Hear the word of God now, from Psalm 133, how good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity. It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down of an errands beard, down upon the collar of his robes. It is as if the dew of Hermann were falling on Mount Zion. For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore. Let's pray together. Our Lord Jesus, we come to you now to understand how these words apply to our situation here at RTS. And unless you are teaching us our efforts are in vain. And so we pray your spirit will open us to this word that we may understand and live and love you because of what you have said. I grew up in Roanoke, Virginia, which is in the shadow, is a 50 mile shadow of Jerry Falwell's Liberty Baptist Church. Now you have to understand I grew up in the old days when he was still preaching in a very small situation and it wasn't something that was nationally or internationally known. Jerry Falwell's old time gospel hour. And I can remember as a child on Sunday afternoon sitting with my parents watching Jerry Falwell on TV, we were Baptist and that's what good Baptist like us did on Sunday afternoon. He didn't play ball, he just watched religious television. And I remember Jerry and his other partners there in that ministry saying something like this. We invite all of you from all over Virginia, from Roanoke, my hometown, from Lynchburg, from Bedford, from this place, from that place to come to our church, worship every Sunday morning. They said then they would always close this line. It's a bit of a drive but it's worth the trip. It's a bit of a drive but it's worth the trip. And for us it was a 50 mile trip and back in those days this is ancient history and a 50 miles was a long time, the long waits to go. We never went, we just watched them on TV, it was easier. It's quite a drive or a little bit of a drive but it's worth the trip. That slogan applies perfectly to this psalm because this is a psalm that's within a group of psalms known as the psalms of a cent. And this group of psalms from 122 to around 134 or so is the kind of psalm that was used at one time or another in the times when Israelites would travel to the temple. And along their travelings to the celebrations at the temple, they had three or four of these, they were supposed to go to every year. They would sing songs to each other, to encourage each other, to remind each other why they were doing this, why they had left house and home, why they had left their businesses, why they had left their children sometimes, why they had left their investments in order to go to this temple to celebrate the various seasons of the year. And these psalms would remind them of things that they were about to see or about to experience and that's what this psalm does. It reminds them about something that was very important to them at that Jerusalem temple. You can see it in verse 1, how good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity. And what we're going to do is try to relate this psalm of a cent, the psalm of traveling, this pilgrimage psalm to a pilgrimage that all of you have taken. Now some of you have left home, some of you have left your state, some of you have left jobs, some of you have left friends and some are even, I know, leaving family in order to come to this place. This place called RTS, it's not the temple in Jerusalem, trust me. But in many respects, what we are about here and what we are doing here is supposed to be very much like the temple in Jerusalem. But we are the living stones of the temple, we are the ones who come together and make, as it were, what was experienced there on Mount Zion. This should be very much like a religious pilgrimage for you, even if it's just across town. And you should have certain expectations and certain goals and certain desires and see those fulfilled as you are here. And many of those goals, many of those desires are found in Psalm 133. The first thing I wanted to see in verse 1 is that as these people traveled, they thought about something, they thought about their intense desire to see the unity of the people of God. Did you read it there, verse 1? How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity. In the original language, it says how twice, indicating that it really is intense, behold how good and how pleasant it is when brothers live together, sit down together, hang out together, work together in unity. The fact that this Psalm is a pilgrimage Psalm does tell us that the focus here is on the cooperation and the unity that was to take place at the site of the temple, where people were serving God, where people were living before God, where people were worshipping Him and seeking to, well, delight in God. And notice that the Psalmist says this is something that is wonderful, something to be cherished, something to be desired, the oneness, the harmony, the unity, the cooperation, the mutual ministry between those who are at the temple. I have been around to many different seminaries in this country and I have noticed that they use all kinds of different metaphors to describe what they do. It is quite interesting, I remember one particular unnamed seminary that had a bulletin board for student interaction. There is a rather prominent bulletin board right next to the eating hall that eliminates a few seminaries right away, doesn't it? Right next to the eating hall, the cafeteria, and the title of this interactive board, the bulletin board, where people would put up things they believed and other people would respond, and there was this sort of mutual working toward the goal of truth. The title of this bulletin board was iron, sharpens iron, a fascinating kind of metaphor, isn't it, for what we are doing here. But I'm not sure it's really appropriate to tell you the truth. Very often we do come to seminary with a bellicose warlike attitude that my job here is to swing my sword against your sword, to swing my iron against your iron, and we'll battle this thing out, and the one that comes out the victor is obviously the one who is blessed by God, and we'll succeed in ministry. If you come to seminary with that kind of iron, sharpening iron attitude, I think you're going to be in for, I hope you're going to be in for a great disappointment here, but I think you're also seriously this guy. I would prefer seeing the title of that bulletin board, if we were to have something here, something different, something I don't want to be too