BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN HARMONY
Greetings Foothills Church family!
It was a Sabbath afternoon in the spring of 1988. I was a freshman in high school. My family was invited to a church member’s house for potluck. However, I was excited about more than just the food and fellowship. That same family specifically invited me over because they knew how much I loved singing in acapella quartets. They had an album they wanted me to listen to that they knew I would love - Take 6’s debut album (if you don’t know who Take 6 is, head to YouTube or Spotify right now and look up the Take 6 debut album).
I don’t remember anything else from that afternoon except for all of the times my jaw dropped listening to harmonies I had never heard before. Their style was part gospel, part jazz, part pop, all acapella, and beyond amazing! I begged my mom right away to take me to the store the next day to purchase the cassette. My mother conceded, and truthfully, it was a beloved investment on her part. That album took my love for acapella harmonies to a whole new level!
One of the things that truly held my attention while listening to Take 6 was their ability to sustain dissonant harmonies. This occurs when two singers are singing notes that are a half-step apart. Interestingly enough, if you just hear the two singers and their dissonant notes, it can be irritating to the ear. However, if you surround those two singers and their notes with several other singers on additional notes that fill out the chord, the dissonance actually creates a beautiful harmony.
In Psalm 133 (GNT), David gives some insight about harmony.
How wonderful it is, how pleasant, For God's people to live together in harmony! It is like the precious anointing oil Running down from Aaron's head and beard, Down to the collar of his robes. It is like the dew on Mount Hermon,Falling on the hills of Zion. That is where the LORD has promised his blessing— life that never ends.
In the ancient Middle East, it was common to anoint one’s head with oil, sometimes as a greeting entering a home (see Luke 7:46). This was done to refresh the one receiving the oil, and to give a good smell from the fragrance that came from the perfumed oils. Among God’s people, harmony refreshes and makes a pleasant atmosphere for all.
Scottish minister Alexander MacLaren, in his commentary The Psalms, Volume 3, expands on the Psalmist’s Mt. Hermon word picture to further drive home the point of the refreshing nature of harmony. He states, “[Dew] refreshes the thirsty ground and quickens vegetation; so fraternal concord, falling gently on men’s spirits, and linking distant ones together by a mysterious chain of transmitted good, will help to revive failing strength and refresh parched places.”
The psalmist doesn’t just describe harmony as refreshing, but also sacred. This is alluded to by David’s comparison of harmony to the anointing of Aaron, the high priest of Israel.
In a world fraught with division, harmony truly is sacred. In a culture immersed in dissension, harmony is the great refresher. This is the calling on God’s people, to be God’s light in the dark, to refresh the world with the sacred harmony only found through the Holy Spirit.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that, as believers in Christ, we will always see eye-to-eye on everything. It doesn’t mean that we won’t have differences among us. But via the Holy Spirit, God can take our dissonance and bring about beautiful harmony, if we let Him. This beauty is what a dark world so desperately needs, and we have the opportunity right here, and right now to humbly accept the call.
This is my prayer for all of us this week. Included in that prayer is this: that your hearts and minds may be convinced of the truth that God is for you, God is with you, and God loves you!
Pastor Chris
