Love Among Kindred (Psalm 133)

Easter greetings to you in the name of our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!!

For the season of Easter, I thought I would simply share a Psalm with you each week, the Psalm assigned for the upcoming Sunday.  Today’s Psalm is 133:

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 mountains of Zion. For there the Lord ordained his blessing, life forevermore.

It’s a peculiar Psalm, really.  Starts out pretty straight forward.  It is good and pleasant when kindred live together in unity.  Family quarrels are terrible things.  But all this stuff about oil and dew seems odd.  But Nancy Koester provides some helpful thoughts about this in her commentary on Working Preacher (https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/second-sunday-of-easter-2/commentary-on-psalm-133-5).  She recognizes the power of these metaphors.  Something starts out small, as a trickle of a few drops, and it can become a huge flow later on.  We can’t relate so well to the image of oil and beards and clothes becoming a mess.  But we’ve all seen huge mountain rivers.  They started as a few drops of dew at the mountain top.

So, too, can the love between “kindred,” siblings in Christ, become a river of love and grace for many.  Let us offer humble drops of grace, humility, and love to one another today – and trust God to transform it into something powerful and amazing.

********************** 

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·         8:30am – worship in person, or online

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·         10am – worship in person

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