Harmony

"How wonderful it is, how pleasant,
when brothers live together in harmony!
For harmony is as precious as the fragrant anointing oil
that was poured over Aaron's head,
that ran down his beard
and onto the border of his robe.
Harmony is as refreshing as the dew from Mount Hermon
that falls on the mountains of Zion.
And the Lord has pronounced his blessing,
even life forevermore."
Psalm 133, New Living Translation

Harmony

I was very grateful to have this Psalm in my devotionals yesterday. In fact, I made it my whole devotional. The word and concept that most intrigues me in this Psalm is "harmony".

What intrigues me about the word is that it implies unity as well as differences. I believe that unity very often gets misrepresented or misunderstood and is perceived as "uniformity". Many people think that we should all think alike, act alike, believe alike, dress alike, as if uniformity is something of a beautiful nature. Nothing could be further from the truth in my view.

Check out the definitions of harmony at www.dictionary.com. The first definitions are "agreement" and "accord". The third definition has to do with music. In order for there to be "harmony" in a musical sense, there must be different notes sung or played simultaneously. There is no harmony if everyone plays or sings the same note. No harmony at all. Part B of this definition indicates that harmony could be these different notes, blending into chords that are especially pleasing to the ear.

It is interesting, isn't it, that different notes played together are especially pleasing to our ears? I've been practicing some jazz Christmas songs on the piano, and the chords require my 10 fingers to play 10 different notes. The harmony is quite close - that is, the notes are quite close together - and quite beautiful to my ears. Those notes individually are quite boring to me. It is not near so pleasing to practice my flute, as I can not create any harmony with that instrument alone. But get a few flutes together - wow! Harmony happens.

I think it is the same for God. I think His ears are pleased when we raise our voices to him in harmony. And I think His heart is pleased when we bring our differences together, our different thoughts, our different dress styles, our different activities, our different ways of expressing our faith, and blend them into human chords, designed for one purpose - to honour Him. There's nothing like some good harmony to create some good unity!