Holy Holy Holy

It's short. I think this is the last of the section

of the royal psalms that we have been seeing

a lot of here in the last few psalms we've looked

at. These are psalms that kind of have the same

theme of praising God, acknowledging God's greatness

and his power and his mercy. and just praising

God and rejoicing in God for who he is. And we

see that same type of language here tonight.

Again, like the rest of these, we don't really

know who wrote this psalm. We don't really know

when it was written, but it doesn't matter. We

still can see the importance of what these psalms

are kind of repeating week after week as we look

at them, and that is the continual praise of

God. We'll pray, and then we'll get started.

Dear Lord, we come to you. We thank you for just

the privilege to be part of this body, to be

able to come together to sing these songs and

to worship you. I thank you for the love that

you have showed us and the love that God... that

you allow us to show to one another. And so we

thank you for the freedom we have to come in

here and just experience your word and just the

love of one another tonight. I pray that you

just would bless us, free us from distractions

and worries and the things of this world. And

I pray, dear Lord, that as we read this psalm

tonight, that we would be those who would rejoice

in you. And I ask these things in Jesus' name.

Amen. Psalm 99, verse 1. You're going to see

Psalms 99:1

a theme here, which we also saw in the last song

that we just sung, and that is that God is holy,

holy, holy. You'll see each little section in

this psalm ends with that particular praise.

Verse 1. Now, we can stop there for a second.

That's a good reminder to us that the Lord is

in control. It's so important for me, maybe not

for you, to continually go back and read God's

Word and even repeat things that you've read

before and verses that you've heard before. Because

if you're like me... and hopefully you're not,

you kind of forget these things. You know, you

get busy with life and stress and all the things

that kind of pop up and maybe there's scriptures

you don't read for a while or truths that you

know from scripture that God reigns and that

God is in control. But sometimes we need to be

reminded of that. And I think that's why it's

important for us to continually read God's word.

It helps us to be grounded. You know, sometimes

we get caught up in the stresses and the worries

of our life. And God's word kind of brings us

back to where we need to be. And I would hope

that all of us would agree of the importance

of continuing to go back to God's word. And I

think that we would because as I look in this

small group tonight, everyone in here has gone

to church probably since they were a small child

and have probably read these verses repeatedly.

You just continue to go back to God's word repeatedly.

Why do we do that? because it's good for us it's

not like oh i've read the bible and and i'm going

to move on but we continue to go back to it and

back to it and back to it because we find strength

and we find guidance and we find correction and

we find encouragement and here at the beginning

of this psalm we are reminded of a truth that

perhaps we need to be reminded of tonight, and

that is the Lord reigns. He is in control. There's

nobody else that's reigning this world. There's

nobody else that's ruling this world. It is the

Lord who reigns. He reigns supreme. No one will

ever knock God from his throne. He is the one

who reigns in our life. And so no matter what

we go through tonight, we have to remember that

God is in control. Let the peoples tremble. He

is enthroned above the cherubim. Let the earth

quake. Yahweh is great in Zion. He is exalted

above all the peoples. And so we see this idea

that the people are going to tremble, that the

earth is going to quake. Well, why is that? Because

when God shows up onto the scene, when God is

present, it's a powerful thing. And we see that.

Especially in the Old Testament, we see when

God shows up, it's a powerful thing to those

who experience and see his presence. And you

may remember when the people got delivered out

of Egypt and God was on the mountain and they

said, hold up, Moses, we don't want to go anywhere

near God. We're going to keep our distance. We

don't even want to go up on the mountain because

they could see the power and the presence of

God. And so we see that exhibited. in several

instances in the Old Testament, the very instances

where the ground does shake and quake and people

do tremble. And that's what the psalmist is reminding

us of here. Hey, the Lord reigns and we need

to recognize the power of the Lord. It says he's

enthroned above the cherubim. Now, when you look

in the Old Testament, you read about the Ark

of the Covenant. And when the people built the

Ark of the Covenant, there were two cherubim

on the top, and they were sitting, and their

wings were kind of touching in the middle. And

it says that that's where God would descend in

that most holy place, the Holy of Holies, where

the Ark would reside, and that God would descend

there on the cherubim of the Ark, and that was

where God would come to dwell amongst the people

in the presence of his people. And so just a

reminder to that here. Verse 3. Let them praise

your great and awe -inspiring name. So he acknowledged

that God reigns, that God is all -powerful, that

we should acknowledge his power and tremble in

the presence of his power and know that he dwells

among us, not in the same way he did in the Old

Testament. We don't have an ark of the covenant,

and we don't have cherubim, and God doesn't descend

upon us in that way, but God dwells with us through

the Holy Spirit in a new way, in a better way.

than the old way. A better way has come through

Jesus Christ. And so the psalmist here says,

let them praise your great and awe -inspiring

name. So we have a call here in acknowledging

the power and the greatness of God that we are

to praise him. And then it says at the end of

this first section here, he is holy. That is,

he's set apart, he's different. He's different

than any other being, than any other thing that

exists. God is unique and that he is eternal.

He has always been all powerful. He has always

been in control. He has created all things. And

so he is holy, he is different, he is unique,

he is set apart. And the Bible calls us to be

holy through Jesus Christ, to seek to be more

like God, to see those qualities of God, the

commands of God, the instructions of God, that

we would seek to be holy. Now, we'll never be

fully holy as God is, but that's our goal, that's

our example, that's our motivation, that's our

desire, is that we would be holy as God is holy.

