When People Live in Unity
“A song of ascents. Of David. How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! 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 robe. It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the LORD bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.”
— Psalm 133:1-3 (NIV)
Fifteen poems in a row carry the same heading about going up, and this is one of them. What the heading meant is still argued: music for travelers on the road to Jerusalem, songs tied to the temple steps, songs of the return from exile, or a name for the stair-like build of the lines. The road fits either way, because the city sits high in the hill country and every approach to it climbs. The word behind brothers covered far more than sons of one mother. It reached across a whole clan, which in a small village meant the very people you could not avoid. Oil on the head was an everyday thing there, used on guests and for grooming. One blend was not. The law of Moses set down its recipe by weight, myrrh and cassia in the largest measures, with cinnamon and fragrant cane, all worked into olive oil. Mixing the same thing for private use, or putting it on anyone outside the priesthood, carried the penalty of being cut off from your own people. Aaron was the first high priest, and it was poured over him on the day he was installed. The closing image joins two places whose weather never meets. Hermon rises on the far northern edge of the land, more than a hundred miles from Zion, holding snow through winter and spring, while the southern hills go from late spring to autumn with almost no rain. The blessing this song names comes down where the people are together, and it does not stop at one person.
It is not the people you see on special days, it is the ones you are with every day. Close up, everything shows: a tone of voice, the mess, the lateness, the same sentence for the hundredth time. It does not have to be family; it can be the desk next to yours, the neighbour by the lift, or the person you talk to on the phone every day. Usually there is one remark you make to them more than any other, and you know it changes nothing. Getting along rarely starts with a big conversation; more often it starts with one remark you do not make. Jesus prayed that his friends would be one, and he knew every one of them up close.
One remark fewer
- 1Pick one person you are with every day, at home, at work or on the phone, and the one remark you make to them most often: about the mess, the lateness, the tone, the same old subject. Do not make it once today, not in a message and not with a sigh. When it comes to your tongue, pray silently: Lord, give us peace together.
- 2If you will not see any of them today, do the same with a remark you keep making about someone in your head or to other people: not once today, and that short prayer to God in its place.
God, thank you for the people I live and work beside, even when they wear me out and I wear them out. You know the remark I make to them most. Help me not make it today. Give us a peace together that we cannot make on our own. Amen.
The one remark I always make stays unsaid today and becomes a prayer.
What does a song of ascents mean?
Fifteen poems in a row carry a heading about going up. The meaning is still argued: music for travelers heading to Jerusalem, songs tied to the temple steps, songs of the return from exile, or a name for the stair-like way the lines are built. The text itself never says where they were sung.
Why does the oil matter so much in this picture?
Oil went on heads there every day, on guests and for grooming. One blend was different. The law of Moses set its recipe down by weight: myrrh and cassia in the largest measures, with cinnamon and fragrant cane, all worked into olive oil. Mixing the same thing for private use, or putting it on anyone outside the priesthood, meant being cut off from your own people. It was poured over Aaron on the day he was installed as the first high priest.
What do I do today?
Pick the one remark you make most often to someone you are with every day, and do not make it once today. When it comes to your tongue, pray silently: Lord, give us peace together.