Ps. 133 (brothers' communion)

How good / to be sure / how fine it is

                For brothers / to stay together

It is like / the sweet oil / upon the head

                Coming down / upon the beard

Aaron’s beard / which came down

                Over his body

It is like / the dew of Hermon / which comes down

                Upon the mountains / of Zion

That is where Yhwh

                Has ordered / the blessing to be

                Life / for evermore.

The psalm begins with the “goodness” of brothers who “stay together.” This union of brothers is then compared, first, to sacramental oil that anointed Aaron, making him the high priest and which poured down over his body, and then, second, to the “dew of Hermon” which, like the oil, comes down upon the mountains of Zion. The psalm ends with Zion as being the place of blessing, of “life for evermore.” So, what begins with the union of brothers ends with Zion as the locus of all blessing. How do we get from one to the other?

The first thing to grasp is that the brothers’ union is not simply the familial union of two men. It is, rather, the liturgical gathering of brothers at Zion for a festival. The remaining portion of the psalm shows us this as it progresses from Aaron to Zion. It is also important to see that this is not simply a union of blood but a “staying together”. These brothers are, unlike Cain and Abel, their “brother’s keepers” who look out for the other’s good. It is, in other words, a communion of brothers. And this, of course, refers to the communion of the tribes—the brothers—of Israel. We see here, then, what almost never occurs but is so desperately desired by Yhwh—the communion of the tribes of Israel and not their mere ‘gathering’. It is not simply the external union but their internal union with each other into “one mind”, bending their knee to the One Yhwh.

It is important to see a deeper layer to this—that there is not simply one goal or effect of this central liturgy-to-Yhwh, that being the worship of Yhwh. Rather, liturgy-to-Yhwh effects the (comm)union of the gatherers. Just as he is One so will they be one with each other. And this is a divinely empowered union; man cannot achieve this type of communion on his own, this “staying together”. This communion comes down from above.

Like the sweet oil upon the head, beard and body of Aaron. This communion flows down like the sacramental oil that made Aaron no longer simply Aaron, but Aaron-the-high-priest. Just as the people, before their gathering, are a scattering of tribes bound together by blood, so too when they gather, are they, Aaron-like, made into a divinely constituted communion. They become what they were intended to be before the Mosaic law—a nation of priests.

Then, the psalmist shifts to Zion. Just as sacramental oil is poured down upon Aaron, anointing him, does this “dew of Hermon” come down upon Zion. Here we find mount Zion overtaking Mount Herman as the divinely chosen dwelling place of Yhwh. Perhaps we find her that just as Aaron took the place of the father of every household as the priest, so too now does Zion take the place of every natural mountaintop that was the dwelling of the divine. And the abundant dew is the cosmic blessing of Zion in the same way as the oil was the anointing of Aaron.

Priest and Temple—one cannot be without the other. And here we find the specific and special anointing of Aaron and Zion as the one and only Priest and Temple of Yhwh. This is why the communion of the tribes must find their communion-blessing in Zion because that is where Aaron and the Temple dwell. And, as the concluding lines show, it is from this place of Aaron-and-Zion that the blessing of communion will flow down onto the tribes, binding them together in a divine manner. Therefore, when these brothers look at each other, when they see their gathering and communion, they are not looking at tribes—they are looking at the unifying power of Yhwh to bring together is people.

In Christ, this psalm is significantly deepened. Throughout the gospels, particularly in John, Christ prays for the unity of all those the Father has given him. This prayer for unity is closely wed to the giving of his spirit, the Paraclete, to the disciples following his death. It is the Paraclete that will effect this unity, the divine binding together—divine communion—between those the Father gave to Christ. Paul, Acts, and Revelation all speak to this role of the Spirit/Paraclete. As such, the Spirit deepens and fulfills the goodness of brothers “staying together”.

For Paul, this divine communion of all believers is something that God planned from before the foundation of the world. This is astonishing. Our communion is something that surpasses the creation of Cosmos, something, in a sense, more determined, more desired, of a higher priority, than the Cosmos itself. This was a predestined adoption to sonship through Christ.

Deeper still is that Hebrews, John and several other passages speak of Jesus as the new High Priest and that he is the rebuilt Temple/Zion.