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
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.