Sunday, November 3, 2013
pm
The Lord Our God is Holy
PSALM 99
a.
God does reign – as has been established continually in the psalms and throughout
scripture.
God is sovereign ruler of the world.
b.
Let the peoples tremble!
KNOW your place before Him!
The idea of trembling is to approach Him with fear and reverence.
It applies even to us – Phil. 2:12 – work out your salvation with
fear and trembling; Heb. 12:28-29.
c.
He dwells between the cherubim – a reference to the Ark of the Covenant – in Exodus 25:10-22
we find instructions to Moses to build the Ark of the Covenant.
On top of the ark was to be two cherubim facing one another and
covering the mercy seat. The
ark was to be placed in the holy of holies in the tabernacle.
“And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you
from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on
the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in
commandment to the children of Israel.” (Exodus 25:22)
d.
Let the earth be moved
– again
we find a demonstration of His omnipotence.
e.
He is great in Zion and
high above the peoples
– Zion, as we have noted on many occasions is reference to Jerusalem,
but often when used it has spiritual connotations dealing with God’s
chosen people (as opposed to all in the nation).
f.
Let them praise Your great and awesome name
–
The word “awesome” means primarily to be afraid or to stand in awe
(Vine’s). The KJV uses the
word, “terrible” here. The
idea is God is one to be held in awe or reverenced.
In fact, this same Hebrew word as is found in Psa. 111:9, “Holy
and awesome is His name”.
The KJV says, “Holy and reverend in His name.”
It is a principle we must continually remind ourselves of.
God and all things associated with Him ought to be treated with
proper decorum and respect.
His name is to be respected as is His sovereignty and person.
According to the Talmud, Jews, out of respect for His name,
preferred to use a description rather than His actual name (even though
it is acknowledged that nothing in the Torah or Mishnah prohibits one
pronouncing the name of God).[1]
They did this out of fear of mispronouncing His name.
That is why YHWH is often used with no vowel points (actually
they see it closer to YHVH).
This psalm deals with respecting His name.
NOTE: IF we freely and flippantly use His name what does that say
about our reverence for Him?
g.
He is holy!
1st of 3 times.
The word “holy” is a word that speaks of something that is
dedicated or devoted. The
idea being we ought to treat God different and with respect.
(Psalm 111:9)
Joshua 24:19 says, ““But Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve
the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive
your transgressions nor your sins.”
Revelation 4:8, “The four living creatures, each having six wings,
were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night,
saying: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to
come!””
a.
The King
here is probably a reference to God reigning on His throne in heaven.
The children of Israel would have been familiar with visions of His
throne from both the psalms and prophets.
He was to be their king.
The “mercy seat” was, if you will, His throne coming to meet with
them.
That it is probably God’s throne is also considered by His character
described. Though there were
some good kings, these qualities are ultimately found in God.
b.
He loves justice
(judgment) – often God has been described as a just judge of the people.
(Psa. 45:6-7, 72:1-2, etc.)
We know that His final judgment will be just – Rom. 2:2, 2 Thess.
1:6, etc.
c.
He has established equity – He is upright and fair in His dealings.
God is NO respecter of persons (Acts 10:34, 1 Pet. 1:17 – He
judges according to one’s works “without partiality”)
d.
He has executed justice
and righteousness in Jacob – His just treatment of Israel could not be questioned.
e.
Exalt the Lord our God
– considering who He is, we need to magnify Him in our lives – Psa.
34:3, see also 99:9; cf. Phil. 1:20 that Christ will be magnified in His
body.
f.
Worship at His footstool – possibly a reference to the earth (being His footstool –
cf. Isa. 66:1) and the point being bow before Him everywhere!
g.
He is holy
– mentioned the second time.
a.
Moses and Aaron among His priests – the righteous.
Moses While Moses was not actually a priest, (he was a Levite),
he consecrated the priesthood as instructed by God (Exodus 24:3-8 –
where
b.
Moses sprinkles blood on
the people to sanctify them.
Exodus 29 finds Moses consecrating Aaron and his sons – the High
Priesthood.)
He called upon the God “face to face” (Ex. 33:11, Num. 12:8) speaking
directly to Him at Mt. Sinai and often as he entered the tabernacle in
the wilderness.
Aaron was the first High priest, consecrated by Moses at God’s
instructions. It was through him that the priesthood had access to God
appearing yearly in the tabernacle with atonement.
