WEBVTT 00:00:13.279 --> 00:00:18.399 It's short. I think this is the last of the section 00:00:18.399 --> 00:00:21.359 of the royal psalms that we have been seeing 00:00:21.359 --> 00:00:24.019 a lot of here in the last few psalms we've looked 00:00:24.019 --> 00:00:27.699 at. These are psalms that kind of have the same 00:00:27.699 --> 00:00:32.039 theme of praising God, acknowledging God's greatness 00:00:32.039 --> 00:00:35.820 and his power and his mercy. and just praising 00:00:35.820 --> 00:00:39.539 God and rejoicing in God for who he is. And we 00:00:39.539 --> 00:00:42.219 see that same type of language here tonight. 00:00:42.299 --> 00:00:44.140 Again, like the rest of these, we don't really 00:00:44.140 --> 00:00:47.000 know who wrote this psalm. We don't really know 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:50.659 when it was written, but it doesn't matter. We 00:00:50.659 --> 00:00:53.880 still can see the importance of what these psalms 00:00:53.880 --> 00:00:57.420 are kind of repeating week after week as we look 00:00:57.420 --> 00:01:00.899 at them, and that is the continual praise of 00:01:00.899 --> 00:01:04.469 God. We'll pray, and then we'll get started. 00:01:06.109 --> 00:01:09.150 Dear Lord, we come to you. We thank you for just 00:01:09.150 --> 00:01:12.230 the privilege to be part of this body, to be 00:01:12.230 --> 00:01:14.450 able to come together to sing these songs and 00:01:14.450 --> 00:01:16.390 to worship you. I thank you for the love that 00:01:16.390 --> 00:01:18.840 you have showed us and the love that God... that 00:01:18.840 --> 00:01:20.980 you allow us to show to one another. And so we 00:01:20.980 --> 00:01:23.280 thank you for the freedom we have to come in 00:01:23.280 --> 00:01:27.659 here and just experience your word and just the 00:01:27.659 --> 00:01:29.659 love of one another tonight. I pray that you 00:01:29.659 --> 00:01:31.760 just would bless us, free us from distractions 00:01:31.760 --> 00:01:34.379 and worries and the things of this world. And 00:01:34.379 --> 00:01:37.159 I pray, dear Lord, that as we read this psalm 00:01:37.159 --> 00:01:39.980 tonight, that we would be those who would rejoice 00:01:39.980 --> 00:01:42.700 in you. And I ask these things in Jesus' name. 00:01:43.239 --> 00:01:48.590 Amen. Psalm 99, verse 1. You're going to see 00:01:48.590 --> 00:01:52.569 a theme here, which we also saw in the last song 00:01:52.569 --> 00:01:55.230 that we just sung, and that is that God is holy, 00:01:55.489 --> 00:01:58.810 holy, holy. You'll see each little section in 00:01:58.810 --> 00:02:02.549 this psalm ends with that particular praise. 00:02:02.909 --> 00:02:08.069 Verse 1. Now, we can stop there for a second. 00:02:08.129 --> 00:02:11.569 That's a good reminder to us that the Lord is 00:02:11.569 --> 00:02:13.969 in control. It's so important for me, maybe not 00:02:13.969 --> 00:02:17.509 for you, to continually go back and read God's 00:02:17.509 --> 00:02:20.930 Word and even repeat things that you've read 00:02:20.930 --> 00:02:24.270 before and verses that you've heard before. Because 00:02:24.270 --> 00:02:26.620 if you're like me... and hopefully you're not, 00:02:26.680 --> 00:02:28.979 you kind of forget these things. You know, you 00:02:28.979 --> 00:02:31.379 get busy with life and stress and all the things 00:02:31.379 --> 00:02:33.580 that kind of pop up and maybe there's scriptures 00:02:33.580 --> 00:02:36.039 you don't read for a while or truths that you 00:02:36.039 --> 00:02:38.800 know from