Psalm 133
This psalm was perhaps penned when the Hebrew tribes concurred to fix David on his throne, or to restore him to it, 2 Sam. 5 or 19. Here is, (1.) A declaration of the excellency and pleasantness of brotherly affection, ver. 1. (2.) The illustration of this in two similitudes, ver. 2-3. (3.) The great advantage of it, ver. 3.
While I sing, let Jesus’ love, shed abroad in my heart, make me exemplify my notes. How happy the churches and families where this prevails! And how blessed above all, the church above, where love, love for ever reigns.
*To imagine that the sacred oil ran down upon, and stained the high priest’s robe to the skirt, or lower parts thereof, to me seems very inconsistent with the remarkable cleanliness prescribed by the ceremonial institutes; and very inconsistent with the prescribe finery and beauty of this sacred apparel. The Hebrew word phi ought therefore to have been translated not skirt, but collar or neckband (Compare Job 30:18, Exodus 28:32). Perhaps, too, the hills of Zion, in ver. 3, denote not those about Jerusalem (Psalm 125:2), which stood a hundred miles distant from Hermon, but that which is called Sion, Deut. 4:48, on which, without controversy, the famed, the plentiful, the invigorating, the fructifying dews of Hermon descended.
1 Behold, how good a thing it is,
and how becoming well,
Together such as brethren are
in unity to dwell!
2 Like precious ointment on the head,
that down the beard did flow,
Ev’n Aaron’s beard, and to the skirts,*
did of his garments go.
3 As Hermon’s dew, the dew that doth
on Zion’ hills descend:
For there the blessing God commands,
life that shall never end.
