Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Psalm 133 reads, 
   How good and how pleasant it is
      when families live together in unity.
  It is like precious oil poured on the head,. . .
      running down on Aaron’s beard,
      down the collar of his robe.
  It is like the dew of Hermon
      falling on Mount Zion.
  For there the Lord bestows his blessing,
      life forevermore  (vv. 1-3). 

What’s your take on the good life? In this psalm, the poet sees it as a family living together peacefully. They have a wider family, a community of faith that follows after God. Morning dew refreshes their land, bringing days of peace and nights of rest. God blesses the family and the community with his best gift: life forevermore. 

Let’s pray. 

Our father, how good it is when families live in unity. When they don’t permit differences in wealth or success or politics or vaccines to cause dissension. They may cheer for different hockey teams, but always for each other. Though some are liberal in their theology and politics and others conservative; still, they feast together at Thanksgiving and Christmas and love each other in between. 

The goodness of unity is like the anointing oil running down the hair and beard of Aaron, a sign of peace and plenty. Perhaps in our day it is like standing in the shower, hot water massaging sore muscles, soap cleansing hair and body, the rhythm of the water soothing mind and heart. O God, wash us with the water of your word. Anoint us with the oil of your Spirit. 

You respond to this unity of families and community by blessing their land, as morning dew refreshes the earth, the crops grow, and their world is at peace.

O God, we honor you and each other and creation. Bestow the blessing you promise, protect our temporary home in this world, and prepare our forever home with you. As the poet says,
    The Lord bestows his blessing,
      life forevermore (v. 3). 

Amen. 

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”. 

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Psalm 132 is framed around two oaths: David’s oath to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, and God’s oath to create a dynasty of kings in David’s line. 

First, David’s oath. Before David’s time as leader, the Israelites once took the Ark of the Covenant into battle against the Philistines, assuming God’s presence in the Ark would guarantee their victory. But oops, the Philistines captured the Ark and set it beside their gods in their temples. The Ark caused so much chaos and destruction everywhere they took it, that after seven months they sent it home to Israel.  

When David became king, he wanted the Ark, which represented God’s throne on earth, to reign with him in Jerusalem. So he brought it from obscurity into the capital city, ushering in the glory years of Israel’s monarchy–years of peace and success under a strong shepherd-king and a faithful shepherd-God. 

Psalm 132 tells us David swore an oath to bring the Ark to Jerusalem, and then he fulfilled that oath. Just as God honored the shepherd boy by raising him from distant fields to national prominence, so David honored God by bringing his throne, his ark, home where it belonged.

The psalm says God responded to David’s oath with an oath of his own: a promise that as long as David’s descendents kept the covenant with God, David’s dynasty would rule Israel.

Let’s pray. 

Our father, our lives, unlike David’s, are obscure and inconsequential. Yet we have invited your son to rule us  and your presence to go with us. We do not ask you to set up a dynasty for us as you did for David. But we hear the words of the poet,
    The Lord has chosen Zion,
      he has desired it for his dwelling. 

We believe you are a God who desires a home on earth. We believe you call us, and your Spirit invites us to make ourselves your home. Take up residence in us and in our churches, conquer the strongholds of evil, renovate our hearts, make us into temples where you are pleased to dwell.

Amen. 

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”. 

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube