Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
Psalms 133:1-3.-The goodness and pleasantness of brethren dwelling together in unity. "Behold" accords with the reference being to a meeting of the national brotherhood at the great festivals. So the comparison to the priesthood (Psalms 133:2). Zion, in Psalms 133:3, is marked as the place of meeting. As in Psalms 122:1-9 David strengthened the people's love for Jerusalem, so in this psalm he glorifies the communion of saints now restored at Zion, after its long intermission during the ark's twenty years' stay out of mind at Kirjath-jearim.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! The children of Israel, being all children of God, not only by creation, but also by national adoption, were all "brethren." The great festivals were designed to be occasions for realizing this brotherhood and communion of saints. They had been for twenty years suspended while the ark was at Kirjath-jearim. Now, under David they were being renewed at Zion, where the ark had been removed. So all the members of the spiritual Israel-the Church. What they are by calling, and in the idea, they ought also to be in feeling and in fact, meeting in brotherly fellowship as all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:26; Hebrews 13:1). When occasions of dispute arise, they should say, as Abraham said to Lot, Genesis 13:8, "Let there be no strife I pray thee, between me and thee ... for we be brethren." "Together" - Hebrew, 'also together;' i:e., how good it is that those who are brothers by blood or religious ties should also dwell in unity!