IT IS LIKE THE PRECIOUS OINTMENT

Our final contemplation from the Psalms of Ascents concerns the great fundamental principle of ‘unity’ which must be seen among God’s people. The opening verse asks us to ‘Behold’; this should make us aware of the wonder of unity. The verse continues by emphasizing its welfare, stressing that it is ‘good and pleasant’ for us. Verses 2 and 3 present two analogies, one of the priest’s anointing ointment suggesting worship, the other of dew bringing ‘blessing’ and ‘life’, suggesting the witness of unity to an ungodly world.

For details of the anointing oil, we need to turn to Exodus chapter 30 verses 22-25 where we find four ‘principle spices’, blended into olive oil. The oil speaks of the Holy Spirit, the One who, by new birth, creates the ‘unity of the Spirit’ which we are expected to keep in ‘the bond of peace’ until we all come to the ‘unity of the faith’, Eph. 4. 1-13. The Holy Spirit is also the One by whom the Lord Jesus was conceived in His humanity. The spices would speak of Him and His features which should also be found in His people. These features will enable us to maintain the unity He desires as expressed in His prayer in John 17.

The first ingredient is myrrh, speaking of His suffering and response to it, ‘when he suffered, he threatened not; but com­mitted himself to him that judgeth righteously’. Similar reactions in us will preserve unity among God’s people, ‘love suffereth long and is kind’, 1 Cor. 13. 4 ASV. The second ingredi­ent, cinnamon, has the same root word as ‘zeal’, characterizing the devotion to God’s people needed to preserve unity, seen in One of whom it was said ‘the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up’. Next we have the calamis, extracted from an erect cane growing out of the mire. What a beautiful picture of the upright dealings of the Saviour while here in this wicked world. O that we His people, who are in the world but not of it, might display the same straight dealings with one another to maintain God’s unity. Finally, the cassia comes from a tree that stoops, speaking of the need to be ‘subject one to another’, emulating the Holy One who was subject to two of His creatures in the humble sur­roundings of the home in Nazareth, Luke 2. 51.