Psalm 133, in considering what
to bring for a Bible study this morning, I could not get this
short psalm, it's only three verses, this short but wonderful
psalm off of my mind. Part of the reason is because
when I looked at the books that we are currently going through,
we were going through particular books, and I looked at Ephesians
4, the first few verses there in Ephesians 4, that's where
we would be. And I looked at the next verse in Hebrews 13,
where we would be. And when I was looking at some
of these places, They were urging love for the brethren. Ephesians
4 and Hebrews 13 were both urging love for the brethren. And in my heart immediately went
to Psalm 133. I just kept thinking about this
wonderful psalm. I want to look at both of those
places through this psalm, through what this psalm has to say. Verse
1 says, Behold, how good and 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."
Now, this is the understatement of the century, what I'm about
to make. This is the understatement of
the eternity of time, but I'm going to make it anyway. It is
a great blessing to be a child of God. Being a child of God is a great,
great blessing. Being a believer, do you know
how rare it is that a person gets the honor of being a believer? How rare that is. It is such
a great, great blessing to be a believing child of God. It
is an eternal blessing. It's a blessing that lasts for
all eternity, but it is also a temporal blessing. Right now. God's children have all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places. They have all the spiritual blessings
that heaven possesses. They have every bit of that given
to them. That's their inheritance with
Christ. But God's children have blessings that start right here
on this earth. Right down here on this earth.
And one of the greatest blessings that a child of God can experience
on this earth is being huddled up together with a bunch of sinners
who have been broken and have been humbled and truly, truly
desire to Fall at the knees in the feet of Christ. Fall on their
knees to the feet of Christ and worship Him. Cast their all on
Him. The blessing of that close bond
between God's people is a relationship that surpasses every other relationship
on this earth. Every other relationship on this
earth. No matter what the physical relationship is, That bond as
God's children far surpasses it. It does not matter if it's
father to son. It does not matter if it's brother
to brother. It doesn't matter if it's husband
to wife. It doesn't matter if it's friend
to friend. The relationship that God's children
have will far surpass it. It will always surpass it. Now, in just a minute, my brother
is about to stand up and preach to us, Lord willing. In just
a moment, my brother is going to stand up and preach. Somebody
will say, well, wait a minute, isn't he your father? Yes, he
is. He has been now for 41 years. And I pray many decades more. But he is going to be my brother
for all eternity. There will come a point when
that relationship will end. And he's going to be my brother
for all eternity. That relationship far surpasses
it. That relationship is a far greater
blessing than the relationship of father and son. I will speak
on his behalf. He would rather and I would rather
have that brother to brother relationship than even father
to son. As special as that is. As special as that is. That relationship
far surpasses it. One of the greatest blessings
that we can experience on this earth is the relationship as
God's children. We, we are God's children. We are God's children. That's what David is telling
us in this psalm. Verse 1 says, Behold how good
and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together
in unity. Now I want us to see four things
in this. Number one, I want us to see
how amazing it is that we even dwell at all. We dwell together in unity. And the first amazing thing about
that is we dwell at all. The second thing I want us to
see is what makes us want to dwell together? We want to. What makes us want to dwell together? The third thing is, how do we
dwell together? And the fourth thing is, where
do we dwell together? All right, Psalm 133 verse one
says, behold. Behold, that means see this,
observe this, look at this amazing thing. Would you look at this
amazing thing? What are we looking at? Life. Life. Dwell means live. Live. Behold, there's life. How amazing that is. How amazing
it is that we even dwell at all. We who were dead in trespasses
and sins. Every person in here. This is
amazing. Absolute truth. You were all
dead. You were all dead. Completely dead. Would it not
be amazing if you spent time at the funeral home, laying in
the casket, people looking at you thinking, oh, I wish there
was life in him. Oh, I wish God would put life in his dead body.
You were all dead. Everybody was dead. And God came
along, he passed by, and said, live. Now, you were all dead. We who were dead in trespasses
and sins, we know we were dead. We know this is a body of death. This is a body of death. We know
our inability. We know that we could not come
to him. We were dead. We were dead. We could not gather ourselves
with his foe. We were dead. But God, who is
rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us, he chose
us, chose to love us, chose to redeem us, chose to adopt us,
chose to put faith in us, and he chose to call us to his fold,
every single one of us. When did he do that? Even when
we were dead in sins. How did he do that? He quickened
us together with Christ. Quickened us, joined us to the
life of Christ. So number one, it's amazing that
we even dwell at all. This is amazing. Just amazing. It took the choice of the Father.
