Psalm 133:3
‘Behold! How good…it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like…the dew…that descends upon the mountains…. For there, the Lord commands the blessing — even life for evermore!’ Psalm 133:1-3.
Calvin comments: “David in this Psalm renders thanks to God, for the peace and harmony which had succeeded a long and melancholy state of confusion and division in the kingdom…. There was ample ground to praise the goodness of God in the highest terms, for uniting in one a people which had been so deplorably divided….
“(There have been) interpreters who have considered that David merely passes a general commendation upon brotherly union…. (Yet) we who were naturally brethren…, how well it is that we should cultivate a spirit of brotherly concord!…
“The Holy Ghost is to be viewed as commending in this passage that mutual harmony which should subsist amongst all God’s children…. As we are one in God the Father and in Christ, the union must be ratified amongst us by reciprocal harmony and fraternal love…. Any concord…which may prevail amongst men, is insipid — if not pervaded by a sweet savour of God’s worship….
“The ‘dew’ distilling upon Mount Zion and Hermon, denotes that a holy unity has not only a sweet savour before God — but is productive of good effects, as the dew moistens the earth and supplies it with sap and freshness…. David suggests that the life of man would be sapless, unprofitable, and wretched — unless sustained by brotherly harmony…. Mountains depend principally for fertility, upon the dews…. David adds…that God commands his blessing where…He is pleased with concord amongst men, by showering down blessings upon them!”
Calvin also says in his Institutes II:11:2: “The righteous shall inherit the Earth…. The wicked shall be driven out of it…. Jerusalem will abound in all kinds of riches. And Zion overflow with every species of abundance….
“All these things obviously apply not to the land of our pilgrimage nor to the earthly Jerusalem, but to the true country. The heavenly city of believers, in which the Lord has commanded blessing and life for evermore (Psalm 133:3)!”
Calvin further declares in his Psychopannychia: “Those are said to live, and to be about to live, whom the Lord visits in kindness. ‘For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, and life even for evermore!’…. Psalm 133:3.”
Brothers united unto everlasting life, are like refreshing dew! Are you?