scripture that God reigns and that 00:02:38.800 --> 00:02:41.500 God is in control. But sometimes we need to be 00:02:41.500 --> 00:02:43.840 reminded of that. And I think that's why it's 00:02:43.840 --> 00:02:46.759 important for us to continually read God's word. 00:02:46.879 --> 00:02:49.400 It helps us to be grounded. You know, sometimes 00:02:49.400 --> 00:02:51.539 we get caught up in the stresses and the worries 00:02:51.539 --> 00:02:54.539 of our life. And God's word kind of brings us 00:02:54.539 --> 00:02:57.120 back to where we need to be. And I would hope 00:02:57.120 --> 00:02:59.939 that all of us would agree of the importance 00:02:59.939 --> 00:03:03.139 of continuing to go back to God's word. And I 00:03:03.139 --> 00:03:05.719 think that we would because as I look in this 00:03:05.719 --> 00:03:08.960 small group tonight, everyone in here has gone 00:03:08.960 --> 00:03:11.259 to church probably since they were a small child 00:03:11.259 --> 00:03:14.560 and have probably read these verses repeatedly. 00:03:14.819 --> 00:03:17.780 You just continue to go back to God's word repeatedly. 00:03:18.120 --> 00:03:21.560 Why do we do that? because it's good for us it's 00:03:21.560 --> 00:03:24.060 not like oh i've read the bible and and i'm going 00:03:24.060 --> 00:03:27.180 to move on but we continue to go back to it and 00:03:27.180 --> 00:03:30.139 back to it and back to it because we find strength 00:03:30.139 --> 00:03:32.360 and we find guidance and we find correction and 00:03:32.360 --> 00:03:34.840 we find encouragement and here at the beginning 00:03:34.840 --> 00:03:38.060 of this psalm we are reminded of a truth that 00:03:38.060 --> 00:03:40.479 perhaps we need to be reminded of tonight, and 00:03:40.479 --> 00:03:44.659 that is the Lord reigns. He is in control. There's 00:03:44.659 --> 00:03:46.460 nobody else that's reigning this world. There's 00:03:46.460 --> 00:03:49.180 nobody else that's ruling this world. It is the 00:03:49.180 --> 00:03:54.500 Lord who reigns. He reigns supreme. No one will 00:03:54.500 --> 00:03:57.460 ever knock God from his throne. He is the one 00:03:57.460 --> 00:03:59.259 who reigns in our life. And so no matter what 00:03:59.259 --> 00:04:01.639 we go through tonight, we have to remember that 00:04:01.639 --> 00:04:07.009 God is in control. Let the peoples tremble. He 00:04:07.009 --> 00:04:09.409 is enthroned above the cherubim. Let the earth 00:04:09.409 --> 00:04:13.009 quake. Yahweh is great in Zion. He is exalted 00:04:13.009 --> 00:04:17.470 above all the peoples. And so we see this idea 00:04:17.470 --> 00:04:20.230 that the people are going to tremble, that the 00:04:20.230 --> 00:04:22.829 earth is going to quake. Well, why is that? Because 00:04:22.829 --> 00:04:26.509 when God shows up onto the scene, when God is 00:04:26.509 --> 00:04:29.889 present, it's a powerful thing. And we see that. 00:04:30.449 --> 00:04:32.810 Especially in the Old Testament, we see when 00:04:32.810 --> 00:04:36.889 God shows up, it's a powerful thing to those 00:04:36.889 --> 00:04:39.670 who experience and see his presence. And you 00:04:39.670 --> 00:04:42.970 may remember when the people got delivered out 00:04:42.970 --> 00:04:45.490 of Egypt and God was on the mountain and they 00:04:45.490 --> 00:04:49.089 said, hold up, Moses, we don't want to go anywhere 00:04:49.089 --> 00:04:51.149 near God. We're going to keep our distance. We 00:04:51.149 --> 00:04:52.689 don't even want to go up on the mountain because 00:04:52.689 --> 00:04:55.829 they