Precious Dew (Ps. 133)

As I read of the refreshing dew flowing down from Mount Hermon in Ps. 133, I can almost feel its cooling touch. Living in the Deep South, maybe it is easier to picture for me than for those in cooler climes. I think about this as summer grows nearer and the thermometer begins to rise--soon it will feel almost unbearable to walk outside. Summers here are moist but seem scorching in their intensity, leaving the one outside for any length of time longing for cool relief. Even a Coke can with the moist condensation kissing the outside is wonderfully refreshing, pressed against the forehead in the heat of summer. But I let myself digress as I wonder what Mount Hermon is like when in reality the Psalm is about the wonderful unity of living at peace with brothers. The picture of the wonderfulness of dew on a dry, desert mountain just helps me understand better.

Maybe that longing for living at peace with others is something I can understand much less intensely than David, not having grown up in a land full of division and distrust between brothers and kin, a land split by rebellion and disobedience with feuds seemingly unending; nor can I truly understand what it would be like to dwell in a royal house full of wives and concubines, children full of envy, and jealousy running rampant. But then again, maybe I understand better than I used to the longing for peace in my life, for everyone to pull together in the same direction at the Lord’s bidding. Side by side, working together, celebrating the lack of conflict, enjoying the pleasant sound of laughter, the quiet sounds of peace, shoulders bent together in a burden instead of bent under it alone. 

There is blessing in peace found here on earth. In fact, it sounds much like heaven that begins now with the blessing of Christ in my life. I have brothers and sisters all over the world with the same mission and mindset as I have—to lift up and elevate and make great the Name of the Lord, to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with those hungering and thirsting for it. 

Dwelling together in unity with other believers here and now is precious like the special recipe for oil that God gave to Moses for the use of the priests in their consecration and in their  worship of Him alone. Leviticus 8 tells of the first time this occurred: the priests, Aaron and his sons, were brought to Moses for cleansing with water before being dressed by him in their special priestly gear for service, the tabernacle and altar and implements sprinkled with anointing oil as well as Aaron and his sons, who then laid their hands on the sacrificial animals in the order given before Moses killed each one and used the blood of these animals to purify the altar and the priests in an ordination service like no other, taking seven days to complete as God had commanded Moses. Being set apart was not a quick process for the earthly priests. It required devotion, dedication, obedience, waiting. 

Precious the anointing is that sets us apart. Jesus is our high priest, holy, righteous, without need to be cleansed of sin to act as a mediator on our behalf. Jesus, our high priest, is deservingly dressed in white robes of brilliance, blinding in His purity and holiness (as Saul could attest on the road to Damascus when he encountered the living Son of God). Jesus, our high priest, allowed the ones He created and longed for and loved to lay their hands on him and slay Him as an offering for the sins of the world, for those who were His that His father had given Him. We are washed clean by His sacrifice, dressed in His robes of righteousness with no further sacrifice required for our salvation but His blood, His righteousness. The Sprit indwells us, allowing us to know His will without the need for the Urim and Thummim slipped into the breast piece of the linen ephod worn by earthly priests. We are the priests, as Peter tells us in 1 Peter 2:9, "You are a royal priesthood and a priestly kingdom," and as read in Revelation 5:10: "Through your blood you have made us into priests and kings.” 

And I don’t have to wait for heaven to experience the peace of Christ because I already have it IN Him (Jn. 14:27 and 16:33, Ps. 4:8, Is. 32:17 and 53:5, Rom. 5:1 and 15:13, and the list could go on and on and on as we read in the Scriptures). Sometimes we forget that the blessings of eternity begin here on earth as we live and breathe and find our existence in Jesus, who sustains us and brings us love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control (Eph. 5). 

It IS good and pleasant for brothers [and sisters] to dwell together in unity. It is precious like the oil poured on Aaron’s head that rolled down his beard and onto his priestly robes, consecrating them. It is a wonder in the dry, hot, barren world we live in now that the dew still comes down from Hermon each morning and pools into streams that flow with life-sustaining water. His mercies are new each morning (Lam. 3:23). 

Let us not forget to rejoice with David in the goodness of the Lord seen in the land of the living (Ps. 27:13), nor forget that the kingdom of God is not found in eating or drinking or any earthly circumstance but in the righteousness, joy, and peace found in the Holy Spirit He has given to live in us through Christ (Rom. 14:17). This small Psalm of three verses was the only Psalm given for my reading today, but it was full of wonder and reflections of the God who inspired David to write it.