Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!
For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore. – Psalm 133
Those are the first and last lines of Psalm 133, the middle part consists of two similes that explain how great this unity is. Clearly, unity is a wonderful thing, but according to this Psalm, unity is the place where “the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore.” Unity is not just beneficial to us. It isn’t just a great byproduct. According to the Psalm, unity is a lot more than that. This Psalm suggests that being a person who dwells in unity is something absolutely central to what it means to be a human designed in the image of God.
How do I get that from these few verses? Well, think with me… when did God command the blessing or “life”? When did God bless humans and tell them to be fruitful and multiply? He did so in the Garden of Eden in chapter 1 of our book. It was there, in the Garden, that it says that “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” (Gen 1:31). The Hebrew phrase that is used for that is tōv meōd… literally, it could be translated as “good, with muchness.” I love that phrase. It is God saying that He had done well and that His creation was just the way He wanted it to be. However, before God could say this, He actually said something quite opposite. In Genesis 2:18 (which is later in our text, but earlier in the chronology), God looked out on that same almost finished creation and declared that something was “not good.” It was lo tōv… it was ungood. It lacked the full blessing of God. Why? God, Himself explained, “It is not good that the man should be alone.” So, out of all the creation, the only thing that God found to be lacking in goodness, was the fact that this man was alone. You see, one of the interesting things about God is that He has never been alone. God doesn’t know what it is like to be alone. And I don’t think that God wanted His creation to be alone either. So, God creates a partner for the man so that the two of them could dwell in unity.
As we all know, that unity didn’t last very long, but it is still our goal. When men and women, brothers, sisters, friends, families, and churches live in unity, we actually begin to live the way that God wanted us to live all along. I think the point of all of this is to say that somehow, we represent God better when we are living life together, in unity with others. And this is most true when it comes to Christ’s Church. Unity is supposed to be our calling card. It is supposed to be the thing that sets us apart. So, let’s look inside our hearts today. Are you a person who dwells in unity? What can you do today to take a step closer to becoming a person who does?
Josh Rose
Teaching Pastor