Destination: Mount Zion

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"How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard, down on the collar of his robe." Psalm 133:1-2

Main Readings: Psalms 133-134 & Ephesians 4

Supporting Readings: Hebrews 10 & Revelation 21

Let me take you, if you will, back to the beginning of our series in the Psalms of Ascents. To remind us where we started out, because we’ve been on a journey of sorts with the pilgrims these past seven weeks.

Back in Psalm 120 we were with the weary pilgrim longing for his home country – the country where his God was situated.

And yet finding himself in the land of Meshek and dwelling amongst the tents of Kedar. Where, there was no peace. Where, his enemies were.

He spoke from a place of exile, but longed – as we saw in Psalm 122 – for Jerusalem.

He said, ‘I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord”’.

And his prayer was a prayer for the peace of Jerusalem, remember that?

All the while, on his long pilgrimage from exile to Jerusalem, he repeatedly lifted his eyes to God – enthroned in heaven.

Repeatedly, he called out to the Lord to have mercy. And he was able to say, ‘our help is in the name of the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth’ – Psalm 124.

Every step of the way we heard the growing confidence he had in the God of Mount Zion – how God would surround and protect his covenantpeople.

He believed, didn’t he, that the Lord would restore the fortunes of Zion. He dreamed of its glorious future, with him in it.

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But he didn’t forget the oppression he had seen; or the deliverance the Lord had granted either.

Delivered – that’s what he had been. And what a beautiful feeling it was! But always longing - longing for the fullness of fellowship with God to be finally realised.

And then, last week, we saw something amazing. The prayer goes up: ‘Arise Lord, come to your resting place, you and ark of your might. May your priests be clothed with your righteousness; may your faithful people sing for joy’.

And the answer came back: ‘The Lord has chosen Zion, he has desired it for his dwelling, saying, “This is my resting place for ever and ever; here I will sit enthroned, for I have desired it’. And, ‘I will clothe her priests with salvation, and her faithful people will ever sing for joy’.

So, it sounded exactly like the pilgrim was arriving at what he had only dreamed of in Psalm 120.

God was in heaven in Psalm 123, but now he says he has desired to make Zion his resting place for ever.

There was no king is Psalm 120, just enemies. No peace in Jerusalem. But now God has promised to reinstate his king and fulfil his oath to David – ‘one of your decedents I will place on your throne’.

Mount Zion is established forever, and the pilgrim finds his feet upon its ground at last.

What a journey he has made!

What a destination he has arrived at!

Here we are then this morning – we have arrived at the pilgrim’s longed-for destination. The whole journey has been a geographicalmovement from the plains to the heights of Mount Zion.

But the whole journey has been a redemptive movement really - from the pits of exile, owing to sin, to the heights of deliverance in the presence of God.

Well, then, what is left to be established in these final two Psalms?

I see four things.

The first is community harmony. The second is representation before God. The third is the covenant land. And the fourth is worship.

When these are in place, the fullness of the covenant promises will be realised. And God will dwell with his people, and they with him, forever and ever. That’s where we’re heading.

So, harmony within the community is first.

I don’t think Psalm 133, verse 1 is a suggestion, I think it is a recognition. A recognition of what the presence of God has produced. It is like this: ‘Look at this! Look! This is what it’s like when the whole community lives together in one accord’.

‘God has done this! And behold: it is a beautiful thing!’

Beautiful how? The Psalmist says community harmony has twoattributes.

It has the attribute of goodness – it is very good. ‘Good’ like the ‘good’ God labelled the creation with at the beginning when everything was perfect. That kind of good. A moral good.

In other words, there is something about the harmony of God’s covenant people that reflects himself – reflects his very own nature and character.

God, after all, is Father, Son and Spirit: three divine persons eternally existing in perfect communion with each other.

So, there is an internal pattern of harmony in God for harmonious community. I wonder if we’ve thought of that before.

It’s good – it’s fitting – when his people dwell with each other, as the Father Son and Spirit dwell with each other.

Secondly, this harmony has the attribute of pleasantness about it – still in verse 1.

What is the experience of this harmonious fellowship? It is delightisn’t it. The Father, Son and Spirit all delight in each other – enjoying the fellowship of each other to the max!

And therefore, it is delightful to God’s people when they, too, dwell with each other like this. It refreshes them. It is ‘pleasant’ to them.

The unity then, that God gives, is objectively good and it is experientially pleasant.

And which weary pilgrim wouldn’t prize such a beautiful God-given thing as that? Surely, we all would!