It took the payment of the Son. It took the quickening of the
Spirit for us to even dwell at all. So behold, that's amazing. All right, now we dwell, and
we dwell together. Why do we dwell together? Why do we continue together,
continue congregating together? Here's the reason why. We want
to. We are here because we want to
be here. That's the reason why. We love
to dwell together. We live to dwell together. We live to. Why is that? What
makes our desire so strong to be together? Verse one right
here in Psalm 133 says, behold, how good and how pleasant it
is. That's why we want to be together.
It is so good and so pleasant. It's such a relief from the world.
It is such a relief from the world. In the world, there is
nothing but tribulation. Nothing. But believers come together
and all of the sudden, if God's Spirit is pleased to move on
them, and if they have their eyes open, their ears open, and
their heart enters into the Word and enters into Christ and everything
He's done for us, all of a sudden, they're of good cheer. Total
tribulation. Complete cheer. When God's people
come together. Why are they of good cheer? Well,
it's not because of anything in themselves. Not because of
anything in them individually. It's nothing in their flesh.
It's nothing in their nature. All of that is still full of
sin. If people come together and God
does not move with his spirit, all it'll be is sin with sin.
And that's a clashing thing. We're not special. We're still
full of sin. And if God does not help us,
if God does not move on us, it's sin upon sin. That's all it'll
be. But if he does, if God moves, this is what happens when God's
people come together, all right? Turn with me over to Matthew
18. Matthew 18 says, In verse 20, for where two or three are gathered
together in my name, in my name, there am I in the midst of them,
where two or three are gathered together truly in the name and
the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, he said, I am in the
midst of them. That's why it's so good and pleasant. That's the reason why. There
is nothing better than believers coming together around the subject
of, coming together around the conversation of the Lord Jesus
Christ. There's nothing better than that.
No greater pleasure on this earth His spirit and His presence is
with us when we do that. And that's something that He
has not promised to us alone. That's a really important statement.
When we come together, when two or three are truly gathered in
His name, He said, I'll be with you. That is a promise He has
not made to us alone. Never did he make that. People
say, well, I don't have to gather with God's people. I don't have
to do that. I understand what this book is
saying. I can just commune with his spirit alone. That's just
between me and him. The only problem with that is
he has not promised to meet with us in that way. Never did he
promise to do that, but he said when two or three come together
with one heart, one purpose around the conversation in the worship
of the Lord Jesus Christ, when two hearts Bow together before
Christ. We come together and we start
speaking of Him. And the more we speak of Him,
the more it humbles us down. We keep talking about Him, and
it just brings us lower and lower in the dust before Him. And He
gets higher and higher and higher. When two hearts do that, He has
given us His Word. He said, I will be there. I'll be right there. I'll be
right there. When His Spirit is among us,
and sometimes we know, sometimes we know the Lord met with us,
His Spirit was among us. That is so good and so pleasant,
and we want to be a part of it. If God is going to meet with
two or three of you, I would like to get in on that. And that's
why we want to be together. Behold how amazing it is that
we even dwell at all. We dwell together because it's
so good and it's so pleasant. All right. Now, how do we dwell
together? Turn with me to Hebrews 13. Now while you're turning over
there, I'll quote Psalm 133 again. Behold how good and how pleasant
it is for brethren to dwell together. We dwell together as true brothers
and sisters. Actual family. Actual family. Romans 8 says the Spirit bears
witness with our spirit that we are the children of God And
if we're the children of God, then that means we are joint
heirs with Christ. And we can, right along with
Him, cry, Abba, Father. All of us. How do we dwell together? Knowing that we've been adopted
into the same family. We are family. We love each other. We care for each other. We respect
each other. We esteem each other higher than
we esteem ourselves. We look out for each other. Brothers
and sisters look out for each other. They just do. Family looks out for each other.
We have each other's best interest at heart. We help each other. We're there for each other when
we need it. We're there for each other. This is how we live on
this earth. Look at Hebrews 13 verse 3. Remember them that are
in bonds as bound with them and them which suffer adversity as
being yourselves also in the body. We just read the work of
the Lord Jesus Christ for every single one of us. He remembered
them that are in bonds. Oh, Lord, remember us. That thief
said, Lord, would you remember me? Bonds to sin, bonds to death,
we were in the bonds of death. He remembered them. How did he
do it? As bound with them. He said,
Father, I will go down and be bound with them. Them which suffer adversity.
