How very good
and pleasant it is,
when kindred live together in unity!
It is like the precious oil on the
head
running down upon the beard,
on the beard of Aaron,
running down over the collar of his robes.
It is like the dew of Hermon
which falls on the parched hills.
For there the Lord ordained his blessing:
life for evermore. (Psalm 133)
This lovely little Psalm is part
of the lectionary for next Sunday. It is
one of several “Psalms of Ascents”… meaning to be sung by pilgrims as they ascended
the hill of Zion, to the Jerusalem temple.
It conveys, as one Jewish scholar puts it, a sense of quiet rapture,[1]
a vision of peaceful life together in a fruitful land… a basic vision, I would
think, of New Zealanders.
In the temple worship they made much
use of aromatic olive oil… as also in their homes. It fuelled the lamps, it soothed injuries; oil
signified respect and honour, well-being and blessing. The oil, says Robert Alter, was one of the
palpable physical pleasures of the good life. Now this worshipper, the Psalmist, has a
sense of overwhelming rightness, as there in the temple he watches the
anointing of the High Priest, Aaron. Obviously
the oil was not rationed – it flowed down over Aaron’s head, down his beard,
down to his robes. Robert Alter comments
that the High Priest’s beard was evidently of proverbial amplitude. The Psalmist sees the oil as like the dew of
Mount Hermon, falling on the parched farm land, restoring fruitfulness after
the dry season. He uses the same Hebrew
verb[2],
meaning to flow down upon, three times in two sentences… the blessing runs down
on Aaron’s head, it runs down his beard, and the dew or rain on Hermon runs
down on the dry land.
Of course this piece of poetry
has inspired Jews and Christians through the centuries, because of its first
lines: How very good and pleasant it is,
when kindred live together in unity! The Hebrew actually says brethren… those Jews
couldn’t imagine women or foreigners going up into the temple. But we can.
We can read it as an ideal for the whole human family, indeed, the whole
created order, in unity and peace, lifting up their hearts in gratitude. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in the maelstrom of the late
1930s, wrote his Rule for students living in seminary at Finkenwalde, studying
ministry and the way of Christ while under the horrors of the Nazi regime. Their Rule is entitled Gemeinsames Leben –
Life Together – and its opening lines are exactly those words from Psalm
133… It is also what we are doing in our
time and place… practising peace and unity in a world perilously choosing
otherwise; we are preferring Christ, as Benedict put it[3];
responding in heart and life to his way, his Rule, and his empowerment… in
peace, together.
(Read the Psalm
again…)
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