What we're looking at with Psalm 133 is the next to the last of the Song of Degrees or Song of Ascents. And what we're looking at here is a very short psalm once again. It's only three verses long. When it comes to this psalm, it's one that's probably supreme in talking about unity. And yet, when you think about unity, unity is something that's very elusive with people. I remember in high school, and I think I've told this story before and somebody got on me afterward because they were a cat lover, but you know how mischievous middle school boys or junior high boys can get. They're always looking for something to get into and pull a prank or do something crazy. Well, there were some guys that I went to school with and that was in junior high back in those days, and they had gotten two cats, and they actually tied the two cats' tails together. I don't know if you've ever heard of a prank like that. What happened when those cats got their tails tied together, they just went at it and just took off out the door and they were just going crazy. They were berserk. Those cats were united. But they were not in unity. You can imagine the commotion and the laughs those guys got at the fate of those cats. I don't say that because I'm against cats. I'm not saying I'm for cats. I'm just saying you can imagine the joy they got out of that little prank. And yet, I know some who are pastors and who are Christians. that are kind of like a cat looking to go around to see who they can get their tail tied to with another. Now, follow what I'm saying. They want to unite, but they only want to unite because they want to cause trouble. They want to unite, but they're not in it for the unity. And it's really sad. I have seen even people come to this church, and they're not here any longer, that have joined for a short period of time, and they start nitpicking and trying to cause a squabble with other people. When it comes to the Word of God, there are many precious truths that unite us. And because they unite us, and it is the truth of the Word of God, It helps us to walk in unity. You cannot sacrifice truth for the sake of unity. There are churches who have done that. They've compromised. They tolerate other people's sins and lifestyles that are contrary to the Word of God to try to keep unity. You know what? It comes down to all you've got is a social club if you don't adhere to the truth of the Word of God. When we sacrifice those, it causes disunity. In Psalm 133, what we see here, it says, Behold, how good and how pleasant. That word can be sweet. How good and how sweet. How pleasant. It is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, that went down to the skirts of his garments as the dew of Hermon and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life, forevermore." A short psalm and a sweet psalm. a picture of unity, a picture of harmony, and oh how blessed we are when we're walking in unity. This psalm was written by David. At what particular time, we don't know. David had served as king for seven and a half years, roughly, over Judah and Benjamin. And after that period of reign, what David did, he then He was ruling in Hebron, and then the nation united. And when they united, he ruled in Jerusalem for approximately 33 years. So here is David's reign, and he knows, like in that 40-year reign that he was king, he knows what it was like when the nation was in unity. Think of our nation. Boy, we're not in unity. There's a lot of schisms and factions, craziness going on as far as in our nation. But look at this unity that is desired in verse 1. I believe it is God who does desire unity amongst believers. Matter of fact, it is Satan who has tried to cause a lot of disruption and division and disunity, and we can see it very clearly over the past few years. You can see it through COVID. You can see it through liberalism and the government trying to force things on people that they don't want forced on them. You can see it through Black Lives Matters. You can see it through what is called the critical race theory, race, how people bring up racism. And yet, somebody I noticed on the demographics of the voting yesterday, the lady that was running in Virginia, I think it was Virginia for Was it Governor Winsome? Remember Winsome? Mostly white people voted for her. And she is from, I think she is from Jamaica. It's very interesting. She is a woman of color, yet mostly white people voted for her. And then the woman that ran for governor, and I forgot where that one's at, where she won for governor, it was mostly African American people that voted for her and not the Caucasian, which shows racism is not the problem. There is not a such thing as many races. There's one race, that's the human race, that's the race that God's made. And here, what we see here in this passage of scripture, God desires unity. And when we have unity, it's good and it's sweet. Don't you love it when everybody's in harmony? Did you ever hear a little whisper about how somebody is talking about somebody else, and they spread rumors, and because they spread rumors about somebody else, there's an anger in the air? Have you ever heard whisperings causing schisms and divisions? And what are you going to do? You're going to have to confront it? Oh, we hate to confront. We hate confrontation. At least most people hate confrontation. You know, it's so much sweeter when we're all walking together for a common purpose and a common goal, serving the Lord. Listen to what Jesus prayed for over in the Gospel of John, chapter 17. He'll remember this passage of scripture as John is praying, John 17. And notice what it says down in verse 11. Verse 11, and now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to you, Holy Father. Keep through your own name those whom you have given me, that they may be one as we are. Now, so Jesus is praying to the Father that his disciples, his followers, may be one. Look down in verse 20. chapter 17 of John, and down in verse 20, neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one, as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you have sent me. and the glory which you gave me I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one." You see, Jesus is praying for unity for his people and for his children. We're not talking about unity by compromising