could see the power and the presence of 00:04:55.829 --> 00:05:00.300 God. And so we see that exhibited. in several 00:05:00.300 --> 00:05:03.300 instances in the Old Testament, the very instances 00:05:03.300 --> 00:05:06.600 where the ground does shake and quake and people 00:05:06.600 --> 00:05:10.660 do tremble. And that's what the psalmist is reminding 00:05:10.660 --> 00:05:13.959 us of here. Hey, the Lord reigns and we need 00:05:13.959 --> 00:05:17.279 to recognize the power of the Lord. It says he's 00:05:17.279 --> 00:05:21.879 enthroned above the cherubim. Now, when you look 00:05:21.879 --> 00:05:23.579 in the Old Testament, you read about the Ark 00:05:23.579 --> 00:05:26.120 of the Covenant. And when the people built the 00:05:26.120 --> 00:05:28.199 Ark of the Covenant, there were two cherubim 00:05:28.199 --> 00:05:29.720 on the top, and they were sitting, and their 00:05:29.720 --> 00:05:32.339 wings were kind of touching in the middle. And 00:05:32.339 --> 00:05:34.899 it says that that's where God would descend in 00:05:34.899 --> 00:05:37.660 that most holy place, the Holy of Holies, where 00:05:37.660 --> 00:05:40.519 the Ark would reside, and that God would descend 00:05:40.519 --> 00:05:44.180 there on the cherubim of the Ark, and that was 00:05:44.180 --> 00:05:47.360 where God would come to dwell amongst the people 00:05:47.360 --> 00:05:50.040 in the presence of his people. And so just a 00:05:50.040 --> 00:05:55.379 reminder to that here. Verse 3. Let them praise 00:05:55.379 --> 00:05:59.240 your great and awe -inspiring name. So he acknowledged 00:05:59.240 --> 00:06:02.040 that God reigns, that God is all -powerful, that 00:06:02.040 --> 00:06:05.319 we should acknowledge his power and tremble in 00:06:05.319 --> 00:06:08.560 the presence of his power and know that he dwells 00:06:08.560 --> 00:06:11.100 among us, not in the same way he did in the Old 00:06:11.100 --> 00:06:13.040 Testament. We don't have an ark of the covenant, 00:06:13.120 --> 00:06:16.000 and we don't have cherubim, and God doesn't descend 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:19.980 upon us in that way, but God dwells with us through 00:06:19.980 --> 00:06:22.240 the Holy Spirit in a new way, in a better way. 00:06:22.649 --> 00:06:25.050 than the old way. A better way has come through 00:06:25.050 --> 00:06:27.449 Jesus Christ. And so the psalmist here says, 00:06:27.670 --> 00:06:30.589 let them praise your great and awe -inspiring 00:06:30.589 --> 00:06:33.329 name. So we have a call here in acknowledging 00:06:33.329 --> 00:06:35.649 the power and the greatness of God that we are 00:06:35.649 --> 00:06:39.290 to praise him. And then it says at the end of 00:06:39.290 --> 00:06:42.930 this first section here, he is holy. That is, 00:06:42.970 --> 00:06:45.050 he's set apart, he's different. He's different 00:06:45.050 --> 00:06:47.670 than any other being, than any other thing that 00:06:47.670 --> 00:06:52.350 exists. God is unique and that he is eternal. 