That's what the Scripture calls us to. Verse

4, the mighty king loves justice. You have established

fairness. You have administered justice and righteousness

in Jacob. Now, we see lots of qualities of God

exhibited through Scripture, and here we see

a couple of these mentioned, that one, he's a

mighty king, he's powerful, and two, that he

loves justice. Justice. Now, justice means that

every evil has to be dealt with. That God, he

is a gracious God and he is a merciful God, but

he is a just God. And all of these things are

true about God. One doesn't outweigh the other.

God is just. And being just, God must punish

evil. Evil must be dealt with. Sin must be dealt

with. And that's the sign of a good king. It's

to deal with those who are doing evil. Now, praise

the Lord, sometimes God is merciful. There are

certainly things in the Old Testament that God

said, here's the punishment for this. Death is

the punishment for whatever sin it might be.

But we also see sometimes that people commit

those sins that called for death in the Old Testament

law. And yet God doesn't always kill them. God

is sometimes merciful. When that's part of God

too. God is a merciful God. He's a just God.

He's a merciful God. He's a jealous God. He's

a lot of different things. And they're all true

about him. And sometimes people experience the

wrath of God when God is bringing justice. But

sometimes God is merciful. But even in God being

merciful, justice still has to occur. And praise

the Lord for us that that occurs through Jesus

Christ. That justice is served. That there's

a penalty that has to be served or has to be

carried out. And that penalty is carried out

by Jesus Christ on the cross. And so we receive

mercy and grace through Jesus Christ. But that

doesn't mean that God has forgotten about being

just. It means that Jesus Christ has taken that

punishment that we deserve so that we can receive

the mercy. So that we can receive the graciousness

of God. And so God is a just God. He has established

fairness. He is a fair God. We can't accuse God

of being unfair. Everything he does, he is right

to do it. And he is fair in what he does. We

may not always understand it. We may not always

like it. But God is fair. Now, when we talk about

fairness in our world today, you may hear the

word equality a lot. And a lot of times when

you talk about fairness and equality, when you

hear it, it means that everybody's supposed to

have the same of everything all the time. But

that's not necessarily what it means. You can

be fair to somebody and things not necessarily

be equal. There's a difference between being

unfair and unequal. Everybody is not treated

equally. We're not all exactly the same, but

God is not unfair to any one person. God is a

fair king. He's a just and a fair king. It says

you have administered justice and righteousness

in Jacob. Verse 5. Exalt the Lord our God. Bow

in worship at his footstool. He is holy. So again,

we see in the first section there this call to

praise. Here we see again this call to exalt

the Lord and for what reason? He is holy. And

then in this third section here we see verse

6. Moses and Aaron were among his priests. Samuel

also was among those calling on his name. They

called to Yahweh and he answered them. He spoke

to them in a pillar of cloud. They kept his decrees

and the statutes he gave them. Lord our God,

you answered them. You are a forgiving God to

them and avenger of their sinful actions. Now,

here we are reminded about some Old Testament

figures, Moses and Aaron and Samuel. And it says

here that they were forgiven. Well, praise the

Lord. This is another good thing that we see

about God, that he is a forgiving God. Now, some

of your translations may read a little different

there. It may read that Israel is forgiven. And

so there's some discussion to be had of whether

it's talking about individual occurrences that

these men were sinful in some way and God was

gracious to them, or whether it's referencing

occasions where these people interceded. And

we do see that in Scripture sometimes with Moses

or with Samuel, that they intercede for the people

because the people are doing something evil or

calling for something evil. And so that seems

to be maybe more likely. But it could be speaking

just of these three guys and something they did.

Regardless of which interpretation is correct,

both things are true. God is gracious to us.

When we sin against him, if we would repent,

God will forgive us. Sometimes there are occasions

that we may intercede for other people or we

may pray for them and lift them up. But the key

that we see here is that God is a forgiving God.

Yes, he's a just God. He's a God of wrath. And

that's a scary thing. But it's a beautiful thing

that God is also a forgiving God. So we don't

have to experience the wrath of God. We don't

have to experience punishment from a just God.

Instead, we can receive salvation through Jesus

Christ. And we can be made righteous through

Jesus Christ. We can be forgiven. And so we praise

the Lord for that. And so we serve a God who

is worthy of our praise, who is to be praised

and to be exalted, for he is holy. And that's

what we see here at the conclusion of this psalm.

Exalt the Lord our God, bow in worship at his

holy mountain, for the Lord your God is holy.

Basically, what we see in this psalm is that

this is a psalm of praise, reminding us of the

power of God, that God is a just God, but that

God is a loving God and God is full of forgiveness

and there is no other like him. God is set apart,

he is unique, he is different, and he reigns

over all things. So let us praise God tonight.

Let's pray. We thank you for your word, dear

Lord, and I pray that you would help us to live

by this word. And whatever we may be going through

in life that is too much for us, that's too heavy

right now, I pray, God, that we would just seek

you and remember that you reign, that you are

in control. Dear Lord, sometimes you do things

that we don't understand, things that don't make

sense, but dear Lord, You are fair and you are

good and you are right in all you do. So help

us, dear Lord, to trust you and not question

you or doubt you or give up on you, but to continue

to praise you on the good days and on the bad.

And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.