Holy Is The Lord
Psalms 99
February 28, 2021
Last Sunday night we rejoiced in our study of Psalms 98.
We called it “What A Day That Will Be!”
• We saw the Psalmist rejoicing because the Lord had come.
• We saw the Psalmist rejoicing because the Lord is here.
• We saw the Psalmist rejoicing because the Lord will judge.
We said that it was the song to be sung at His inauguration or coronation.
As He has come and destroyed His enemies,
And is now taking His seated upon the throne,
The people rejoice in His victory
And look with eager anticipation towards His reign.
IT WILL BE EXCITING!
Psalms 99 continues in that theme as you see in the opening statement.
“The LORD reigns”
The purpose of Psalms 99
Is to help you understand the coming reign of the LORD.
One might ask, “What will His reign be like?”
Psalms 99 answers the question.
Now, in one sense, we already took a brief look at this reign last week.
Isaiah 11:3-5 “And He will delight in the fear of the LORD, And He will not judge by what His eyes see, Nor make a decision by what His ears hear; But with righteousness He will judge the poor, And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, And faithfulness the belt about His waist.”
We saw that He will be a righteous King.
• He will not be swayed by public opinion.
• No lobbyist will be able to bribe Him.
• No wicked man will be able to intimidate Him.
• “righteousness will be the belt about His loins”
And that passage prepares us for the passage we read tonight
Which further explains to us the reign of the LORD.
And simply by reading Psalms 99 to begin this evening I should think
The CHIEF CHARACTERISTIC of His reign should now be OBVIOUS.
(3) “Let them praise Your great and awesome name; Holy is He.”
(5) “Exalt the LORD our God And worship at His footstool; Holy is He.”
(9) “Exalt the LORD our God And worship at His holy hill, For holy is the LORD our God.”
“Holy…Holy…Holy”
One of the most famous and repeated sermons RC Sproul preaches is a sermon on the Holiness of God from the text of Isaiah 6.
If you’ve not ever listened to him preach that text then go search it out on the internet and listen to it. https://www.ligonier.org/learn/series/essential_truths_of_the_christian_faith/holiness-of-god/
But Sproul talks about the reality of how Jewish literature
Had various ways of emphasizing their text;
And their CHIEF WAY WAS THROUGH REPETITION.
If you really want someone to notice what you said, you repeat it.
• And this was certainly the method of the angels of heaven who cried out to the
Lord, “Holy, Holy, Holy”
Sproul would also point out to you that
This is the only attribute of God that receives this type of emphasis.
God is NEVER referred to as “Love, Love, Love” or “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy”
Or “Judgment, Judgment, Judgment”
He is only referred to as Holy in the triplicate.
And that is precisely the way the Psalmist
Answers the curiosity of the congregation.
• How might we describe the LORD who has come to reign? HOLY
• How might we describe the way in which He reigns? HOLY
• What might we expect in all His judgments? HOLY
• What sort of things might the LORD want from us? HOLY
And tonight we take a brief look at this HOLY LORD.
AND I MIGHT ADD
That this is so needed in our culture, perhaps even in our churches.
The word “holy” is a very important word.
It is QADOWSH (ka-doshe) in the Hebrews.
It is often defined as “sacred, or holy, or set apart”
What it reveals really more than any other thing
Is the GREAT DISTANCE between God and man.
God is NOT like us.
And we are NOT like God.
• Made in His image? Yes
• Called to imitate Him? Yes
• Adopted into a relationship with Him? Yes
But we are not like Him, and He is not like us.
Psalms 50:17-21 “For you hate discipline, And you cast My words behind you. “When you see a thief, you are pleased with him, And you associate with adulterers. “You let your mouth loose in evil And your tongue frames deceit. “You sit and speak against your brother; You slander your own mother’s son. “These things you have done and I kept silence; You thought that I was just like you; I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes.”
Isaiah said:
Isaiah 55:8-9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”
When Paul outlines THE SINFULNESS OF HUMANITY,
He does so by explaining how man sought to liken God to themselves.
Romans 1:22-23 “Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.”
And this has been the chief sin of our culture.
There has grown over the centuries
What I consider to be a sinful familiarity with God.
By that I mean that man, even in the church,
Has often times committed the sin of
Seeking to make God too relatable and too explainable to the world.
I spoke to my mom this past week
• She was talking about a woman who comes to her store that she has been witnessing to.
• Mom was a little grieved because this woman has gotten washed up in some heretical charismatic doctrine.
• It started with the realization of God as “Father”, which is certainly not wrong, but in seeking to understand what it means that God is our Father the woman made a terrible mistake.
• She began to compare God to herself and sought to understand Him according to her own ideals and principles.
For example, she recently told my mom that she doesn’t believe God will send anyone to hell. Why? Because He is a Father. She reckons that as a mother she would never send any of her children to hell, so there’s no way that God would ever send any of His there.
You understand the blasphemy.
It is to dumb God down and to seek to recreate Him in our own image.
