Mashach is a workshop verb. It means to smear, to rub a liquid onto a surface, the way you oil a shield or grease a flatbread. Scripture takes that ordinary motion and makes it the physical act of commissioning. Aharon and his sons are smeared into the priesthood (Exodus 30:30). Shmuel smears oil on a shepherd boy and the Ruach of YHWH rushes on David from that day forward (1 Samuel 16:13). The oil running down the beard in Psalm 133 is this same picture, abundance poured on a head and finding its way down onto everything the man touches.

Every occurrence carries the same grammar: someone with authority smears someone into a task. The one smeared becomes a mashiach, an anointed one, which is why the verb matters far beyond ritual. Isaiah 61:1 binds the smearing to the Spirit: the Ruach of Adonai YHWH is upon me because He has mashach-ed me. Anointing and Spirit-endowment are one event seen from two sides, the oil on the skin and the Breath in the man. When the Brit Chadashah speaks of the anointing believers carry, this verb is the floor it stands on.