salvation. He needs his brother solely because of Jesus Christ. The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother; his own heart is uncertain, his brother’s is sure. [Peterson, A Long Obedience, 182]

In this psalm, “for there,” is referring back to Zion (the city of God, heaven, where God dwells). What is the importance of us knowing our source of blessing, community, unity?

Belonging is not just in the physical sense of fellowshipping with others, but it encompasses all of who we are. How are you challenged by Bonhoeffer’s words to belong to one another?

What do you think Bonhoeffer meant by, “The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother; his own heart is uncertain, his brother’s is sure?”

The blessings of God are not only for life together now, but for life together forevermore. Pray for the people that you and your ministries are reaching out to that they would come and belong “through and in Jesus Christ.”

– AK

Psalm 133:3a (NIV)

³ It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion.

“Mt. Hermon is the highest mountain in that part of the world, rises to a height of over nine thousand feet in the Lebanon range, north of Israel. The alpine dew communicates a sense of morning freshness, a feeling of fertility, a clean anticipation of growth. Important in any community of faith is an ever-renewed expectation in what God is doing with our brothers and sisters in the faith; we refuse to label the others as one thing or another; we refuse to predict our brother’s behavior, our sister’s growth; each person in the community is unique; each is especially loved and particularly led by the Spirit of God; how can I presume to make conclusions about anyone? How can I pretend to know your worth or your place? [Peterson, A Long Obedience, 182]

What senses, feelings, and thoughts is the imagery in verse 3 trying to evoke with the use of dew as a simile for God’s blessings?

The word “dew” is found over thirty times in Scripture and a third of the time, it speaks of dew as being “of heaven.” Other key words associated with dew is abundance, covered, drenched, new, and of the morning. What is God communicating to us about the blessings we are to experience from living in community?

What are the new, fresh, clean, heavenly dew thoughts we should have each morning about the day, ourselves and about one another?

Pray for a couple of people from your ministry group. Sense a word or image or Scripture to pray over them to bless them that they would live in the newness, freshness, heavenly dew-ness of God’s blessing.

– AK

Psalm 133:2 (MSG)

It’s like costly anointing oil
flowing down head and beard,
Flowing down Aaron’s beard,
flowing down the collar of his priestly robes.

“Oil, throughout Scripture is a sign of God’s presence, a symbol of the Spirit of God; oil glistens, picks up the warmth of sunlight, softens the skin, perfumes the person. But more particularly here the oil is an anointing oil, marking the person as a priest. Living together means seeing the oil flow over the head, down the face, through the beard, onto the shoulders of the other – and when I see that I know that my brother, my sister, is my priest. When we see the other as God’s anointed, our relationships are profoundly affected.” [Peterson, A Long Obedience, 181]

What senses, feelings, and thoughts is the imagery in verse 2 trying to evoke with the use of oil as a simile for God’s ‘good and pleasant’ blessings?

According to this quote, who is your priest? How should this affect how you view and interact with one another?

 In 1 Peter 2:9, it says we are  “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may” ­­­­­­­_________ . Fill in the rest of the statement, not so much from memory, but from how you and your church/ministry community live.

Pray for yourself today that you would see yourself as a priest/pastor/servant of God; one who is called to love, to minister, to speak and live out God’s truth so that others too would know God. Pray also to see others more correctly as the priesthood of all believers.

– AK

Psalm 133:1 (MSG) 

How wonderful, how beautiful, when brothers and sisters get along!

“For centuries this psalm was sung on the road as throngs of people made the ascent to Jerusalem for festival worship … How great to have everyone sharing a common purpose, traveling a common path, striving toward a common goal, that path and purpose and goal being God. How much better than making the long trip alone.” [Peterson, A Long Obedience, 178]

“As we come to declare our love for God, we must face the unlovely and lovely fellow sinners whom God loves and commands us to love. This must not be treated as something to put up with, one of the inconvenient necessities of faith … It is not only necessary; it is desirable that our faith have a social dimension, a human relationship.” [Peterson, A Long Obedience, 177]

What do you think were the attitudes and activities of the ascending crowds and why?

What views have changed in your life regarding the necessity of community as you have grown?

It only takes four chapters of reading the Bible to come across the first example of sibling rivalry as one brother murders another. Further in, you read how ten brothers sold their eleventh brother into slavery, and on goes the countless examples of sibling discord. How then should we go about getting along with our brothers and sisters, now that we are in the family of believers?

Where are we going and are we there yet? Let’s pray for the vision, mission, calling of our church/ministries and ask for unity as we journey together.

 

– AK