Saints’ Dwelling in Oneness is like Inestimable Goodness and Incalculable Pleasantness

In Psalm 133 we see the praise of a saint in his going up to Zion concerning Jehovah’s commanded blessing of life on brothers who dwell together in oneness; this dwelling in oneness is like the inestimable goodness and the incalculable pleasantness.

Hallelujah, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in oneness! It is like the inestimable goodness of the precious ointment on the head of Aaron and like the incalculable pleasantness of the dew of Hermon on the mountains of Zion. Amen, for there the Lord commands the blessing, even life forever.

Psalms 133-134 are part of the songs of ascent, which were sung by the Israelites three times a year as they went up to the place God chose to put His name, the place where they would worship God, and where He meets with them and feasts with them.

This should also be our practice in the church life, as we go to the meeting, we should just be singing. We may think it’s hard, but we just need to practice singing, even as we start from home to get go the meeting.

On the whole earth in all the local churches we need to build up the habit of going to the meeting by singing the word of God. This will impact our meeting life and will bring in the oneness.

Psalm 132 is a description of the church life in the, Psalm 133 speaks of the church living, and Psalm 134 is concerning the church blessing, for the Lord blesses us out from Zion.

In Psa. 132 we see David having a heart to build a house for God, and in Zion God has found His home and man has found his home – this house is the mutual dwelling place of God and His people; this is the church life.

Here, in the church life, God finds His rest, and here we are satisfied. When we enjoy the Lord in oneness in the church life, we will give a ringing shout of Hallelujah! In the church life we enjoy wave upon wave of ointment and dew, and we are full of joy and happiness, for the church life is so wonderful, and here we enjoy the Lord’s commanded blessing!

This was experienced a while ago by a group of people called the Moravian brothers; they were in Germany, being persecuted by the Roman Catholic church, so they sought to have refuge on the estate of Count Zinzendorf, who later came and joined that community and was burdened for their oneness.

After they put aside their differences and opinions, they started to confess to one another, love one another, and be joined together as one; this brought in an outpouring of the Spirit, which was the first one like that since the one in the book of Acts.

The Lord greatly blessed the Moravian brothers coming together and meeting in oneness, and even John Wesley got much help from them, seeing their faith and love being so living when he visited them.

Later, the British Brethren also tasted something similar, the outpouring of the Lord’s light on the word as they were in oneness and without any difference or division.

Now today the Lord wants to recover the church life in oneness where He would pour out His blessing; such a church life is likened to the inestimable goodness of the precious ointment, and the incalculable pleasantness of the dew descending…

The Brothers’ Dwelling in Oneness is like the Inestimable Goodness and Incalculable Pleasantness

When the brothers dwell together in oneness, Jehovah pours out His blessing; when Zion is built up and God is resting there, dwelling in Jerusalem (as depicted in Psa. 132), we have a place where we can gather and dwell together in oneness, and the Lord pours out His blessing!

In Psa. 133 the believers’ dwelling together in oneness is likened to the inestimable goodness of the precious ointment on the head of Aaron the high priest, and to the incalculable pleasantness of the dew of Hermon on the mountains of Zion.

When we dwell together in oneness, the church life becomes both a person (typified by Aaron) and a place (typified by the mountains of Zion).

As a person, the church includes Christ the Head and us as the Body; on this corporate Christ there’s the inestimable goodness of the precious ointment spreading on the beard and running to the hem of the garments.

As a place, the church is the dwelling place of God, the mutual dwelling place of God and man; as such a place, the church has the incalculable goodness of the refreshing, nourishing, descending dew.

In the New Testament we clearly see these two aspects of the church: the church as a person and the church as a place.

As a person, the church is the Body of Christ, the one new man, the bride of Christ, and the warrior; all these are aspects of the church as a person. As a place, the church is the dwelling place of God, the house of God, the Father’s house, where God and man dwell together in oneness, and this dwelling place is in spirit (Eph. 1:22-23).

When we dwell together in oneness, we are one with the saints and one with Christ the Head, the anointing oil – the compound anointing ointment typifying the all-inclusive, life-giving, compound Spirit – slowly spreads and anoints us, saturating us with all the elements of Christ and His processes.

This is so good, that there’s no measure to it – in the church life in oneness we enjoy inestimable goodness!

When we dwell together in oneness, God dwells with us and we dwell in God, and there’s the refreshing, watering, and saturating dew on the mountains of Zion in the church life.