schmaltzy, but something like hands holding hands, friends helping friends, brothers, sisters joining together in the common goal of hammering out truth, not hammering out each other. In the beginning of this campus, we had very few people. I remember when it was just RC and me, we were the only faculty members with a few part-time Frank Farrell and a few others that would come around, and those were the good old days. When we had, you know, when the whole seminary was as large on me, just as large as what's up in the balcony today, right John? It was amazing, you know, I mean, everybody was a buddy, we'd sit around, do things together, play basketball together, go to movies together, all kinds of things. There was no problem in those days to desire and to delight in how good and how wonderful it is when brothers lived together harmoniously and cooperatively. There was no problem. Somebody got out of line, everybody just beat them up and they got back in line. It was absolutely no problem. But now as we grow, year after year after year, we come ever, ever, ever so close to losing the camaraderie we had in the beginning. It's inevitable that we will lose some of that intimacy, but I want to say to you that we should never lose the desire that the Psalmist expresses here, that this place where the living stones building the temple, this place, RTS, this place is to be a place where we delight and enjoy and look forward to the brothers and sisters dwelling together in unity. Why? Why? Verse 2 and 3 give a couple of reasons why the Psalmist uses two similes to explain why he considers the unity, harmony, cooperation among brothers and sisters at the temple to be so important. Verse 2 that it is like precious oil poured on the head running down on the beard running down upon Aaron's beard upon the collar of his robe. The first thing the Psalmist says in his mind is he moves back to the past and he says, the reason I desire the unity, the reason I'm telling you is so wonderful and so good is because it reminds me of something that happened a long time ago. It reminds me of something that happened a long time ago, but something that we experience even now and that is when Aaron the high priest was anointed by Moses to be the mediator between God and his people, the one who would lead the worship, the one who would lead the people of God and sacrifice and praise. It is like that time. It is as if we were standing there watching the oil flowing down from Aaron's head down to his beard, down to the collar, the edges perhaps the translation is difficult of his robe. That was a glorious day because it meant in the past the establishment of a priesthood, a priestly order that would indeed make it possible for the Israelites to find access to their God in a way they had never had it before. Access to a tabernacle, to a ceremony, to a system that would actually provide for them a way of confession, a way of renewal, a way of life, a way of unity with each other, but also with their God. It is so precious, it is so pleasant, it is so good for brothers to dwell in unity because it reminds us of the mediation that took place in the establishment of Aaron. But mind you, that is not something that has stopped way back in the days of Moses because this psalm is probably not written in those days. It is something that continued in the life of Israel for a century after century the sons of Aaron, priests, people who would actually mediate between the people and God. But do you know what would happen if people came to the tabernacle or came to the temple and were uncooperative? Do you know what would have happened every bit of the mediatorial work would have stopped functioning? The reason for this is because for the priest to do their job, it took cooperation, it took cooperation among the priests, it took cooperation among the lay people and the priests. They all had certain things, look at the first chapters of Leviticus, they had certain things they had to do, they had certain processes, they all had to go through, they had to work together. They had to be together in harmony in order for the mediation to take place. And the idea here is that that is why it is so precious for us to live in unity because unity and harmony among us here, cooperation among us, well, it gives us access to the mediatorial structures of this community. Because we do have Jesus as our high priest, but we also have each and every one of us as priests of each other. Look at the person next to you. I want you to look at his eyes or her eyes. Mono, yes, gracias. Did you see that person? Did you look? I want you to get that person's name. Make sure you know the person's name, please. Okay, Rick Harper, would you please tell us, in this school there is at least one priest for you, who is that person? That's their hill. There isn't a school at least one priest for you, who would have been. Demetri, there is at least one priest for you in this school, who is that? You have two. You need two.
But what will happen to our priestly service to each other if we come here without the unity, without the desire to see the one that is in harmony and cooperation that must take place here? My brother and I grew up watching television, that's all we ever did. And it was back in the days of black and white TVs with fine tuners. Do you remember those things? Some of your old enough to know those is when you had rabbit ears in fine tuning. And in those days you had to always choose, this is one like cable now, where it's perfect picture. You had to always choose, choose between snow or shadows. Okay, now my brother and I usually fought over what channel, what show to watch, but even when we could agree on what show to watch, which channel to be on, we would disagree as to whether we wanted snow or shadows. And so he'd get up, turn the fine tune or one way, I'd get up, turn it back the other way, tune it back and forth, back and forth, finally we start fitting each other. And my mother would come down into the basement, of course that was the days of recreation rooms in the basement, and fallout shelters too, by the way. And what do you think my mother would do is my brother and I were killing each other on the concrete floor. She'd turned the TV off. We fine tune each other right out of getting to watch TV. What we do in the school is a lot of fine tuning, and we need to watch out that we realize that for the most part, not all of us, but for the most part, we're on the same