Word of Salvation – February 2026
THE BLESSING OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
Sermon by Rev John Haverland
Text: Psalm 133
Readings: Ex 29:1-9; Eph 4:17-32
Theme: It is good and pleasant when Christians live together in unity in the church of Christ.
Purpose: To express thanks to God for the unity of the church and to illustrate and encourage this.
It is a privilege and a pleasure to be able to gather together to worship the Lord every Sunday.
Our meeting together for worship and our fellowship and conversation after the services is evidence of the unity and peace we enjoy together as a congregation.
Psalm 133 begins by celebrating this:
“Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity.”
This unity is something to appreciate and value. It is also something to work at and pray for, because it can be easily damaged or broken. Satan is certainly on the prowl looking for ways to divide and destroy the church.
This Psalm follows on from Psalm 132 which looked back to the time when King David wanted to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. He did this at the end of seven years of civil war between Judah and the northern ten tribes. After that all Israel appointed David as King over Israel, and so the nation was united.
Psalm 133 would fit well with this uniting of the 12 tribes and brothers dwelling together in unity.
It also is a fitting Psalm of Ascent as people from all over Israel, from all the tribes, made their way to Jerusalem to celebrate a festival to the Lord.
They did this together. They worshipped the Lord and offered sacrifices. They experienced unity and peace with each other and this psalm expresses this.
This was their experience, and their response.
May it be your experience and your response.
We’ll see that unity is good and pleasant, and it is like precious oil, and it is like morning dew.
- Unity is good and pleasant
v 1 – “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity.”
a) “Behold”! The Psalm begins with this exclamation to draw our attention to this.
It could also be translated as, “See! Look at this!”
Such unity is remarkable and we should take note of it.
The word ‘brothers’ or ‘brethren’ refers to all the people of God, all believers. It includes men and women, the old and young, all of the people of God, all the members of his family, and all the people of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We ‘live’ or ‘dwell’ in unity. Today we are gathered together in worship. We all live in different places but we are able to meet together for worship every Sunday, and through the week for Bible studies and catechism classes and other gatherings.
Many of you also get together socially as family and as friends and as brothers and sisters in this church.
And on this Lord’s Day we gather together for worship this morning and this afternoon.
We do all this “together in unity”. The word “unity” is at the end of the sentence for emphasis.
We are together as believers, as Christians, having the same faith, confessing the same doctrine.
We are united in what we believe about our triune God, and about the person and work of Jesus. The apostle John wrote that “our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3).
Our faith in God is what holds us together.
This unity is not uniformity. We are not all the same; on the contrary, we are all very different.
We differ in age, race, background and culture; and in temperament, character, gifts and abilities.
But, despite all these differences, we are united in faith in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
We are united in a love for each other.
We share the same trials and temptations, as well as the same hopes and aims, which is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
We are one in doctrine and mind, in love and affection, in duty and work.
b) When we live together in unity like this it is “good and pleasant.” Literally the Hebrew reads, “How good and how pleasant…” We say this too; “How good is that!?”
Spurgeon noted that unity is good in itself, and good for ourselves. It is good for us as Christians and it is good for the world.
Unity is lovely, delightful, charming and attractive.
It is far better to live in unity and peace than in debate and discord.
It is better to be in agreement together than in disagreement.
It is pleasant and a pleasure to be able to worship together like this, Sunday morning and afternoon, and to be able to see each other and talk together.
This is why most of us want to be here for both services.
c) There is a place for disagreements and debates in the church. Sometimes sin must to be exposed, rebuked and repented of.
Sometimes we have to speak up when central Christian doctrines are neglected or distorted or denied.
We must “contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (Jude 3). In these situations, however, we must be careful to speak the truth in love.
But most of the time in the church our arguments are not over central truths of the Bible but are over petty and minor issues.
Most of our disagreements arise because we are impatient and stubborn, proud and angry, jealous and greedy.
We get into arguments because we are harsh with our words and aggressive in our tone.
When Euodia and Syntyche argued with each other in the church in Philippi Paul urged them to “agree with each other in the Lord” (4:2).
He would say the same to us!
d) Satan fears the unity of the church and he does all he can to divide us. So you need to be on your guard.
It is one thing to speak and preach and write about unity, it is another matter to dwell in unity and put it into practice.
We are blessed with unity in the session and in the church. Let’s be sure we work hard to maintain this.
So let me ask you a few questions:
Are you making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace?
Are you being completely humble and gentle and patient?
Are you bearing with one another in love?
Do you need to reconcile with anyone and seek peace?
Do you need to forgive someone in the church who has wronged you?
This psalm begins by stating that unity is good and pleasant.
- Unity is like precious oil.
v 2: “It 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!”
We read about this in Exodus 29 when Aaron was ordained as the High Priest of Israel when the people were camped at Mount Sinai after coming out of Egypt.