This is so pleasant that there’s no measure to it – in the church life in oneness we enjoy an incalculable pleasantness.

Neither the anointing oil nor the saturating dew move quickly; rather, the ointment gradually spreads from the head to the beard and then runs down the garments, and the dew gently descends in a gradual way on the mountains of Zion.

This means that we may not notice the inestimable goodness and incalculable pleasantness, but as we dwell together in oneness with the saints in the church life, we will exclaim like the psalmist,

Oh, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity! How good it is to be in the church life! How pleasant it is to be here with all the saints! Thank You Lord for bringing us to such a lovely place – the church life as the dwelling place of God and man. Thank You for making us the Body of Christ, where Christ is the Head and we are His many members! Lord, we love to enjoy the inestimable goodness and the incalculable pleasantness in the church life in oneness with all the saints!

The Spreading Ointment and Descending Dew are for the Gradual building up of the Body under the Divine Dispensing

I have read and even memorized Psalm 133 from my childhood, but I have never seen the depth of the meaning of the poetic words in this chapter.

We may really enjoy the metaphors in this psalm, and we may even sing it with all our heart, but how does it apply to us, and how can we enjoy it in our experience today?

Praise the Lord for the ministry of the age which opens up the word of God.

With the help of the ministry we can see that, when the saints dwell together in oneness, this genuine oneness is constituted of the spreading ointment and the descending dew for the gradual building up of the Body of Christ in the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity. Wow!

As we enjoy the Lord Jesus with the saints on the ground of oneness and in one accord, slowly and gradually the oneness spreads like the ointment and descends like the dew, and the church as the Body of Christ is built up under the divine dispensing.

The unity spoken of here [in Psa. 133:1] is a picture of the genuine oneness in the New Testament. This oneness is the processed and consummated Triune God mingled with the believers in Christ (John 17:21-23). Since the Body of Christ is such a mingling (Eph. 4:4-6), the Body itself is the oneness. According to the picture in this psalm, the genuine oneness is constituted of the spreading ointment and the descending dew for the gradual building up of the Body of Christ in the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity. (Psa. 133:1, footnote 3, Recovery Version Bible)

The church is a universal great person with the aspect of the Body of Christ, the bride, the one new man, and the warrior; as a person, the church – where the believers dwell in oneness – enjoys the anointing oil, the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving Spirit as a bountiful supply spreading, anointing, saturating, and permeating every member of the Body.

We just need to remain on the ground of oneness in the church life, dwelling in oneness with the saints in the Body, and we will have the spreading ointment saturating us and causing us to be built up as the Body of Christ under the dispensing of the Divine Trinity.

As a place, the church is the dwelling place of God, the house of God; as such a place, the church – where the saints dwell together in oneness – is under the refreshing dew which descends, and this is for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.

The dew and the ointment are not static; they are spreading, moving, and descending – they are in action, but they move slowly and gradually, for the gradual building up of the Body of Christ.

As we meet together in oneness, we are in the process of gradually being built up with the saints in the Body under the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity. Both the spreading ointment and the descending dew are part of the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity for the building up of the Body of Christ.

Thank You Lord for bringing us in the church life to dwell together with the saints in oneness and enjoy the inestimable goodness of the precious ointment spreading and the incalculable pleasantness of the dew descending! Amen, Lord, keep us in the church life dwelling with the saints oneness, the enlarged oneness of the Triune God, that we may enjoy the spreading ointment and descending dew for the gradual building up of the Body of CHrist in the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1979, vol. 2, “The Genuine Ground of Oneness,” ch. 6, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Recovery of the Church (2017 fall ITERO), week 6, Jehovah’s Commanded Blessing of Life on Brothers Who Dwell Together in Oneness.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Behold how good and how pleasant it is, / For brethren to dwell together in unity! / 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. (Hymns #1339)
  # How pleasant and how good it is / When brethren in the Lord / In one another’s joy delight / And dwell in sweet accord. / Such oneness, like anointing oil / On head to body poured; / Such oneness, like the morning dew, / With sweet refreshment stored. (Hymns #856)
  # Zion: our oneness a Person, / As ointment, He’s moving, / As dew He is descending, / Zion: our God is our dwelling, / As ointment, He’s strengthening, / As dew, He’s so supplying. / Beautiful Zion, in elevation. / How good and how pleasant, / Man’s satisfaction, / Our dwelling is this One. (Song on Zion)