Think of your own households for a moment - how much more pleasantis it to live together when there is harmony under the one roof? I mean, that’s hard to get, for sure, but we know how much better it feels!

And usually in a household, where there is unity between the parents, there is more unity in the household.

Well, it’s like that here too - only maxed out because it’s God we’re talking about. Because the unity here is a covenant unity not createdby the people, but given, by their God.

And the pilgrim lives in it. We’ll see it in a moment.

Let’s get two estimations, then, from the Psalmist, of what this harmony is like – two images of it, if you will.

Verse 2 says, this harmony is like ‘precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard, down on the collar of his robe’.

Let’s notice first that the oil is ‘precious’ – that is to say it is specially-made oil for the purposes of anointing.

And that’s what’s happening here. The image is of the high priest’s anointing. The first high priest being Aaron – which is why his name is invoked here.

And we also want to especially note the direction the oil is travelling in. It’s descending. It starts at the head and ends up on the collar of the high priestly robe.

The significance is, that the collar is the place on the robe where the names of the tribes of Israel were written.

The instructions in Exodus were to mount the names of the tribes on the shoulders and the breastpiece of the high priest – in close proximity to the collar, where this precious anointing oil is ending up.

So really the oil is coming to rest on the tribes of Israel! There’s so much of it - an abundance - that it runs down, covering head and beard and collar and therefore the people!

So, the beauty of this community togetherness is being pictured as the high priestly blessing that comes to rest on the whole covenant community.

Blessing is just flowing from God onto the people via the high priest, and creating this beautiful, fragrant unity amongst them! You can smell it. You can sense it with your soul – praise God!

Now, we know that Christ is our great high priest – Hebrews says so.

We also know that God has appointed him head over everything for the church, which is his body – Ephesians 1 says.

We know that he was anointed with the Holy Spirit, because he said, ‘the spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news’ – Luke 4:18.

And we know that when he ascended on high, after rising from the dead, he sent forth his Spirit into each of our hearts, and that Spirit isthe Spirit of Peace (John 14).

So, just as the precious anointing oil was poured on the High Priest’s head, so the precious Holy Spirit was poured out on Jesus who is our head.

And just as the oil ran down on the names of Israel, so Jesus has sent forth the precious Holy Spirit into our hearts, who is the Spirit of Peace.

Therefore, the blessing of God here, through his great high priest – Jesus – is the unity and harmony of his church.

Let me suggest why, this comes through the high priestly office of Jesus and not the kingship of Jesus.

Because, if you think about it, only last week, we were seeing the rule and reign of king David re-established. And it’s not as if kings didn’t have to be anointed. They did.

So it made me wonder: why not invoke the name of David here? And yet we have the high priestly name of Aaron instead.

Here’s what I think – see if you agree.

The role of the High Priest was to enter into the very presence of God alone and on behalf of the people. To represent the people to God.

Whilst they remained outside the Holy of Holies, he entered in. Just once and year and never without the shedding of blood.

And it was like this so that there might be harmony between God and his covenant people.

Now Jesus is our great high priest, and he too has entered into the presence of God to represent us – and this by his own blood.

And by his representation on our behalf, we have peace with God.

Therefore, it makes sense that the harmony of fellowship we enjoy with God, which was mediated by our great high priest, Jesus, also be the means by which the blessing of unity flows to us for our community fellowship too.

So, unity is the covenant atmosphere for us through Jesus Christ, and the Psalm points us in this direction.

So, now the covenant high priest is installed, alongside the king and the sanctuary, and all in the presence of God.

But then there is this second image of this unity we saw in verse 1.

The second image is this in verse 3: ‘It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion’.

So, notice again that the blessing is flowing downwards. It flowed down from Aaron’s head. Now it flows down from the sky as dew.

And surely this flowing down is to show that the source of this blessing, which is creating this beautiful unity, is none other than God himself.

Surely it shows that!

Both these locations are mountains. Hermon and Zion are mountains, in what was earmarked as the promised land by God.

Hermon was at northern most border and Zion was situated in the south.

The image portrayed, then, is that the refreshing dew of the northlands is falling as blessing on the arid slopes of the south.

Creating verdant pastures - because that’s what dew does in arid places.

The land – the original promised land – is unified in this way of speaking.

All its distant parts are connected and refreshed and verdanttogether. That’s the image!

And again, it happens where the people of God are located.

They are on mount Zion, for that is where God is. And so, the refreshing dew falls on the people of God!

The land is connected. And so now the covenant land – the third thing - is added to other covenant elements necessary for completeness.

