Sometimes I wonder how I’ve gone from the kid who loved to bring the hose into the sandbox and make mud pies to the adult who reads this passage and says, “Yuck!”

It’s not the family unity that turns me off; it’s the “precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes.” For crying out loud, get me a towel!

Yet this description is intended to deepen spiritual appreciation of the truth of “How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity.” This psalm, one of fifteen “Psalms of Ascent” (120-134), was likely sung by religious pilgrims as they made their way up to Zion, Jerusalem, the holy city. The faithful recall the priesthood established (See Exodus 28 and 29.) and the ordination ritual of sacred oil poured on the consecrated priest: a moment of great solemnity and great joy. The oil is fragrant and soothing as the unity of kindred can be.

And the oil is precious as unity is precious—as in, “not found as often as we’d like.” This is especially true of the kindred unity the psalm praises. I recently saw a meme that read: “The business advertised they’d treat me like family. I didn’t shop there.” The phrase church family is one I avoid for just that reason; the word family is weighted with meaning, not all of it “good and pleasant.”

Nonetheless, the psalmist’s words are aspirational, and we should not give up on the vision or the metaphor. My aversion to an oil-soaked collar is tempered by the thought that oil sticks to you. Hmmm . . . isn’t that just what God wants—unity that sticks?

Forget the towel! Give me that oil, kindred unity, and the Lord’s blessing of “life forevermore.”