A Celebration of Spiritual Unity

This past Sunday, I preached on Psalm 133. It is one of the great psalms of the Psalter. And it is addresses one of the important subjects of the Christian life: spiritual unity.

For the record, I love the psalms. Like many Christians, the psalms sustain my devotional life through its various seasons. I find preaching the psalms to be difficult, but rewarding. It forces me to plunge deeper into these great hymns of faith.

Psalm 133 addresses the subject of spiritual unity in an interesting fashion. It is not a song, but a sermon. In it, David does not preach, he praises. And this song celebrates the wonderful blessings of spiritual unity.

Here is the sermon skeleton from Sunday's message.

Title: "A Celebration of Spiritual Unity"

Text: Psalm 133

Theme: In praise of spiritual unity

Point: God blesses his children when they live together in spiritual unity.

Introduction: The ascription of Psalm 133 reads: "A Song of Ascents. Of David." This title introduces us to this psalm by making two foundational points:

    * "A Song of Ascents": Spiritual unity is essential to true worship.

    * "Of David": True godliness is essential to true godliness.

Outline:

I. Celebrate the nature of spiritual unity (133:1).

    A. Behold: When God's people are united, it demands attention.

    B. Brothers: In Christ, we are family.

    C. Unity: We should live in unity, not mere uniformity

    D. Dwell: Spiritual unity is a Christian lifestyle, not a special event.

    E. Good and pleasant: This is the nature of spiritual unity.

       1. Some things are good, but not pleasant. Other things are pleasant but not good. Spiritual unity is both good and pleasant.

       2. Consider the inverse: "Behold, how bad and disturbing it is when brothers do not dwell together in unity."

          * Good: the objective reality of spiritual unity

          * Pleasant: the subjective reality of spiritual unity

II. Celebrate the source of spiritual unity (133:2-3a).

    A. The point of these two pictures is that spiritual unity is sent down, not worked up.

    B. These two pictures teach us two things about God-sent unity:

        1. God produces unity to consecrate his people (v. 2).

        2. God provides unity to refresh his people (v. 3a).

III. Celebrate the benefits of spiritual unity (133:3b).

    A. There: Ultimately, this refers to wherever God's children dwell together in unity.

    B. The Lord commanded the blessing: Blessings are the result of sovereign prerogative, not human discretion.

    C. The blessing: We should focus on the better blessings

    D. Life: Life itself is a gift to be thankful for.

    E. Life forevermore: The greatest blessing of all is eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.