Sermon (August 2) “A Psummer of Psalms - Psalm 133” by Rev. Robert McDowell

August 2, 2026

Beulah UMC

      Last Sunday, we focused on Psalm 105 which feels like it goes on forever because it summarizes Israel’s early history with story after story. That psalm needs to feel long because it is reminding us of how God has been faithful in the past.

     But just like sermons, not every psalm needs to feel long or go on and on, like for example, today’s psalm, Psalm 133. Psalm 133 only has three verses compared to last Sunday’s psalm that had 45 verses.

     Of the 150 psalms, Psalm 133 is one of only three psalms that has three verses. Trivia question time: Which psalm has the shortest number of verses? Psalm 117 which only has two verses.

     So why is Psalm 133 so short? I think it has something to do with it being one of the psalms of ascent. Three weeks ago, we were introduced to a psalm of ascent, Psalm 128.

     Psalms of ascent were known as psalms you would sing as you were making the long journey from wherever you live up the long slope toward the city of Jerusalem where the Jewish Temple was located to attend one of the 3 big religious festivals. Those pilgrims would literally ascend for many miles during their long journey before finally arriving into the city.

     People would have traveled together during those long journeys and the singing of these psalms of ascent was a way for people to not just fill the time, but to remind them where they were headed, Zion, the beautiful city of God. One of our hymns in the hymnal, in fact the very last hymn is a modern-day hymn of ascent called, “We’re marching to Zion.” That’s an example of a hymn where the lyrics help you to feel like you are on a journey.

     Psalm 133 is one of fourteen of these psalms of ascent that we find in the Book of Psalms. And by the way, all fourteen of these psalms of ascent are grouped together from psalm 120 to psalm 134.

      The reason the people would sing this psalm during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem is because of two reasons. First of all, it refers to Jerusalem which was the location of the Temple where all of Israel was called to worship during three annual festivals.

     And secondly, this psalm focuses on the goodness and blessings of people living together in unity. This would have been an important focus for those singing pilgrims because the people of Israel were divided into several different tribes scattered throughout the Middle East region.

     Even though they shared the same religious faith, the Jewish faith, they also represented many different cultures and customs, so there would have been a lot of differences between them.

     This psalm of ascent as it would have been sung over and over again, served as a great reminder of what they had in common in spite of their differences which was their faith and trust in the Lord. So, this Psalm in particular, was a way to remind the people that together, they were God’s people.

     In the back of our hymnal, you will find a big section called, The Psalter. These are several psalms that appear in our weekly scripture readings that are accompanied by a short refrain that is sung in between the responsive readings. Some of those refrains are taken from familiar hymns while others were composed specifically for that particular Psalm.

     The lyrics of those sung refrains reflect the theme of each psalm. For our Psalm today, Psalm 133, the words of the refrain are, “Unite us, Lord, unite us by your everlasting love.” When the Israelites sung this psalm on their long journey to Jerusalem, they were celebrating their unity as God’s people.

     Whenever I ask church musicians what they appreciate most about church music, they will often say to me that it is what brings people together. I think that’s what I love the most about church music as well. Whenever I hear an anthem, it’s such a beautiful thing to hear several people singing as one.

     That’s why choirs meet every week to rehearse their music. They are perfecting the art of blending their voices together as an offering to God. And those who listen to the music are drawn into that sense of unity and togetherness.

     So, let’s look at the three verses of this Psalm to see how the Psalmist helps us to celebrate our unity as God’s people. The first verse might sound familiar because it is so beautifully stated. There are several colleges that use this as their school motto by the way. Just listen to this beautiful phrasing:

     “How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity.”

     And the last two verses of the Psalm offer us an image to help us celebrate that unity which needs a little unpacking. The psalmist prays, “It is like the precious oil on the head running down the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down over the collar of his robes.”

     I must admit that at first glance, this image does nothing for me. In fact, the thought of oil dripping down someone’s beard makes me not want to be anywhere near that person, quite frankly.

     But this image is referring specifically to the time when Aaron was anointed by his brother Moses to be a High Priest during the time when Israel was being formed as God’s people.

     Perhaps this psalmist is thinking about the unity of these brothers, Moses and Aaron as they in turn, helped to unify the people. And just as the anointing oil was poured on Aaron’s head and flowed down over his robe, so too, God’s blessings flow down over us forming us into a community of God’s people.

     And in the last verse, the Psalmist compares the oil that flows down upon us to the morning dew of Hermon, which was located many miles north of Jerusalem. The overflowing dew of Hermon is even able to reach Zion, the city of Jerusalem, the Psalmist tells us.

     Hermon was known for its plentiful rain, hence the dew image, and Jerusalem was known to be more arid and located in a dry area of Israel. And so, the image is that the dew of God’s blessings reach as far south as Zion, the city of Jerusalem.

   The oil and the dew are powerful ways of describing how God’s blessings extend far and wide covering God’s people and making us one.