00:06:52.769 --> 00:06:55.850 He has always been all powerful. He has always 00:06:55.850 --> 00:06:59.970 been in control. He has created all things. And 00:06:59.970 --> 00:07:02.350 so he is holy, he is different, he is unique, 00:07:02.610 --> 00:07:05.170 he is set apart. And the Bible calls us to be 00:07:05.170 --> 00:07:08.670 holy through Jesus Christ, to seek to be more 00:07:08.670 --> 00:07:11.050 like God, to see those qualities of God, the 00:07:11.050 --> 00:07:13.629 commands of God, the instructions of God, that 00:07:13.629 --> 00:07:16.170 we would seek to be holy. Now, we'll never be 00:07:16.170 --> 00:07:19.509 fully holy as God is, but that's our goal, that's 00:07:19.509 --> 00:07:21.470 our example, that's our motivation, that's our 00:07:21.470 --> 00:07:25.170 desire, is that we would be holy as God is holy. 00:07:25.269 --> 00:07:29.060 That's what the Scripture calls us to. Verse 00:07:29.060 --> 00:07:34.220 4, the mighty king loves justice. You have established 00:07:34.220 --> 00:07:38.060 fairness. You have administered justice and righteousness 00:07:38.060 --> 00:07:43.100 in Jacob. Now, we see lots of qualities of God 00:07:43.100 --> 00:07:45.980 exhibited through Scripture, and here we see 00:07:45.980 --> 00:07:48.620 a couple of these mentioned, that one, he's a 00:07:48.620 --> 00:07:51.959 mighty king, he's powerful, and two, that he 00:07:51.959 --> 00:07:55.779 loves justice. Justice. Now, justice means that 00:07:55.779 --> 00:07:59.439 every evil has to be dealt with. That God, he 00:07:59.439 --> 00:08:03.259 is a gracious God and he is a merciful God, but 00:08:03.259 --> 00:08:06.379 he is a just God. And all of these things are 00:08:06.379 --> 00:08:09.920 true about God. One doesn't outweigh the other. 00:08:10.019 --> 00:08:15.480 God is just. And being just, God must punish 00:08:15.480 --> 00:08:19.060 evil. Evil must be dealt with. Sin must be dealt 00:08:19.060 --> 00:08:22.149 with. And that's the sign of a good king. It's 00:08:22.149 --> 00:08:24.790 to deal with those who are doing evil. Now, praise 00:08:24.790 --> 00:08:27.870 the Lord, sometimes God is merciful. There are 00:08:27.870 --> 00:08:30.230 certainly things in the Old Testament that God 00:08:30.230 --> 00:08:33.470 said, here's the punishment for this. Death is 00:08:33.470 --> 00:08:36.370 the punishment for whatever sin it might be. 00:08:36.690 --> 00:08:39.450 But we also see sometimes that people commit 00:08:39.450 --> 00:08:42.529 those sins that called for death in the Old Testament 00:08:42.529 --> 00:08:46.570 law. And yet God doesn't always kill them. God 00:08:46.570 --> 00:08:50.649 is sometimes merciful. When that's part of God 00:08:50.649 --> 00:08:53.629 too. God is a merciful God. He's a just God. 00:08:53.710 --> 00:08:56.350 He's a merciful God. He's a jealous God. He's 00:08:56.350 --> 00:08:58.990 a lot of different things. And they're all true 00:08:58.990 --> 00:09:01.769 about him. And sometimes people experience the 00:09:01.769 --> 00:09:04.509 wrath of God when God is bringing justice. But 00:09:04.509 --> 00:09:08.690 sometimes God is merciful. But even in God being 00:09:08.690 --> 00:09:12.610 merciful, justice still has to occur. And praise 00:09:12.610 --> 00:09:15.009 the Lord for us that that occurs through Jesus 00:09:15.009 --> 00:09:18.929 Christ. That justice is served. That there's 00:09:18.929 --> 00:09:21.529 a penalty that has to be served or has to be 00:09:21.529 --> 00:09:24.690 carried out. And that penalty is carried out 00:09:24.690 --> 00:09:27.750 by Jesus Christ on the cross. And so we receive 00:09:27.750 --> 00:09:30.629 mercy and grace through Jesus Christ. But that 00:09:30.629 --> 00:09:32.850 doesn't mean that God has forgotten about being 00:09:32.850 --> 00:09:36.090 just. It means that Jesus Christ has taken that 00:09:36.090 --> 00:09:38.889 punishment that we deserve so that we can receive 00:09:38.889 --> 00:09:42.190 the mercy. So that we can receive the graciousness 00:09:42.190 --> 00:09:46.350 of God. And so God is a just God. He