Psalm-light for the Second Sunday of Easter, 2021

Psalm 133

  How good and pleasant it is
when God’s people live together in unity!
(Psalm 133: 1)

In one of his fables, Aesop tells the story of an old man who had several sons who were always quarrelling with one another. He tried over and over to get them to live together in harmony but with no success. One day he called them together, gathered a bundle of sticks and tied them together and asked each one of them to try to break them. Each one tried as hard as he could but none of them could break the bundle of sticks. Then the father cut the cord with which he had tied them together and told his sons to break them separately. The boys did this with no trouble at all. “See, my sons,” the old man said, “the power of unity!” The lesson learnt here is that if we are bound together by brotherly love, we can defy almost every mortal danger, but divided, we will fall prey to our enemies.
In today’s psalm, the psalmist talks about unity among God’s people – the relationship God’s people have with one another. We know that living in community with our brothers and sisters is not always easy as everyone is different – we feel differently, we think differently – and there will always be areas of disagreement. But in many cases, the disagreements are over trivial things that are really unimportant. If we could all live like the first converts, we are told about in the Book of Acts who lived together as one and “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” we would feel as the psalmist said, “how good and pleasant” life would be.

Walking in the light:
As we continue to celebrate our Lord’s resurrection and his gift of eternal life to us, in our quiet time, let us think of areas of disagreement that exist between us in our family – church and home. Let us pray that God will give us the grace to put aside those differences and live together in unity. Jesus prayed to his Father in John Chapter 17 verses 20-21 “that they may all be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You”. Let us pray that God will give us his blessing and allow us to be one with each other and with God the Father and Son.  

Submitted by (The Reverend Deacon) Verbina Gonsalves