And do you notice that all this time, these people have been ascendingthe hill of the Lord. Going up, going up, going up. But in the end, it’s God who comes down to them – in full and rich, overflowing blessing!

That’s why at the end of Psalm 133, it’s ‘there’ – on Mount Zion, amongst the unified people of God; gathered in his presence, underhis appointed high priest – that the Lord bestows his blessing.

And look what it is – ‘life evermore’!

‘Life evermore’ - it has the ring of consummation about it, wouldn’t you agree?

Here is everlasting life – here is new creation and refreshment and unity, and God’s presence. I mean it sounds like the inauguration of all things new.

Well, Psalm 134 kind of points us in that direction too. Because once they’re on Zion, God’s people don’t leave it any more.

The servants remain through the night in the house of the Lord. The people lift up hands in the sanctuary.

This sanctuary – this place where God dwells - is open continuouslyand it is maintained around the clock - day and night.

The whole Psalm of Ascents movement finishes right here - in the house of the Lord on mount Zion.

Having been moving with the pilgrim always upwards here we are with him in the house of the Lord at last!

So, this is the fourth element to finish off the covenant ensemble – worship.

‘Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord…Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord’.

How fitting it is when God’s people dwell together in harmony serving, and praising, and glorifying God together.

There is nothing reserved about this. There is praise on the lips, there are hands in the air.

Let the King of glory come in – who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.

He alone is worthy of all praise and adoration, both now and forevermore! Let the people say it! Let it be heard in the distant places - the Lord reigns in Zion!

This is where the people want to be – in the place where they can adore their covenant-keeping God.

And look! Part of their collective delight is in service to God. Day and night, they minister in the house of the Lord.

It reminds me of Anna and Simeon – I go back to them so often - they couldn’t get enough of God’s house.

And, like the pilgrim here, they had almost completed their earthly journey’s, just as Jesus arrived on the scene – the very thing they had been longing for and waiting for.

And surely their experience when Jesus was born was that of these pilgrims also.

Because, no sooner has the praise of the people gone out to God, than he responds with blessing on the people.

You see that in verse 3? ‘May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who is the maker of heaven and earth’.

Here’s the expression of the harmony God has brought about between him and his people.

They relate to him in the way he designed people to relate to him in the beginning – with awe and reverence and praise.

And he relates to them the way he always intended to the relate to people – showering them with blessing.

The broken harmony of Eden is restored. God is glorified in their praise. And they are satisfied in his glory!

It’s a complete and stunning close to the collection!

Well, what we have to realise, then, is that as much as we are reading this in the context of the old covenant - that Covenant was eventually going to disappear.

But it would be replaced with a new covenant made in the blood of Jesus - and we’re going to hear a lot about this in Hebrews.

The glories that are being read here, are the glories we – God’s newcovenant people - have already entered into! Do we recognise that?

The Lord Jesus Christ is enthroned as God’s chosen king – in the line of king David.

The Lord Jesus has been installed as the great High Priest – and it’s an everlasting appointment.

We are told that we have already come to a heavenly Zion.

The Spirit of peace has already been poured out on us. We are God’s temple, if his Spirit truly lives in us.

We have already been made one body – that is the church of Jesus Christ.

And we have become partakers of the new covenant blessings through our Saviour.

So, we are not merely reading about something the Old Testament pilgrim longed for. We are reading about something the new covenant pilgrim has already entered into - by faith in Jesus.

Praise be to God! Can we even comprehend the magnitude of what we have in Christ?!

And so, because we have already entered in, Ephesians can exhort believers, like us this morning, to ‘Make every effort to keep [not to create, but to maintain] the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace’.

There is one body [of Christ] and one Spirit [of Christ], and therefore there must be one church of Christ.

Not a splintered church!

Paul is inviting us; encouraging us, to come and live in the unity that Christ has already created for us to live in.

This is why I said near the beginning that this God-given unity is the atmosphere or the environment of the covenant we belong to in Christ.

It’s simply inconceivable that God would have saved us to covenant conditions that were not peace-loving, harmonious, pleasant, and good!

He is the God of peace! And he wants us to dwell in peace. In peace with each other, as we have peace with him through Christ.

We know this because peace is a fruit of the Spirit, isn’t it? Why? Because again, The Holy Spirit is The Spirit of Peace.

Remember, we have our great High Priest ascended on high, who hasmade the two one and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility.

The precious oil of blessing flows down his head, onto his beard, and onto his collar where our names are written on his heart.