has established 00:09:46.350 --> 00:09:51.389 fairness. He is a fair God. We can't accuse God 00:09:51.389 --> 00:09:54.909 of being unfair. Everything he does, he is right 00:09:54.909 --> 00:09:57.490 to do it. And he is fair in what he does. We 00:09:57.490 --> 00:10:01.009 may not always understand it. We may not always 00:10:01.009 --> 00:10:06.529 like it. But God is fair. Now, when we talk about 00:10:06.529 --> 00:10:08.470 fairness in our world today, you may hear the 00:10:08.470 --> 00:10:11.009 word equality a lot. And a lot of times when 00:10:11.009 --> 00:10:13.330 you talk about fairness and equality, when you 00:10:13.330 --> 00:10:15.850 hear it, it means that everybody's supposed to 00:10:15.850 --> 00:10:17.809 have the same of everything all the time. But 00:10:17.809 --> 00:10:20.049 that's not necessarily what it means. You can 00:10:20.049 --> 00:10:23.389 be fair to somebody and things not necessarily 00:10:23.389 --> 00:10:25.929 be equal. There's a difference between being 00:10:25.929 --> 00:10:30.860 unfair and unequal. Everybody is not treated 00:10:30.860 --> 00:10:33.720 equally. We're not all exactly the same, but 00:10:33.720 --> 00:10:38.139 God is not unfair to any one person. God is a 00:10:38.139 --> 00:10:42.419 fair king. He's a just and a fair king. It says 00:10:42.419 --> 00:10:45.240 you have administered justice and righteousness 00:10:45.240 --> 00:10:51.600 in Jacob. Verse 5. Exalt the Lord our God. Bow 00:10:51.600 --> 00:10:56.419 in worship at his footstool. He is holy. So again, 00:10:56.559 --> 00:10:58.600 we see in the first section there this call to 00:10:58.600 --> 00:11:01.659 praise. Here we see again this call to exalt 00:11:01.659 --> 00:11:05.320 the Lord and for what reason? He is holy. And 00:11:05.320 --> 00:11:07.960 then in this third section here we see verse 00:11:07.960 --> 00:11:12.399 6. Moses and Aaron were among his priests. Samuel 00:11:12.399 --> 00:11:16.500 also was among those calling on his name. They 00:11:16.500 --> 00:11:19.779 called to Yahweh and he answered them. He spoke 00:11:19.779 --> 00:11:23.059 to them in a pillar of cloud. They kept his decrees 00:11:23.059 --> 00:11:26.190 and the statutes he gave them. Lord our God, 00:11:26.429 --> 00:11:29.639 you answered them. You are a forgiving God to 00:11:29.639 --> 00:11:33.120 them and avenger of their sinful actions. Now, 00:11:33.139 --> 00:11:35.879 here we are reminded about some Old Testament 00:11:35.879 --> 00:11:40.320 figures, Moses and Aaron and Samuel. And it says 00:11:40.320 --> 00:11:43.360 here that they were forgiven. Well, praise the 00:11:43.360 --> 00:11:45.240 Lord. This is another good thing that we see 00:11:45.240 --> 00:11:48.139 about God, that he is a forgiving God. Now, some 00:11:48.139 --> 00:11:50.179 of your translations may read a little different 00:11:50.179 --> 00:11:53.179 there. It may read that Israel is forgiven. And 00:11:53.179 --> 00:11:55.940 so there's some discussion to be had of whether 00:11:55.940 --> 00:11:58.860 it's talking about individual occurrences that 00:11:58.860 --> 00:12:01.720 these men were sinful in some way and God was 00:12:01.720 --> 00:12:04.100 gracious to them, or whether it's referencing 00:12:04.100 --> 00:12:07.220 occasions where these people interceded. And 00:12:07.220 --> 00:12:09.720 we do see that in Scripture sometimes with Moses 00:12:09.720 --> 00:12:13.220 or with Samuel, that they intercede for the people 00:12:13.220 --> 00:12:15.360 because the people are doing something evil