During a chronological reading through the Bible in one year, I had to read multiple chapters every day. This one day, though, had only this Psalm. I was shocked to find out it only had 3 verses. Since then I have come to understand and appreciate the importance of meditating on this short passage.
‘How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity’ v1 In other versions the word ‘live’ is translated ‘dwell’ – this is where we are meant to ABIDE. It’s not just a one time thing, or something we achieve and then ignore. We are meant to live constantly in unit
V2 ‘it is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard, down on the collar of his robes” Both the oil and dew in this passage represent God’s Holy Spirit. There are two word pictures here – sanctifying and fruitfulness. This is not just any oil – this is the precious oil. Like Mary’s alabaster jar of perfume that anointed Jesus, (Matt 26:6-9) it is so priceless, so precious it makes us gasp. God held it in reserve for us, and now He’s dispatching it by His Spirit. Take in the sensation, allow yourself to feel God pouring it on your head. Take in the fragrance and let it fill and permeate your senses. This is the smell of life in unity – carry it with you, it is permeating, it is lingering.
This oil poured on the head is like the oil used to consecrate the priests for God’s service. As we feel it poured on our heads it runs down our beard – not just any beard; Aaron’s beard. It is like the sanctifying oil that set apart Aaron for the high priesthood; (Ex 29:7) to be the most sanctified, the most set apart. TOTAL consecration, not partial. Not just in our church; not just our ministry or our work for God; all of our life. In Aaron’s case it ran down and flowed over the 2 stones sewn into his robe representing the 12 tribes of Israel. (Ex 27:9) It’s dripping down us; in our hair, running down the sides of our face, dripping onto our clothes. That will be noticed.
How do I know it will be noticed? I know because disunity is noticed right away in any church or ministry. Our unity is from God, pouring over us, making us pure, setting us apart for His service as the body of Christ. God’s blessing flowed to Israel through the priestly ministrations. So our unity causes blessing to flow down, and out to every corner of our community, our nation, our world.
V3 ‘it is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mt. Zion. For there the LORD bestows His blessing, 
even life evermore.” The picture is of profuse dew – the most abundant – making fruitful the dry, arid soil of Mt Zion. Not just making it fruitful, but making it richly fruitful. The Old Testament talks about heaven’s dew resulting in the earth’s richness – conversely it talks about God withholding dew so the earth did not produce (Haggai 1:10). Living in brotherly unity will make us richly fruitful. Unity is heaven’s dew falling on the desert making fruitful soil.
Ps 65 says heaven’s dew softens hard earth – are you experiencing desert in your life and ministry? Are your seeds falling on hard soil, eaten by birds? Snatched away by the enemy? If the dew of heaven is unity, this is a good place to look if you have hard ministry soil. The Spirit descends on our joint ministry making it fruitful both individually and together. We can no longer function as individuals. It is together in unity that God bestows His blessing. It comes to Mt Zion (representing the body of Christ) and then flows out from there. And it comes to the high priest (representing leadership) first.
There is a danger! Whenever God is at work the enemy comes in to destroy it. I have seen people on a team have tremendous, visible, vibrant unity but 6 months later had completely blown apart. Our disunity happened because we did not work at ‘keeping unity’. Ephesians 4:3 says we are given unity as a gift from God but we have to work to keep it. The unity will flow out from us but if we don’t work on unity in every area of our lives then this will end up defiling what God has given us
What defiles our unity? We can’t expect that just because we feel united at this time or around a common goal that it will be enough. Check your heart for these unity destroyers:
- Competitive, one up each other, possessive
- Pride, selfish ambition
- Are you holding on to things against another person? Bitterness = old unforgiveness, anger gone sour
- Check: when you think of a person, do you have a negative feeling? Do you cringe when you see them approach? Do you expect that they will do wrong or act badly? Do you rehearse what you are going to say because of how you think they’ll react?
THIS will defile you and your ministry.
But God will not leave us there! If you find anything in your heart, confess it and deal with it immediately, make it right. Replace those old sinful leanings with new thoughts, actions and attitudes. If you don’t replace them with conscious effort, you’ll go right back there next time someone offends you.
Read Eph 4:1-6 – Live a life worthy of your calling (to complete unity)
V2 Be completely humble and gentle – give soft answers, consider others better than yourself, be willing to lay down your own agenda. Be the servant
Be patient – the word is longsuffering which means patience with people; it has a goal in mind (unity)
Bearing with one another – I like to translate this ‘putting up with each other’.
In love – you can put up with people and not be loving!
V3 make EVERY effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. We already recognized that unity is given to us and it’s our job to keep it. We have a bond – tied together with a pledge of peace. Commit together to work on unity and let peace be your measurement of how well you’re doing
Paul’s emphasis in this passage is on ONEness: ONE body, ONE Spirit, ONE Hope, ONE Lord, ONE Faith, ONE Baptism; not whole bunch of different hopes or goals or ambitions. ONE God and Father – if we’re all looking to the same Lord how can we possibly have disunity? We can’t. When our eyes are fixed on the Lord, we will have unity. Disunity comes when our eyes are fixed on ourselves or on each other.
One last notes on unforgiveness – the defilement that will unravel unity faster than anything else.
You know who you have to forgive. You may think you have already, but if there is any trace of bitterness or negativity when you think of that person, then you have not.
To truly forgive you must forgive as the Lord forgave you. He took our sin. Our debt. How did God forgive? The Bible says ‘He remembers our sin NO MORE’. Not forgetting (that is a flaw and God is perfect) but choosing not to remember
- Acknowledge someone has ruined your life
- Declare to God that as far as you are concerned you WILL NOT seek retribution nor will you treat them as their sins deserve
- CHOOSE to let them off the hook for God to do with them as He sees fit
- Pray a blessing on them as God commanded
This is forgiveness that Jesus has given us. Take what you have been holding on to and nail it to the cross. As you are cleansed, let the blessing of unity flow down through you. Together.
Unity is the apologetic of our mission.
Christian Contemplative Journey 
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