     When explained this way, I’m not as grossed out at the thought of oil dripping from a man’s beard, although I think I like the dew image of God’s blessings much better. But that might just be me.

     Whichever image you go with, the important thing about this psalm is that we are called to celebrate God’s overflowing blessings that extend beyond what we think is possible to include all people.

     We are all within reach of God’s goodness and blessings, even if we feel that we are too far south for God to find us. You can never be beyond God’s reach.

      During the first several months of the pandemic, many of our churches were unable to worship together. During that time in the church I was serving, God was reminding me again and again during that challenging time, that God’s blessings have a way of finding us so to help us feel connected as God’s people.

     One of my favorite stories from that time was when one of my church members led a Palm Sunday processional parade in her neighborhood which included several other church members. They couldn’t find any palm branches at the store, so they improvised by using forsythia branches.

     Other members made phone calls to the people listed in our church directory just to see how they were doing and to offer prayers over the phone.

     Our prayer chain became more active as a way to communicate prayer needs and church announcements with each other. We were able to stay connected through the power of prayer.

  

     These psalms of ascent like Psalm 133 remind us that even physical distance cannot get in the way of our unity as God’s people. That experience reminded me that the dew of Mount Herman doesn’t stop when it reaches the city of Jerusalem.

     It has a way of reaching us wherever we may be. God’s blessings have a way of running down Aaron’s beard and they keep flowing, covering each and every one of us. And not even a pandemic can stop it.

     When I was in college and living in a dorm, I would sometimes feel lonely. But once a week, I could always count on my home church sending me the Sunday bulletin to help me feel connected even though I was living several hours from home.

     Of all things! A silly Sunday bulletin! It was kind of like that dew of Herman making its way to my dorm just to remind me that my church family was thinking of me.

     Think of these psalms of ascent that help us to feel connected even when we are apart as your playlist. Pray these psalms and sing them whenever you travel just like those early Methodist preachers did while riding horseback from town to town back in the 1800s.

     Those Methodist preachers always made sure that they had three books in their satchel at all times, the bible, the Methodist hymnal, and the Book of Discipline. And while they rode, they sang songs about God’s love that has been made known to us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

     Psalms of ascent remind us to keep singing our faith wherever we may be, because we’re all marching to Zion, the beautiful, beautiful city of God.

Sermon (July 26) “A Psummer of Psalms - Psalm 105” by Rev. Robert McDowell

July 26, 2026

Beulah UMC

     Have you ever listened to a sermon that was way too long? Wait, don’t answer that.

     Actually, this is the question that first came to mind when I began reflecting on our psalm for this week, Psalm 105. It’s not just that this Psalm is one of the longer psalms we have. There are forty-five verses. We just read a small portion of those verses which I’ll get to later.

     It’s not only long with the number of verses, but it goes over things that many of us already know or have heard at some point in our lives. It tells story after story of Israel’s early history. You have to have a lot of patience to work through this whole Psalm since you already know about these stories.

     Psalm 105 would be like if I started my sermon by saying, “Let me begin by telling you about the day I was born.” And then I would tell the story of when our family went to Niagara Falls when I was two years old and I cried the entire trip. True story by the way. And I don’t know why I wouldn’t have liked going to Niagara Falls, but I didn’t.

     And from there, I tell you a story about my kindergarten graduation. My favorite childhood birthday party. And I would continue to tell you a string of these stories of my life.

     Penny likes to remind me of the watermelon approach to public speaking. When you give a talk, you don’t have to tell people about the whole watermelon. Maybe focus on just one seed out of the total 400 watermelon seeds.

     But the Psalmist of Psalm 105 wants to tell us about a lot of stories in just one psalm. We get all of the watermelon seeds with this psalmist. In this psalm, he recounts earlier biblical stories about Abraham, the person who God called to be the father of a great nation. Then he moves to the next story about Isaac and then he references Jacob.

     Which then leads to a story about how God formed Israel and that leads to a story about Joseph in the land of Egypt, and from there, we hear about how the Israelites became slaves in Egypt which leads to a story about Moses confronting Pharoah who finally let God’s people go. This leads to a story of how God guided Israel through the wilderness to get to the Promised Land.

     Every time the psalmist seems like he’s going to say, “And in conclusion” or “To make a long story short,” we get another story and another story.

     Normally, I would say that if this was a sermon, it would be considered “below average” because it doesn’t follow the watermelon seed approach. Too many stories.

     But actually, that’s the whole point this Psalmist is making. All of these stories of how God has helped his people to overcome all of these challenges and adversities over all those years remind us of how faithful God really is. The Psalmist even gives us a little warning that this is going to be a long prayer at the very beginning of the psalm when he says, “Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wonderful works.”

     “Tell of all his wonderful works.” Really? All his wonderful works? We’ll never get to the closing hymn and the benediction if we take that literally.

     But I love that line because the psalmist is reminding us that God has done many wonderful works. And he wants us to tell others about those wonderful works.