The High Priest held the most important religious office in Israel, because he was the representative of the people before God. He stood in their place. He presented them to God. He was their mediator.
Aaron was ordained to this position with the pouring of a special blend of oil on his head. Verse 2 pictures this oil as running over his head, down his beard and onto the collar of his robe.
There was a lot of oil poured on him!
The Hebrew word translated as ‘running down’ is used three times in this psalm, twice in v 2 and once in v 3 where it is used of mountain dew that ‘falls’.
The oil and the dew are pictures of God’s blessing on his people; his blessings are abundant, they are poured out and they overflow!
The High Priest of the Old Testament was a type, or picture, of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus is now our representative before God, our perfect High Priest, our eternal Mediator. We can draw near to God the Father through Jesus His Son.
And the oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, who is poured out on God’s people. On the Day of Pentecost Jesus poured out his Spirit on all the Christians in the New Testament church. And ever since then Jesus has been filling each one of us with his Spirit.
This blessing of the Holy Spirit is given to each one of us who believe in Jesus, to all of you as members of this church.
The Spirit wants you to serve one another, to build each other up, to love one another as Christ Jesus has loved us.
The Spirit is at work in us and in the church to unify us, to draw us together, and to maintain peace among God’s people.
Unity is good and pleasant, and it is like precious oil,
- And it is like morning dew, v 3a
“It is like the dew of Hermon,
which falls on the mountains of Zion.”
The city of Jerusalem was built on Mount Zion which was 200 kms south of Mt Hermon.
Mount Hermon was located north of the land of Israel in Aram, modern Syria. It was 3000 meters high and it was known for the heavy dew that settled on its slopes.
David pictures the dew that descended on Mt Hermon as falling on Mt Zion, on the city of Jerusalem, and on the people of the Lord.
Dew is cool, refreshing, and gentle; it is of great benefit for the soil and crops and encourages growth and productivity in plants.
The point of the comparison is that unity among God’s people is like dew that rests on the ground; it is a great blessing to the church; it is a gift of the Lord.
Contrast this unity with disunity in the church, which is destructive and detrimental; it destroys relationships and damages the Lord’s work.
Unity, on the other hand, promotes harmony and helpfulness, godliness and generosity, love and concern among God’s people.
You can be thankful that the Holy Spirit has blessed you as a church with His fruits and we pray this will continue for many years to come!
David has stated that it is good and pleasant when God’s people live together in unity.
He has illustrated this with two examples:
It is like precious oil, and it is like morning dew.
He concludes this brief but beautiful psalm by confirming just how good this unity is: v 3b, “For there the Lord commanded the blessing, life forevermore.”
a) This statement emphasises the initiative of the Lord; “He commanded the blessing.”
And those who are blessed by the Lord are blessed indeed!
As members of the church are to do all we can to maintain the unity and peace of the church.
Pray for this and promote it.
But we do not design it or create it. This unity is ultimately a blessing from the Lord, a gift from him.
b) But the psalm extends this blessing of unity from the present to the future – life forevermore.
Our lives on this earth, even in the church, will always be affected by sin;
there will always be some disagreement and disunity, there will always be issues to work through,
arguments to resolve, and differences to iron out.
We can be thankful for the unity we do have but it will always be a work in progress.
But in heaven we will have perfect unity for all eternity!
In heaven there will be perfect peace, wonderful worship, warm fellowship and “life forevermore”.
We are so used to the damage caused by sin that this degree of unity and peace is hard for us to imagine.
But think of times when you have gathered at your home with close family members and very good friends.
You have shared a meal together and have enjoyed food and drinks and conversation and Christian fellowship.
Your time together was stimulating and delightful.
You shared your faith in the Lord and your joy in each other.
You looked back over the past and recalled God’s goodness and blessings; you looked forward with hope in God’s protection and grace.
We experience this in our worship services every Lord’s Day. We sing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
We celebrate the sacraments of the Lord’s Supper and Baptism. We fellowship together and talk to each other.
Occasions like these are a hint of heaven, a foretaste of what is to come, an appetiser for the banquet we will share in heaven with all God’s people from all the ages of history and all the places of the world!
“For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer experienced this.
He was a Christian and a pastor during the rise of Hitler to power in Germany and during World War II.
During those pre-war years he led a community of men whom he was training as pastors. They had separated themselves from the state Lutheran Church which supported Hitler. They lived together and were a family and fellowship of faith.
Bonhoeffer described this in his book “Life Together” which Eugene Peterson regards as “the best book written in the 20th century on…living together as a family of faith.”
Many of these men were executed by the Gestapo, as was Bonhoeffer in the closing days of the war.
Each one of them went to their eternal home in heaven, as we will one day.
“For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore.”
Amen