God answered him. He
also witnessed much of Moses’ direct interaction with God – more so than
the rest of Israel (i.e. he would go closer than most of Israel at Mt.
Sinai – Ex. 24:1, at the burning bush Aaron meets Moses – Ex. 4:14, he
was at Moses’ side when Pharaoh was confronted, etc.)
c.
Samuel was
the prophet who saw the end of the period of judges and ushered in the
Kingdom (of Saul and David).
He was special from his birth being dedicated to God by his mother
Hannah (1 Sam. 1:19-28). God
spoke to him at an early age (1 Sam. 3).
Though not a priest, he offered acceptable sacrifices to God (1
Sam. 7:9, 1 Sam. 13:7-12), etc.
He was also a great prophet of God who judged Israel and brought
the monarchy to the land (though only because God permitted it).
Notice how in our text he is NOT described as a priest but one
who called upon the name of God.
d.
They called upon the
Lord and He answered them
– all 3 of them made
special appeals to God as we just noted.
God answered Moses directly on many occasions.
God answered Aaron as High Priest as he offered sacrifices for
the people. God answered
Samuel as a prophet – again on many occasions.
One example – when Israel demanded a king we find the Lord
speaking to him and saying, “And the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed the
voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not
rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over
them.”” (1 Samuel 8:7)
1 Samuel 12:18 says, “So Samuel called to the Lord, and the Lord sent
thunder and rain that day; and all the people greatly feared the Lord
and Samuel.”
e.
He spoke to them in the
cloudy pillar
– Moses and Aaron (and the people) witnessed this more than once.
I know of no occasion where Samuel saw God in a cloudy pillar, so
it is possible that the reference is to Israel as a whole, as they all
heard Him at Mt. Sinai – the point being in addition to these 3, there
were many of Israel who appealed to God (priests, kings, prophets, etc.)
and he heard their appeals.
f.
They kept His testimonies and ordinances
– they obeyed Him (though not perfectly)
g.
God answered them! See above for
these examples. For us, let
us remember that the same is true of us.
As His children we can call upon Him - 1 John 3:18–22 - “My
little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and
in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure
our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than
our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn
us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask we receive
from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that
are pleasing in His sight.”
John 15:7, Jesus made
similar promises to His disciples.
James 5:16 says of our prayers, “The effective fervent prayer of a
righteous man avails much.”
h.
You are to them
God-Who-Forgives
– He forgave them. All 3
were mighty servants of God but they committed serious sins but God
forgave them.
Moses rebelled against God by striking the rock; Aaron made a golden
calf, with Miriam challenged the authority of Moses and did other
things; Samuel appointed his corrupt sons as priests.
Yet God forgave them.
Herein lies the message for us – God is a forgiving God.
Our hope is in His forgiveness.
He sent Jesus to die for “the world” (John 3:16); He delays His
coming because He does not want any to perish (2 Pet. 3:9); 1 Tim. 2:3-4
– He desires that all be saved.
He continues to forgive us even after we sin – if we repent.
1 John 1:9
Heb. 4:16 – Because of Jesus we can boldly approach Him to find mercy
and grace.
WE even find texts that speak of His chastening to bring us back – Heb.
12:3-11, cf. 1 Cor. 5:4-5, etc.
i.
Though You took vengeance on their deeds
– there were consequences to their sins.
Moses was forbidden from entering the Promised Land and so was Aaron.
Aaron was held accountable and so was Samuel for various sins in
their lives as well.
We too see in this that even though we might receive forgiveness of
sins, our consequences do NOT go away!
In spite of what many want to teach or want to believe!
And sometimes those consequences might not seem fair, but we
cannot question God. Think
of David and his sins with Bathsheba – there were many consequences, but
God forgave him.
Remember who God forgives – the one who has kept His testimonies and
ordinances (cf. 1 John 1:7)
j.
Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His holy hill
– the place He has appointed – go to Him!
i.
We need to exalt Him in
worship! Let us never forget
that our worship is about Him first and foremost.
ii.
WE have discussed the
“holy hill” in times past – it is where God’s presence is. Physically,
the tabernacle and the temple ended up in Jerusalem and it is a “holy
hill”, but ultimately this is a description of heaven.
Psa. 87; Psa. 15, 24:3-5, etc.
k.
For the Lord our God is
holy. The third time this
has been mentioned in this psalm.
1 Pet. 1:15-16