     The good news of our faith is that we don’t have a shortage of the wonderful things that God has done and is doing in our lives. Those stories are plentiful.

     So, this is what the Psalmist is doing. He is reminding us of all the things that God has done in the past. And we get this brief summary of stories of the biblical patriarchs. But it’s more than a history lesson where we need to take notes to pass an exam.

     This psalmist wants us to not just remember the details of these past wonderful deeds that God has done. He wants us to see how God has been faithful to his covenant. This is probably one of the reasons why this psalm is read on the first day of the Jewish holiday of Passover each year. It’s a great Psalm to reflect on the past history of our faith.

     We do something similar every time we celebrate the Sacrament of Holy Communion which is the Christian adaptation of the Passover meal. We have that long responsive prayer called “The Great Thanksgiving.”

     In that one prayer, we recite God’s mighty acts of salvation beginning with the creation story, then we hear about how God delivered the Israelites from slavery and led them into the promised land, how God formed a covenant with them, which then leads to the telling of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. This “Great Thanksgiving” prayer is celebrating God’s wonderful works like this Psalmist is doing.

     I love the name for this communion prayer, “The Great Thanksgiving.” What a great name for a prayer. And we share in this prayer every time we gather to receive the Sacrament.

     Stories are what help form us into a community of faith. I think this is why the Psalmist is calling on us to tell our stories of how God has been faithful.

     On one hand, we all share the same story of faith which comes to us from the scriptures. We all can share how God created us and formed us into his image. We can all share how God rescued the people of Israel and led them to the Promised Land. We can all share the highs and the lows of how God’s people sought to live out their covenant with God. And we can share the story of how God sent Jesus into the world to be our Lord and Savior. These are all of our shared stories of faith. What a great, great story of faith we have. The Bible is our family album, too!

     And then we also have our unique stories of faith that are born out of these shared biblical stories. God’s wonderful works didn’t end with these biblical stories. God continues to do wonderful works through each of us. We call these “God moments,” or as our psalmist likes to call them, “wonderful works” moments.

     Where do you see God at work in your life offering guidance, direction, comfort, assurance, encouragement, hope, new life? These are the wonderful works that continue to happen in our every day lives.

     Let me share one of these wonderful works of God moments that happened to me when Penny and I first moved to South Carolina. So, we moved here from Ohio because y’all have much better winter weather than up north.

     We didn’t have any friends or family down here, so it was really up to us to begin some friendships. During our 2nd summer here, I decided to play a round of golf one day. It’s not my favorite thing to golf alone because if you make a hole in one, you don’t have anyone to verify it. Actually, it’s because it’s just a whole lot more fun to golf with at least one other person.

     But it was a really nice day and even though it was our 2nd full summer down here, I still hadn’t played any golf, but for some reason, I just felt like playing anyway.

     So I go to this golf course. It’s just me and the worker at the clubhouse said that since it was just me, she could get me on the course ahead of two guys that were about to start their round. So I drive my cart down to the the 1st tee box and I can see these two guys in their cart.

     One of those guys yelled back at me to go ahead ahead of them since it was just me. And then he said, “You’re welcome to join the two of us if you’d like.” And I said, “sure!”

     So we started playing and since it was my first time on this course, they told me where best to aim and what to watch out for. And they were fun to talk to and we really enjoyed our round together.

     When we finished playing, one of them said, “hey, you’re actually a really nice guy. If you’d like to play another day, you’re more than welcome to join us.” Super nice of them to offer that so we exchanged phone numbers.

     And then one of them asked me what I do for a living and I told him that I was a retired United Methodist pastor but serving at a part-time appointment. And they just looked at each other and started laughing. And they said that they were United Methodist pastors as well, actually the one guy is Presbyterian, but he is a staff member at the conference office.

     It was in that moment, that I knew we were having a God moment. Out of all of the golf courses I could have played that day, I ended up playing that one and thanks to this God moment, we became good friends. And through their friendship, I was able to meet many more pastors and both Penny and I have become friends with them as well.

     That day on the golf course was a God moment for me. It was a “wonderful works” moment as Psalm 105 likes to call it.

      And I know there are some people who might say that it was all just a crazy coincidence, but to me, it was an answer to prayer. And I still smile when I think about it.

     Friends, this is just one example among many of God’s wonderful works that happen all around us in big and small ways. Psalm 105 encourages us to share these God moments with each other and tell of God’s wonderful works.

     When you have a bunch of people telling each other as well as the people you meet of how God is at work in our lives, in our community, and in our world, it always leads us to praise God even more. That’s why this psalm is known as a praise psalm.

     No wonder this Psalmist prayer is so long. He wants us to remember all of these stories of how God has been faithful. He’s describing all of the watermelon seeds because that’s how many wonderful works of God that we all have in common.

     God moment after God moment of how God is at work in our lives in surprising and mysterious ways. So many wonderful works of God that happen in our lives that lead us to say again and again and again, “Praise the Lord!”