Community: It's Essential

Psalm 133

¹Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters dwell in unity!

²It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes!

³It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore.

One of the spiritual disciplines I practice is to copy the Scriptures into my own journal. This morning, the portion of the Bible slated for today was Psalm 133. God’s sense of timing (and maybe a little irony) was not lost on me. As we are responsibly experiencing “social distancing” (which, admit it – you’d never even heard of until about 2 weeks ago) what has become alarmingly apparent is our inherent need for community. God wired it into us. Now, I do know that some of us need a little less community than others. My husband is a “people person” and thrives on conversation and interaction with others. I, on the other hand, am not quite that engaged. So this time apart from everyone else is less difficult for me. But even I am happy to talk with others via Zoom or FaceTime. Then, along comes these three short verses that celebrate our sense of community and it’s importance to all of us – especially inside of the Body of Christ.

I confess that for me, this psalm has always been a bit of a “skip over it" one for me. The first verse – golden. The rest of it? What is that about? So, that meant a couple of hours of reading and research – and what else have I got to do, right? What follows is a compilation of what I learned.

The oil of Aaron’s anointing (Exodus 29:7; Leviticus 21:10) saturated all the hair of his beard and ran down on his priestly robes, signifying his total consecration to holy service. Similarly, brotherly harmony sanctifies God’s people. dew of Hermon … on Mount Zion. A dew as profuse as that of Mount Hermon would make Mount Zion (or the mountains of Zion) richly fruitful (see Genesis 27:28; Haggai 1:10; Zechariah 8:12). So would brotherly unity make Israel richly fruitful. The two similes (vv. 2–3) are well chosen: God’s blessings flowed to Israel through the priestly ministrations at the sanctuary (Exodus 29:44–46; Leviticus 9:22–24; Numbers 6:24–26)—epitomizing God’s redemptive mercies—and through heaven’s dew that sustained life in the fields—epitomizing God’s providential mercies in the creation order. life. The great covenant blessing (see Deuteronomy 30:15, 19–20; 32:47).

Hoeber, R. G. (1997). Concordia Self-Study Bible (p 928 – study notes). St. Louis: CPH.

Jesus teaches us that the faith is not lived out alone, but instead is defined by life in community.

Matthew 22:34-40

³⁴But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. ³⁵And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ³⁶“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” ³⁷And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

For centuries this psalm was sung on the road as throngs of people made the ascent to Jerusalem for festival worship. Our imaginations readily reconstruct those scenes. How great to have everyone sharing a common purpose, traveling a common path, striving toward a common goal, that path and purpose and goal being God. How much better than making the long trip alone: “How good, how delightful it is for all to live together like brothers”.

Peterson, Eugene H.. A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society . InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.

Throughout the Old Testament, we find that brothers and sisters did not always get along very well; Cain and Abel, Joseph and his 11 brothers, Jacob and Esau … the list gets longer. As siblings, we are not guaranteed a peace-filled existence. In fact, the very opposite is usually true. My brother and I would fight like crazy when we were children. But we also stood up for one another to the end when under attack – even against my parents sometimes! (My dad always said, “one will lie and the other will back them up!” He was right on numerous occasions.)

So what about all that oil, flowing down Aaron’s head and onto his beard? Well, oil is a symbol of God’s presence. It shines, enhances the warmth of the sun, softens the skin, and even brings intriguing scents.

But more particularly here the oil is an anointing oil, marking the person as a priest. Living together means seeing the oil flow over the head, down the face, through the beard, onto the shoulders of the other—and when I see that I know that my brother, my sister, is my priest. When we see the other as God’s anointed, our relationships are profoundly affected.

Peterson, Eugene H.. A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society . InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.

The person who might have helped us understand these concepts the best was Dietrich Bonhoeffer. While the following is lengthy, it is worth the read. He was a truly remarkable man of God and his story is one worth knowing.

“The Christian needs another Christian who speaks God’s Word to him. He needs him again and again when he becomes uncertain and discouraged, for by himself he cannot help himself without belying the truth. He needs his brother man as a bearer and proclaimer of the divine word of salvation. He needs his brother solely because of Jesus Christ. The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother; his own heart is uncertain; his brother’s is sure. … Not what a man is in himself as a Christian, his spirituality and piety, constitutes the basis of our community. What determines our brotherhood is what that man is by reason of Christ. Our community with one another consists solely in what Christ has done to both of us.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1954), p.23 & 25.

One of the best, maybe the best, book written in the twentieth century on the meaning of living together as a family of faith is Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The book begins with the words of the psalm: “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to live together in unity!” (NKJV). The text was with Bonhoeffer all his life. His first publication, a doctoral dissertation at age twenty-one, was titled “The Communion of the Saints.” His book The Cost of Discipleship has been a handbook to a vast company of Christians on pilgrimage. During the Nazi years he led a fugitive community of seminarians, living with them in a daily quest to discover for themselves the meaning of being a family of faith in Christ and training them in the pastoral ministries that would lead others into that fellowship of a common life. It was during this period that he wrote Life Together. During the last years of the Third Reich he was imprisoned by Adolf Hitler. But even then prison walls did not separate him from his brothers and sisters in Christ. He prayed for them and wrote letters to them, deepening the experience of community in Christ. And then he was killed. Even as his life had been an exploration of the first line of Psalm 133, his death was an exposition of the last line: “GOD commands the blessing, ordains eternal life.”

The time was April 9th, 1945. The prison doctor at Flossenburg wrote this report: “On the morning of the day, sometime between five and six o’clock the prisoners . . . were led out of their cells and the verdicts read to them. Through the half-open door of a room in one of the huts I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer, still in his prison clothes, kneeling in fervent prayer to the Lord his God. The devotion and evident conviction of being heard that I saw in the prayer of this intensely captivating man, moved me to the depths.” So the morning came. Now the prisoners were ordered to strip. They were led down a little flight of steps under the trees to the secluded place of execution. There was a pause. . . . Naked under the scaffold in the sweet spring woods, Bonhoeffer knelt for the last time to pray. Five minutes later, his life was ended. . . . Three weeks later Hitler committed suicide. In another month the Third Reich had fallen. All Germany was in chaos and communications were impossible. No one knew what had happened to Bonhoeffer. His family waited in anguished uncertainty in Berlin. The report of his death was first received in Geneva and then telegraphed to England. On July 27th his aged parents, as was their custom, turned on their radio to listen to the broadcast from London. A memorial service was in progress. The triumphant measures of Vaughan Williams’ “For All the Saints” rolled out loud and solemn from many hundred voices. Then a single German was speaking in English, “We are gathered here in the presence of God to make thankful remembrance of the life and work of his servant Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who gave his life in faith and obedience to His holy word.” 

Mary Bosenquet, The Life and Death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. (New York: Harper & Row, 1968), pp.15-16  

In such a way one man showed in his life and death, even as we can in the communities we live in and lead, the rich and continuing truths of Psalm 133: “How wonderful, how beautiful, when brothers and sisters get along... That’s where GOD commands the blessing, ordains eternal life.”

Peterson, Eugene H.. A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society . InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.

So, as we sit in our own home, relish those times you are able to get online for prayer, worship, or Bible Study. We may not be able to be in the same room together (for the safety of all) but we can still connect and encourage one another. And if you have a neighbor who doesn’t have internet access – call them! Don’t hesitate. Just do it.