That’s what our unity should be like – it should be as sweet and as precious and as good and pleasant as that image of Christ’s anointing.

And so let the farthest, most awkward, most disjointed, most un-alike Christians in the length and breadth of the church be united together – like the dew of Hermon in the north, falling on the slopes of mount Zion in the south.

And then, in that state of beautiful unity, let there be collectiveworship too.

God has designed worship of himself to be a unified assembly event, not merely an individual thing – though worship is not exclusively collective for sure - but there must be a community aspect to our worship.

Hebrews says, ‘you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly’.

So, as the pilgrims praise and lift their hands in God’s presence they do so collectively – with one voice as it were.

They serve together, they praise together, they join their bodies together in prayer with arms upraised; declaring their dependence on God.

And so, in unity, we also come together and worship.

Through Jesus, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise.

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe. Hebrews 12.

As we know, sin is always the fly in the ointment of unity.

And, of course, we’re all sinners – grappling with our sin hopefully; not making peace with that! We’re not called to live at peace with sin!

But sin is why unity is so hard to come by in the church.

So let me encourage two things, rooted in the fact that, Christ - the High Priest - is at the centre of Psalm 133 and is installed.

The first is: sin is much less likely to be the cause of disunity if it is confessed quickly. That is, if it is taken to Christ, and Christ is believed on for forgiveness. Than, if it is harboured, indulged, and remains un-dealt with.

Christ is our mediator – he has entered into the inner sanctuary on ourbehalf.

Unconfessed sin hinders unity, and it also hinders the red-hot worship of Psalm 134.

So, take your sins quickly to Christ, that they might be wiped out and that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.

That’s Acts 3 but it sounds a lot like the refreshing dew falling on Zion doesn’t it.

So, for the sake of unity and worship, keep short accounts with Jesus.

And the second thing is – again for the sake of unity – when you havebeen sinned against in the church, forgive quickly.

If God - who in his holiness, is more affronted than any of us could ever be – if he has forgiven; and there is unity between us and him, then forgive your brother or sister. That there might be harmony between you.

And tell them that.

Tell them: ‘You hurt me, but I forgive you. I love you. I want to enjoy fellowship with you in harmony’.

So that’s the second thing: keep short accounts with each other.

I think God will bless us with unity if we stive on those ways for it.

But now, we need to spend the last few minutes considering anotheraspect of where this pilgrimage has finished up.

Although we have entered into the inauguration of the new covenant and are partakers of it. Although Christ is enthroned and is established as great high priest. Although we are the temple that his Spirit dwells in. Although we have come to the heavenly Mount Zion.

These things are already true in Christ and already ours by the Spirit - true. But they are not yet fully manifested in the world in which we live. We experience them in part now - by faith.

The deposit, as it were, has been placed in heaven, guaranteeing all these things.

We even have foretastes of them now. But the full inheritance is yetto be experienced.

That’s why Paul has to exhort us to unity, even though elsewhere in the same book he says we have already been united.

And even if we are united and experience the pleasantness of that now in increasing measure – which I think here at Riverside we do - thanks be to God - nevertheless we are going to die.

And that, in itself, will temporarily fracture the unity we enjoy in our church now.

So right now, we have to believe – we are called to believe - that unity amongst God’s people is in principle good. We are called to striveso that we might experience, in some measure, that it is pleasant.

But we all long for, surely, the day when we will know and experience how pleasant this union in Jesus is without the hinderances of sin.

And so, we’re looking forward to a day when the king, who now reigns in heaven, will be attendant in his kingdom here below.

When we will see our high priest face to face. When the church will be perfectly and forever one.

The experience will then be fully and truly like precious oil running down on Aaron’s head, on his beard, and onto his collar.

It will truly and lastingly be like the dew of Hermon settling on the slopes of Mount Zion.

The maker of heaven and earth is coming friends, to restore all things. And we will bless the Lord as one unified people for ever and ever. And his blessing will land on us in life everlasting – Psalm 133, verse 3.

So, right now, we pursue the good and pleasant unity of the church because we know that that is her appointed destination - the end of her pilgrimage on earth.

We are on that pilgrimage now. We have joined the pilgrim on his journey, by God’s grace in Christ Jesus.

The night of our pilgrimage is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the disunity of darkness and let is live in the light of the peace of Christ Jesus.

Let us worship, and serve, and minister in the house of the Lord during the full length of this night, until the Dayspring dawns and the fullness of our journey’s end appears. Until Prince of Peace - Jesus Christ finally comes!