Thoughts From Psalm 99

 

Psalm 99

1 The Lord reigns,
    let the nations tremble;
he sits enthroned between the cherubim,
    let the earth shake.
2 Great is the Lord in Zion;
    he is exalted over all the nations.
3 Let them praise your great and awesome name—
    he is holy.

4 The King is mighty, he loves justice—
    you have established equity;
in Jacob you have done
    what is just and right.
5 Exalt the Lord our God
    and worship at his footstool;
    he is holy.

6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests,
    Samuel was among those who called on his name;
they called on the Lord
    and he answered them.
7 He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud;
    they kept his statutes and the decrees he gave them.

8 Lord our God,
    you answered them;
you were to Israel a forgiving God,
    though you punished their misdeeds.

9 Exalt the Lord our God
    and worship at his holy mountain,
    for the Lord our God is holy.

Psalm 99 has a phrase repeated twice - “He is holy “, and ends with “The Lord our God is holy “. The holiness of God seems to be the theme here. What is holiness and what can we learn here.

       I’ve always heard that “holy “ means “other “. God is other than us. I’ve used the illustration about 2 stick figures on a chalkboard and someone from outside the board introduces a coke can with the bottom applied to the chalkboard. What do they see? They see a circle because they are living in a 2D world. They have no idea that 12oz. of delicious, preferably Diet Coke, is sitting above them because they can’t imagine a 3D world. “Above” to them is higher on the chalkboard not out from them. They ask, ”What does ‘out’ mean?” In the same way God invaded our planet and what did we see? Jesus. He made himself visible in the form of Jesus but what if we like the chalkboard people can’t even imagine a 4D, the wholeness or otherness of God. He is holy.

       So what do we do with this fact? The first few verses give us a clue - we should tremble. The stick figures have to think if there is someone out there introducing coke cans into our existence, they probably made us and can erase us and we are not in control but at the mercy of the 3D person. Likewise, we should come to the conclusion that this holy/other being out there probably created us and can do with us whatever He pleases. This should make us tremble - we are not in control. The notion or attitude of “the big guy upstairs “,” my homeboy “, or “what if God was one of us” should fly straight out the window. Rather, a reverent fear and trepidation should be the way we approach Him.

     In Mark 4, the disciples were caught in the middle of the Sea of Galilee in a storm and were afraid of dying. They woke up Jesus and Jesus made the wind and waves cease immediately. It's interesting the disciples' response; it went from being afraid to terrified. They were in the presence of "other" and they had quaking. It's said that the Old Testament scribes, on penning the name Yahweh, would bathe or at least change pens and would never utter the name but substitute Adonai or something similar. Today we use it in worship songs because it rhymes or fits into the beat. What has happened to our reverence?

      I think part of it, and probably rightly so, is that because Christ is our mediator, we can go boldly into His presence, and He has become our adopted Father whom we call "abba". Yet I think we have gone too far to the casual and drifted away from the fear or reverence. In the Lord's prayer we are instructed to start out, "Our Father, who is in Heaven, Holy is your name." Even though he is our Father, we still are to bow down to Him in reverent fear of His Holiness and be in awe of Him.

      The Psalm ends with "The Lord our God is Holy." Note the "our". Even though He is so much greater than we can possibly imagine and we should technically fear for our next breath lest He graciously allows it, this Holy/other Being is also other in love. He has unfathomable love that causes Him to love a puny 3D, finite being like us that is so infinitesimal to Him and yet adopts us as His child. If that doesn't cause you to sing "Holy, Holy, Holy", I don't know what will.