principles and truths. We're talking about being in unity with the truth of God's Word. We're not talking about ecumenicalism. We're not talking about those things. We're not a business. The Lord's churches are not a business, but it's a body of believers. There is a difference. I had a preacher kind of questioning me on certain doctrines and who I fellowship with and who I didn't fellowship with and who I should and who I shouldn't and he kind of was going off on me. We can have Christian fellowship with believers all over this world if they're truly believers in Jesus Christ. We can have Christian fellowship one with another. They may go to a different kind of church They may not be in church and may be out of fellowship with the Lord, but you know what? We can have fellowship to the degree if they are believers. We cannot have church fellowship with just anybody and everybody. Sister Kim, if you were the reverend of the church, we'd have a problem with that. And there are some churches like that. There are some churches that put ladies in the position of pastors. Somebody was asking me about that just yesterday. Very fascinating. We could not fellowship, as far as church fellowship, with people that are off in doctrine and that are not of like faith and practice. There is a difference between Christian fellowship and church fellowship. We must be in unity by the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Truth. And the problem in our day and time is the problem since the beginning of time. It's all because sin has entered into this world. And when sin entered into this world, it has separated us from God because we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. And this is something that, I tell you what, all you have to do is ask little Fawn that's in our Good News Club class. She's only like in the second grade, but she can tell you sin separates you from God. She knows that. And she's learned that. And you know what? The kids are learning that. And that's something that we see. And that's why it's so important to share the gospel with other people. Because it's people's sins that have separated them from God. But what we also see is sins not only separated us from God, it separated us from people. It's because of sin that we have such divisions and divisiveness and disunity going on in our world. Sin has run rampant, and because of that it separates us from one another. You can think of illustration after illustration going through the Word of God. You remember in the book of Genesis, I can just Pop off one. Joseph and his brothers. You remember how his brothers wanted to kill him? Sold him into slavery. Actually, throw him into a pit and then they were going to let a wild animal just eat him up. Well, another one saved him and they sold him into slavery. Boy, you know what? They hated him so much they wanted to get rid of him. They didn't care if he died. You move on down through the Bible and the Word of God and what you find. Over in the book of Numbers, you remember Miriam and Aaron. They confronted Moses, their brother, because he had married an Ethiopian woman. And you remember they argued with Moses. You remember what happened to Miriam? She got struck with leprosy. You know what? It's all because of sin. It's causing those divisions in relationships. There was David and Absalom. And even before that, there was Absalom and his half-brother Amnon. And even before that, it was Amnon and Tamar. You remember the illicit affair, that he raped her. Amnon raped Tamar, who was actually Absalom's sister, and Absalom then killed Amnon, then which caused division in the family even worse, and sin, and sin, it just keeps compounding. You don't have to just look in the Old Testament to find how sin separates. You remember the disciples of Jesus when they start arguing, who's the greatest? Who's the greatest? Well, can I sit on the right hand? Can I sit on, we wanna sit on the right hand. You remember Paul and Barnabas. When they took John Mark on the mission trip, Barnabas wanted to take him on the second round, but no, Paul didn't want that. And they'd split up, they were divided. If you look in the book of 1 Corinthians, it talks about how there were schisms in that church body and divisions, and one would say, I'm of Paul. I'm of Apollos. Well, I'm of Jesus. You know, all trying to uppity one over the other. And why is that? It's because of pride. It's because of sin. Where do divisions come if we have something against a brother or sister in the body here? It comes because of sin. these things ought not to be. So what we find in this psalm, after he says, behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity, he gives illustration what it is like. And he says, it's like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, went down to the skirts of his garment, And what this is, he's showing a spiritual description. And this spiritual description, Aaron was the high priest. For Aaron to serve as a high priest, he had to be anointed. And when they anointed him with oil, they poured it upon his head. And as the oil went on his head, it started dripping down until it went into his beard. And from the beard, it started going down into his garments. until it dripped all the way down. Now you think about Aaron, the high priest, as he was anointed, he was anointed on the head with the oil, and Christ is the head. Even so, it ran down his beard, and it showed that he was a man, that Christ was both God and man. It ran down the robes, the robes were given for ministry, to serve, and even Christ came to serve. The oil that was poured upon them was symbolic of the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God was poured out upon them. And even so, God has given us His Spirit that we might serve, and that we might be to the glory of God. When it comes to this illustration, it is a spiritual illustration. One of the things I believe we need to focus on as far as unity is not so much the externals of things, but the eternal of things. Too often we get our focus upon the outward things, the externals that don't amount to a lot compared to the eternal things that do carry much more weight. Focus on eternals. The third verse, as the dew of Hermon. Now what is this? This is Mount Hermon. This is the tallest mountain in the Middle East. It's roughly about 9,200 feet high. That's very high for a mountain. in the Middle East. And on this mountain, what he's describing, there's dew that comes down. As the dew descended upon the mountains of Zion, for the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. This dew that comes down, I was reading that after a storm, that dew does not come down from the mountain. After a storm there is no dew. It only falls when everything is still and at rest. That's a very interesting illustration because the dew is likened to the Spirit that comes down and blesses. What does dew do? Dew When it falls in the morning, it refreshes. Especially if there's been a drought, it's refreshing the land. Dew, when it comes down, it nourishes the land. And that's God's gift that he has given to mankind. Listen to what the word of God says over in Matthew chapter 11. In Matthew chapter 11, down in verse 28, Jesus said this. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Here is God's gift to us if we come to him. Taking your burdens to the Lord and leaving them there, he'll give you rest. If you're heavy laden, you're laboring, here were the Jews laboring under all the laws of the Pharisees and scribes, the do this, don't do that, and you got to walk this way, and you can't walk so far on this day, and do, do, do, do. Jesus said, come unto me, I will give you rest. That rest is a gift from God. That rest is what refreshes us and nourishes us, just like the dew falling from the mountain of Hermon. In the latter part of this verse here, in verse 3, the Word of God says, For the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. Notice there, this word, it says, For there the Lord commanded the blessing. Where did God command the blessing? Where is there in verse 3? There is where the unity is. Where there's unity, there is where God has commanded the blessing. That's where God pours out his blessing when there is unity. And then what's given in that blessing is life forevermore. That would be life, the fullness of life. That would be talking about life, the abundant life. That's what God blesses his people with. People know when they come in the presence of God's people. When they're in God's people's presence, they sense the love they have for God. When people come in the presence of God's people, they sense their love for God's people. You remember what it says over in John Oh, how they love one another. You know what? That ought to be resounding because of the love that we have one for another. And you know what? If lost people come in here, there ought to be a sense of a love they sense toward them. We ought to love them. What if they don't smell good? You're to love them. What if they're not dressed nicely? Where to love them? What if their lifestyle is ungodly? You know what? We need to reach out to the lost. We need to show the love of Christ and people will know they've been in the presence of the Lord. Listen to what it says in 1 Peter chapter 3. In 1 Peter chapter 3 and down in verse 8, Peter says this, Finally, be you all of one mind. having compassion one of another, love as brethren. Be pitiful. Be courteous. Pitiful means compassionate. Don't be looking down on people with pity. But be compassionate toward others. Be courteous. Not rendering evil for evil or railing for railing, but contrary wise, blessing. Knowing that there unto you are called, that you should inherit a blessing. We are to be of one mind, having compassion, loving the brethren, and showing that concern one toward another. There's one other verse over in Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 1, and it's just four words, but it's less than that in the Greek. It says very simply, let brotherly love continue. You know what that word, there's two words there. Brotherly love is all one Greek word. It's the word Philadelphia. Let Philadelphia continue brotherly love. That's what Philadelphia, the city we got in the United States, it is named the city of brotherly love. Don't know how much brotherly love there is in Philadelphia, but that's what the name means. And even so, That's the love we should have one toward another. Kind of close this with an illustration. There was a man who had many sons and these sons were always quarreling with each other, always striving with each other and struggling and fighting. So he called the oldest son up to him and he gave him a long thin stick and he says, break it in half. The son angrily just broke the stick in half. So here's this long stick. Now it's two half sticks. He says, now put them together and break it in half again. Well, he took it and broke it in half again. He says, now double them all up, break it in half again. So he did it, and it was a little bit harder. He says, now break it again. The young man struggled. But he finally broke it. I think you're getting the illustration. By the time he put them together again, he could not break it. And what that dad told him, he said, in unity there is strength. A house divided cannot stand. You're going to be conquered. If you go one-on-one with somebody, there will always be somebody better. But if you stick together, you'll be stronger. and know how true that is. But here's what sticks us together. It is the love of Christ. It is the love of God in Christ Jesus. That's what glues us together. Because of his great love toward us, that's why we love one another. We love him because he first loved us. And that love that he's shown toward us, we show to him, but we also show it to one another. What if you don't like somebody that's a brother or sister? You know what, if you don't like them, love them. Simple solution to that, wasn't it? All right, well, let's have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for your word. And Lord, we do know that it is a blessing and that it is sweet and that it is good when your children dwell together in unity. walking together with the same purpose of mind, one-mindedness and sincerity toward you, to serve you and to do your will. So we pray that you guide us in unity of spirit. that we might enjoy the blessings of abundant life that comes walking with you and fellowshipping with you and fellowshipping one with another. We ask that you continue to use us and guide us to your glory for Christ's sake. Amen. And now we're going to sing a song.