He suffered all of our adversity. Went to battle with the adversary.
As being yourselves also in the body. When he hung on that tree,
He not only hung for us, He hung with us. We hung on that tree. We were bound together. When
He went in that grave, so did we. Bound together. We all went
together. We laid there together. We rose
together. Bound together. And He said,
now because of every bit of that, remember each other. Be bound with each other because
you're in the same body. You are in the same family. You're
one. You're truly one. He said, do
it because the blood of Christ that has united us really is
thicker than water. Blood is thicker than water.
Do it for Christ's sake. There's a song we're going to
sing. We share our mutual woes, our mutual burdens bear, and
often for each other flows the sympathizing tear. That's how
brethren dwell together, bound with each other. Now, here's
the last one. Where do we dwell together? Don't turn back. But
Psalm 133 says, Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren
to dwell together in unity. For brethren to dwell together
in unity, in union, in unitedness. Now, I know that sounds like
a how, but it's not. That's not a how. The only way
And the only place we are all sinners, we're still sinful flesh,
sinful men and women who will not get along with each other
outside of God's grace. The only possible way that sinners
can truly dwell together in unity is in one. They have to be in Him. They have to be. Unity is a person. Unity is a person. He is what
unites us. If it were not for Him, we would
not be united. He is what unites us. In Him we live and move and have
our being. Turn with me over to Ephesians
chapter 4. Ephesians 4 verse 1 says, I therefore
the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the
vocation wherewith you are called. We are called into this family,
called into this brotherhood, union. The end of verse 1 says,
walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called with all lowliness
and meekness with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love. That's what we just read in Hebrews
13. Forbear one another. Forbear, bond, bound with one
another in the same body. Verse 3 says, Endeavoring to
keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Endeavoring. to keep the unity of the spirit
in the bond of peace. That's the good and pleasant
place to be. That is where God's people desire
to dwell. They want to dwell in the love
and in the unity and in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Lord, let us
just stay in Christ. Let our minds stay on Christ. Let our hearts be stayed on Thee.
Just let us talk about You. Let that be our fellowship. Let
that unite us. Let us dwell there. Dwell there
in the Lord Jesus Christ verse 4 says there's one body There's
one spirit even as you are called in one hope of your calling one
Lord one faith one baptism one God and father of all who is
above all and through all and in you all He dwells in us We
dwell in him All right. Now go back with me to Psalm
133 and we'll close with this. I Psalm 133 verse 1 says, Behold
how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together
in unity. And this is a special verse.
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. This pleasant dwelling together
in unity. It soothes us. It comforts us. And Aaron was the high priest.
He was God's priest. God anointed. They honored Aaron. by pouring the oil on his head. It went from the top to the bottom
and all anointing comes from the top to the bottom. But they poured that oil on his
head and honored him with that, blessed him. And this verse of
scripture says, we have a high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. And when God's people dwell together
in unity, when brethren love unity and desire unity and strive
for unity, when God's people do that, it is honoring to the
Great High Priest. The Great High Priest made intercession
for us that got us here in the first place. It's amazing that
we even dwell at all. His work finished that. Now,
in return, That bond of love of believers just dwelling together
in peace of unity is like the oil that was poured on God's
praise. Just the blessing, the honor,
the honoring of him and saying, thank you. And he said in verse
three, as the dew of Herman and as the dew that descended upon
the mountains of Zion. Those snow covered mountains
of Herman in the spring, that snow melted and all of that Living
water flowed down to Zion. And it sustained them, it refreshed
them. David said, brethren, dwelling
together in unity does the exact same thing. If we would like
that refreshing, that sustaining flood from Mount Hermon, dwell
together in unity. Dwell together in love. So encouraging
and so refreshing. And he said, in that coming together,
that's where we enjoy the remembrance and the realization of the blessing
of the Lord. That's where we're reminded of
the blessing of the Lord. He said at the end of verse three,
for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. What is that blessing? Life forevermore. He commanded the blessing right
there on that mountain. Mount Calvary. Mount Calvary. He commanded the blessing. I
love that. He demanded the blessing. Don't you love how he said, if
you desire me, you have to let them go. He demanded the blessing. In seeing what it took for us
to be here right now, in seeing what it took to allow us to dwell
together, everything Christ had to accomplish for us to even
be here to dwell together. Doesn't that make us want to
dwell together in unity? Doesn't that just promote love
and thanks and unity? Lord, let it be so for Christ's
sake. What a blessing. All right, you're
dismissed.