{"id":2504,"date":"2022-01-20T18:00:57","date_gmt":"2022-01-21T02:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/?p=2504"},"modified":"2022-01-14T14:46:03","modified_gmt":"2022-01-14T22:46:03","slug":"20220121-psalm-133","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/blog\/20220121-psalm-133\/","title":{"rendered":"Ascending to Meet with God – Psalm 133"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

1<\/sup> Behold, how good and pleasant it is <\/strong><\/em>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0when\u202f brothers dwell in unity! <\/strong><\/em>
\n2<\/sup>\u202f It is like the precious\u202f oil on\u202fthe head, <\/strong><\/em>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0running down on the beard, <\/strong><\/em>
\non the beard of Aaron, <\/strong><\/em>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0running down on\u202fthe collar of his robes! <\/strong><\/em>
\n3<\/sup>\u202f It is like \u202fthe dew of\u202f Hermon, <\/strong><\/em>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0which falls on\u202fthe mountains of Zion! <\/strong><\/em>
\nFor there the\u202f LORD \u202fhas commanded the blessing, <\/strong><\/em>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0life forevermore. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

(Translated version, original article written in Chinese by Pastor Mickey Hsiao)<\/span><\/i>\u202f\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

[Theme] The Beauty of Harmonious Cohabitation<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

David was amazed at the sight of brothers and sisters together, gathered before God, and living in harmony!\u00a0 He said that the Lord ordained a blessing, that is, eternal life.\u00a0 In this poem,\u00a0 he also cited two metaphors as examples of harmony:\u00a0 goodness and beauty.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One example is when God established a priesthood system for man, and Moses poured a precious anointing oil on the head of the High Priest Aaron –\u00a0 a sweet fragrance from the opening of the container.\u00a0 The High Priest represents the mediator between God and man – bringing sinners before God and God’s forgiveness to man.\u00a0 We know that true harmony comes from the forgiveness of sins freely given by God through Jesus Christ.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another example is the nectar of Mount Hermon descending on Mount Zion.\u00a0 Mount Hermon is a mountain range located on the north side of Palestine, more than 9,000 feet above sea level.\u00a0 The top of the mountain is covered with snow all year round.\u00a0 It is also the birthplace of the four main tributaries of the Jordan River.\u00a0 When the humid air blows from the north to the south, and to the lower Zion Mountains, it can form nectar and make the ground rich with moisture.\u00a0 Let us think of this as a blessing brought about by God’s creative power:\u00a0 to care for the laws of all things.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether it is the forgiveness of sins represented by the High Priest or God’s creation of all things and their regular operation, there are the blessings that God has promised. And, what kind of picture can reflect such grace? The poet tells us that it is the harmony between people living together!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

[Meditation]<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For the picture of the precious oil poured on Aaron’s head and the black nectar descending on Mount Zion, we can only appreciate it through imagination.\u00a0 However, we can feel the beauty of brothers and sisters living in harmony.\u00a0 It turns out that the Lord has ordained this blessing – a taste that can only be fulfilled through Christ – a little of heaven on earth.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

God attaches great importance to our relationship with our brothers and sisters, and as long as we have harmony and unity between us and live out a beautiful life, we can naturally emit a sweet fragrance.\u00a0 Then, others will certainly be able to feel God’s goodness through us.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

[Prayer]<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cherish my life in the Lord, strive to preserve the unity of the Holy Spirit, and ask God to help me become a man of keeping unity, not destroying unity.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

[<\/b>Memory Verse<\/b>]\u202f<\/b>\u202f\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Psalm <\/span>133:1<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>Behold<\/span>, how good and pleasant it is<\/span> when<\/span>\u202f<\/span>brothers dwell in unity!<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 Behold, how good and pleasant it is \u00a0 \u00a0when\u202f brothers dwell in unity! 2\u202f It is like the precious\u202f oil on\u202fthe head, \u00a0 \u00a0running down on the beard, on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":2432,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[77,71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ascending-to-meet-with-god","category-pastor-mickey-hsiao"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2504"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2505,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2504\/revisions\/2505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}