Psalm 133 reads from the King James Bible as follows: 1] Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! [2] It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments; [3] As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore. This psalm cites the blessings found in the coming together of the brethren with this of course meaning both men and women as brethren of the Lord and how good and pleasant this is. The pleasantness or goodness is either how God sees it and or how it feels for those who experience it. It seems like a picture is being painted in this view and the picture is pleasant and good. Also, though, this speaks to how God will bring about what is pleasant and good in his all of his blessings. Most people have experienced and do understand just how good it can be even for example to reunite and see people you haven’t seen in a long time, and how pleasant it can be. It is not only something that can be experienced but is also something that can be seen and observed as you watch others enjoy the presence of good company. The imagery that follows in this psalm is one of continued blessings as verse 2 speaks of a running ointment and verse 3 speaks of descending dew from the mountains. Verse 2 cites Aaron's beard, indicating how specific blessings can be, and how they can be targeted for one individual whom the Lord knows by name. That Aaron is mentioned this way, can also be the portend to how God entrusts certain gifts to members of the church thru the Holy Spirit, such as for example the gifts of prophecy, the gift of healing, and so on. Here the blessings flow thru the person of Aaron. The blessings, which are commanded from on high, are from the Lord himself and don't seem to involve an intermediary as they descent upon those who receive the blessings directly. And going back to verse one they involve goodness and pleasantness that seem to permeate from the descriptions provided in verses 2 and 3. These blessings seem to overflow, as the ointment flows then overflows and the dew flows from Mt. Hebron and then even from all the mountains of Zion as a kind of descending presence. There is also the imagery of the best in the blessings as the dew descends from the premier mountain and the premier mountains. Aaron is a premier leader and chosen of the Lord. People sometimes pray hoping for just that one thing from the Lord and then maybe everything will be okay if they receive this one wanted blessing or they will just take it from there on their own. This psalm gives descriptions of blessings that involve a continual flow and are descending down constantly or in something like a rainfall that descends and continues therefore the relationship needs to continue to be in the grace of receiving these blessings as they go on and on. The blessings descend though in range of those who are to review them, these aren’t remote blessings that are so distant that they aren’t experienced; these are blessings that are up front and present. The blessings that appear in this psalm have a visibility and are not unseen, the pleasantness of the brotherhood can be seen, the ointment on Aaron's garments can be seen and the dew that runs from the mountains has a visibility. There are unknown and unseen benefits and blessings but there are also blessings that can be readily observed. The imagery of the mountains also lend to stability. You could craft a prayer for example, saying" Let healing flow like the dew of Mount Hebron ". The imagery presented in this psalm does lend to greater confidence, as it doesn't present the blessings as fleeting or vaporous and lacking flow. You are going to catch these raindrops. The mountains of Zion aren't going anywhere and the dew that emanates from these mountains will continue. Ointment that runs or dew that descends both involves a type of flow and continuity of flow. From this psalm, even what you are asking for might need to be amended so you do ask for more of a continued blessing or blessings rather than a one time intervention, there is no reason to hold for a one time intervention when blessings are descending and the ointment is flowing. You might need to see that the help you desire, the answer you want, does involve longer standing gifts that are received more in the manner of a flow. It needs to rain now and also rain later to sustain crops while farming for example and you are also depending on the later rains. And the major blessing cited here, the brethren dwelling with pleasantness would be something that isn’t so much a one time event but would tend to continue or extend hopefully as the relationships stay good in future times. There would be an obvious trend within what is happening to this brotherly fellowship. The Lords blessings for these relationships would be something that flows from the present and into the future and in fact forever as it is cited in this psalm. This would also tend to go into the belief that relationships in the Lord here on the earth can continue on forever indeed as our own individual relationship with the Lord can continue on forever. This psalm, which so emphasizes relationships, also concludes with the citation to blessings forever and life forever and it would be a fair assumption that these forever blessings involve relationships as per the themes of this psalm. Realistically, people do expect or hope that things will flow well. For example, people have gotten jobs and then sometimes expect to be set with the job for years on end. Or they obtain degrees and expect or hope that the carpet will roll out for them or that the degree can be helpful for them far into the future. This is an expectation based on flow or continuity into the future. It isn't expected that the well will run completely dry. Here, we can expect the Lord to be ahead of the curve as blessings will be waiting for us right around the corner. The imagery of the mountain is used in this psalm, and if you have ever climbed a mountain in more of the high altitude ranges, you often do not know what to expect around the corner as you follow a trail up as there also could be fog around the bend. Yet you continue the climb and hope all will continue to go well on the climb. Even then what you see as you reach the top could be vastly different then what you had expected in the sightings on yonder. In this psalm unknown and previously unseen blessings are descending down upon those who are receiving them and these are blessings in abundance. If you don’t believe that the Lord works this way, you may hesitate to go into the blessing as it might be seem to unfamiliar or unknown in its origins and scope or the road of the blessing might involve longer stretches where you initially believe that tail offs will eventually happen. It might be harder to believe for a continued flow of unknown blessings rather than to believe for an occasional answer or intervention to prayer. Yet this psalm does give an understanding that the presence of the Lord is in these blessings a, as he commands them from on high and he does bring them about in the form of flow and also mystery as the elements described in this psalm are mysterious. The favorable winds are there maybe for a much longer duration. Dew descending from the great Mount Hermon sounds mysterious enough yet the mystery of this dew descending is a forming reality that brings blessings from seemingly out of nowhere. These mysterious blessings, like the descending dew, increase their visibility as they come closer. These are the trails you wish to follow. These blessings have the aspect of leading and the initial leading acts as a sign. Aaron, who is cited in this psalm, was a great leader and a great speaker who helped Moses through his facility with words in key moments and his overall leadership. The run off of these blessings is that they are blessings that can be followed. Just as the ointment was traceable from Aaron’s beard, these verses describe blessings that are traceable, findable, and doable. The blessings can be manifold and come from multiple locations and directions. The dew not only from the great Mount Hermon arrives but also dew from the many mountains of Zion indicating that blessings can be sighted in many and multiple areas. The current of how blessings come into your life isn't necessarily straight forward and again this goes into the realm of mystery. From this psalm, we may want to realign some of prayer requests to bring into an understanding that the blessings commanded by the Lord could and do often involve more of a continuity, stream, or pathway in how they come to us or involve a chain of events or a series of events rather than say a one time event as there is more of an unfolding from the realm of the mysterious and the mysterious can bring us into even further mystery. There is another picture we might need to follow, while the Lord does leads us with small pictures, he might also lead us with bigger pictures and these bigger pictures involve more than what we might expect and we need to be aware though that our expectations might be not in the same ballpark as the Lord's and we may need to adjust to as well as find the lead of these blessings as they continue to flow like the dew of Mt. Hebron and the mountains of Zion or reach into the visible like the ointment on descending from Aaron's beard. We want to also to find and stay in the pathway of these blessings and the pictures they are presenting to us through the aid of prayer and meditation and the seeking of the Lord in his word. The running well of these blessings is something we rely on like a well that we believe will never run dry and isn’t going anywhere.
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