or 00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:18.419 calling for something evil. And so that seems 00:12:18.419 --> 00:12:21.200 to be maybe more likely. But it could be speaking 00:12:21.200 --> 00:12:23.759 just of these three guys and something they did. 00:12:24.120 --> 00:12:26.320 Regardless of which interpretation is correct, 00:12:26.519 --> 00:12:30.039 both things are true. God is gracious to us. 00:12:30.379 --> 00:12:32.639 When we sin against him, if we would repent, 00:12:32.860 --> 00:12:35.980 God will forgive us. Sometimes there are occasions 00:12:35.980 --> 00:12:38.659 that we may intercede for other people or we 00:12:38.659 --> 00:12:41.659 may pray for them and lift them up. But the key 00:12:41.659 --> 00:12:45.059 that we see here is that God is a forgiving God. 00:12:45.200 --> 00:12:48.039 Yes, he's a just God. He's a God of wrath. And 00:12:48.039 --> 00:12:50.480 that's a scary thing. But it's a beautiful thing 00:12:50.480 --> 00:12:53.840 that God is also a forgiving God. So we don't 00:12:53.840 --> 00:12:55.779 have to experience the wrath of God. We don't 00:12:55.779 --> 00:12:58.340 have to experience punishment from a just God. 00:12:58.460 --> 00:13:01.720 Instead, we can receive salvation through Jesus 00:13:01.720 --> 00:13:04.679 Christ. And we can be made righteous through 00:13:04.679 --> 00:13:08.379 Jesus Christ. We can be forgiven. And so we praise 00:13:08.379 --> 00:13:12.389 the Lord for that. And so we serve a God who 00:13:12.389 --> 00:13:15.429 is worthy of our praise, who is to be praised 00:13:15.429 --> 00:13:19.070 and to be exalted, for he is holy. And that's 00:13:19.070 --> 00:13:21.169 what we see here at the conclusion of this psalm. 00:13:21.389 --> 00:13:24.470 Exalt the Lord our God, bow in worship at his 00:13:24.470 --> 00:13:28.610 holy mountain, for the Lord your God is holy. 00:13:30.159 --> 00:13:32.620 Basically, what we see in this psalm is that 00:13:32.620 --> 00:13:35.539 this is a psalm of praise, reminding us of the 00:13:35.539 --> 00:13:38.679 power of God, that God is a just God, but that 00:13:38.679 --> 00:13:41.700 God is a loving God and God is full of forgiveness 00:13:41.700 --> 00:13:44.940 and there is no other like him. God is set apart, 00:13:45.159 --> 00:13:48.000 he is unique, he is different, and he reigns 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:51.620 over all things. So let us praise God tonight. 00:13:51.820 --> 00:13:53.919 Let's pray. We thank you for your word, dear 00:13:53.919 --> 00:13:55.700 Lord, and I pray that you would help us to live 00:13:55.700 --> 00:13:58.519 by this word. And whatever we may be going through 00:13:58.519 --> 00:14:01.000 in life that is too much for us, that's too heavy 00:14:01.000 --> 00:14:03.940 right now, I pray, God, that we would just seek 00:14:03.940 --> 00:14:06.539 you and remember that you reign, that you are 00:14:06.539 --> 00:14:09.440 in control. Dear Lord, sometimes you do things 00:14:09.440 --> 00:14:11.740 that we don't understand, things that don't make 00:14:11.740 --> 00:14:14.450 sense, but dear Lord, You are fair and you are 00:14:14.450 --> 00:14:17.269 good and you are right in all you do. So help 00:14:17.269 --> 00:14:19.090 us, dear Lord, to trust you and not question 00:14:19.090 --> 00:14:22.330 you or doubt you or give up on you, but to continue 00:14:22.330 --> 00:14:24.629 to praise you on the good days and on the bad. 00:14:24.809 --> 00:14:27.509 And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.