Praying the Psalms with Augustine and Friends

Chapter 8: Psalms 131–150

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Psalm 133 with John Calvin – The Spirit of Unity How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! (v. 1) David thanks God for the peace and harmony which followed a long-standing division in the kingdom, and urged everyone to maintain peace. He praised the goodness of God for uniting people as one who had been so terribly divided. When he first took the throne, most of the nation considered him an enemy to the public good. The division was so deadly that nothing but the destruction of the opposing party seemed to hold out the prospect of peace. However, the hand of God was unexpectedly seen in the harmony that resulted from the surrender of those who had been inflamed with the most violent hatred. David celebrates the spirit of unity between those who had been so bitterly divided. The Holy Spirit commends a mutual harmony among all God’s children, exhorting us to make every effort to maintain it. So long as hatred divides us, we are still brothers and sisters in God, but we present the appearance of a broken and dismembered body. Since we are one in God the Father, unity must be upheld by reciprocal harmony, and brotherly love. However, we cannot extend this relationship to those who stubbornly persist in false teaching, since the condition of receiving them as brothers and sisters would be our renouncing God as Father of all, and from whom all spiritual relationship takes its rise. Like precious oil poured on the head (v. 2). We have clear proof here that David considers all true unity among believers to come from God. His goal is for everyone to worship God in purity, and call upon his name with one voice. Any unity among people is pointless if it is not