channel here. Don't fine tune yourself out of the access to God that's provided by your brothers and sisters here. By creating this harmony, and by creating hatred among us, over shadows and snow, if it's a serious issue, put your foot down and go for it. But if it's fine tuning, back off. The psalmist looks to the past, and he says there's something in the past that reminds me of this unity and the boy it's lovely, and I need it so much. That's why we should be excited about going there. That's why it's worth the trip to the temple, but now he looks away from the past and to the future. He looks to something that has been promised, but something that had not up to this point happened. In fact, it was a physical impossibility. Do you see it in verse 3? It is, as if, and I think the NIV is right in translating it this way. It is as if the dew of Hermann, Mount Hermann, were falling on Mount Zion. For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life evermore. Mount Hermann is in the north, and it's a high mountain, and it's a very lush and green mountain, sometimes snow-capped mountain. It's one that feeds the streams that flow down into northern Israel, and even into Judah at times. It's a wondrous mountain, the people that you guard thought it was Mount Olympia. They thought it was the mountain of the gods. It became a sort of cosmic mountain, the mountain that represented fertility, and life, and joy, and splendor. But the Jews have picked some little rock down south, called Zion. That you could barely get a piece of grass to grow on. I mean, some little bump on a hill for crying out loud. Now it had been given to them by God, and they thought that this was a wonderful thing, and knew it was a wonderful thing. After all, King David had chosen it as his place, his capital city, and it was the place of the name of God, the place of the temple, the place of worship and adoration. But the dream, the dream of every Israelite, is an eschatological dream. It was to see Mount Zion become as wondrous as Mount Hermon. The place of the name of God to become green could flow with water, to flow with dew, to flow throughout the whole world, and even as our New Testament tells us for a stream to feed every nation of the earth to flow out of the throne of God. See, it's a wondrous vision of what Israel wanted to have here, the dew of Hermon, come on Zion. That's how wonderful it is for brothers and sisters to dwell in unity. Did you notice how he puts it at the last sentence of this verse? For there, the Lord, there in Zion, the Lord bestows his blessing even life forevermore. What's he saying here? He's saying that just like you had Aaron anointed and now we experienced the blessing of Aaron's anointing. He's saying in the future we're going to see Mount Zion become lush and green like Mount Hermon. But now, now, in our day, when we join together in unity and harmony at the temple site, we can experience the future. We can experience the blessing of life forevermore, not then, but for taste of it now. And all of you thought that Paul came up with this quasi-realized eschatology. For there, the Lord bestows his blessing the foretaste of life forevermore. I'm absolutely convinced of this, that American Christians by and large are not going to have very many heavenly rewards. You know why? Because they get so many foretaste of it now. I'm really am convinced of that. And sometimes I wonder if I'll get a penny in heaven, penny in the New Heavens because I get so much now. That's why I go to Mongolian things, trying to earn a little bit of heavenly reward, but having the blessings of eternal life here and now is a good thing. Especially when it comes to this particular expression, this particular opportunity to have a foretaste of life forevermore. Do you know something? And the New Heavens and New Earth, you're going to get along with these people that you're here with today. You're going to love them. You're going to be one with them. You're going to delight in them. You're going to take joy in them. You're going to see them as God's workmanship and you're going to praise them for all the people around you. It's going to be absolutely magnificent. If you and I will sit before ourselves, the goal of working in harmony with each other, in peace with each other, as stones of this temple come together and gathered in his name, then we can experience right here at RTS of foretaste of the life forevermore that we will have with each other. Now some of you are new and you don't know this yet. It's going to get discouraging here. Some of you are old and you know it very well. That was a third year student who said, you're going to get tired and you're going to get discouraged. It's not going to be as wonders as you thought. But I will tell you one thing that can come out of this and it comes from the third verse. And that is that you can form friendships and bonds and communion with other believers here that will be with you and in your heart to give you strength now and strength in the years to come when you face the darkest hour of your ministry. It will come from the friendships, the union, the brotherhood, the sisterhood, the familyhood that we establish here. So very often we think of seminary as a boxing match. Well, it's not. If you ever see me turning it into a boxing match, you come and rebuke me. Punch me out. Because it's my intention not to make it a boxing match. But let me encourage you not to let it be a mock boxing match for you either. Remember that one of the qualifications of church leadership is not only that you have sound doctrine and be apt to teach but that you not be a pugnacious or quarrelsome person. This is the place to learn not to be quarrelsome, not to be pugnacious and you will experience a foretaste of what is to come. Some of you have made great sacrifices to be here. You've come among trips to be here. It's been a trip. But it will be worth the trip if you will desire the unity. Experience the blessing of mediation between each other and the foretaste of the new heavens and the earth. Let's pray together. How we bless you, Lord, and how we honor you that in our meager efforts here at this seminary we can actually delight in the mediation and in the foretaste of blessing that you give us here. Give us the hearts and that need, that want, that cherish, that desire, brothers and sisters slowing together in unity. And as you do that we will give you praise and we will give you honor. Amen.