This is the chief of sins.
It is to blaspheme the very name of God.
(His name is the summation of who He is)
To relate God down to our level is commit the most heinous of sins.
Think about the 10 commandments for a moment.
• They actually begin with three commands that protect the name of God.
Exodus 20:1-7 “Then God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before Me. “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.”
The first 3 commands were all about protecting the name of God.
• No one is equal to Him and no one should be treated as such.
• Do not seek to explain Him by dumbing Him down in idolatry.
• Do not blaspheme His name.
Consider what is commonly called “The Lord’s Prayer”.
When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, the first command was:
Matthew 6:9 “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.”
Jesus said that the first prayer request of any believer
Is that God’s name be hallowed.
That is the prayer request of the church.
That God’s name be exalted.
When we bring God down to our level, we miss the entire point.
Isaiah 40:18-25 “To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him? As for the idol, a craftsman casts it, A goldsmith plates it with gold, And a silversmith fashions chains of silver. He who is too impoverished for such an offering Selects a tree that does not rot; He seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman To prepare an idol that will not totter. Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. Scarcely have they been planted, Scarcely have they been sown, Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, But He merely blows on them, and they wither, And the storm carries them away like stubble. “To whom then will you liken Me That I would be his equal?” says the Holy One.”
Isaiah 46:5-9 “To whom would you liken Me And make Me equal and compare Me, That we would be alike? “Those who lavish gold from the purse And weigh silver on the scale Hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god; They bow down, indeed they worship it. “They lift it upon the shoulder and carry it; They set it in its place and it stands there. It does not move from its place. Though one may cry to it, it cannot answer; It cannot deliver him from his distress. “Remember this, and be assured; Recall it to mind, you transgressors. “Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me,”
What we are talking about then is a failure to know who God is.
It was another great statement by R.C. Sproul.
“Our world knows that God is…”
(creation and conscience teach us that in Romans 1)
“Our world knows THAT God is,
But our world does not know WHO God is.”
And the despicable attempts of men
To explain God by dumbing Him down
And likening Him to sinful humanity
May in fact be the greatest sin of the ages.
It is to blaspheme the name of God.
God is not like us – GOD IS HOLY, HOLY, HOLY
And this is the cry of the Psalmist in Psalms 99.
Do you want to know what the reign of the LORD will be like?
• Well it won’t be like any other human ruler you have ever known.
His reign will not be like a human king.
“Holy is He”
• He is set apart
• There is a great distance between Him and us
• He is transcendent
• He is perfect
• He is eternal
What we are looking forward to is the coming reign of a Holy King.
And that is the subject of Psalms 99.
I want to break it down into 2 main points tonight.
#1 GOD’S REIGN ANNOUNCED
Psalms 99:1-5
Again, you see clearly the announcement that “The LORD reigns”
You also see other announcements:
• “He is enthroned”
• “The LORD is great”
• “He is exalted”
We are talking about His great reign.
Now you also notice that there seems to be TWO DISTINCT THOUGHTS
In these first 5 verses, each one ending with the statement “Holy is He”
There are two distinct thoughts here regarding His holiness.
The first has to do with HIS PREEMINENT POSITION (1-3)
• We see in verse 1 that “He is enthroned above the cherubim”
• We see in verse 2 that “He is exalted above all the peoples”
It speaks of superiority
It speaks of transcendence
It speaks of preeminence
He is better than us
He is higher than us
We are not equals
HE IS ABOVE US
He is even above the angels.
But the miracle of these first 3 verses is that
This transcendent King has come to reign among us.
(2) “The LORD is great in Zion,”
This is the King of whom Solomon said:
2 Chronicles 2:6 “But who is able to build a house for Him, for the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain Him? So who am I, that I should build a house for Him, except to burn incense before Him?”
And the miracles is that the God of the highest heavens
Would be willing now to come and dwell among His creation.
Moses marveled at this:
Deuteronomy 10:14-15 “Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it. “Yet on your fathers did the LORD set His affection to love them, and He chose their descendants after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day.”
It’s really unfathomable.
This transcendent God.
This God who is higher than the angels.
This God who is greater than all peoples.
Has now come to reign in Zion.
That explains the various responses called for by the Psalmist.
• “let the peoples tremble;”
• “let the earth shake!”
• “Let them praise Your great and awesome name;”
Remember Isaiah 6 when Isaiah saw the LORD?
Isaiah 6:1-5 “In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”
Remember when the apostle John saw this same king?
Revelation 1:17a “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man…”
Isaiah saw one who was not like him.
John saw one who was not like him.
They saw one infinitely greater, infinitely higher, infinitely better.
And the only fitting way to describe Him is “Holy is He.”
There is a great distance.
He is absolutely incomparable.
He is no ordinary king.
This was the reality that Job ran square into regarding his understanding of God.
Job began to question the holiness of God.
Not just the justice of God, but Job began to speak to God as an equal.
And do you remember how God answered Job?
TURN TO: JOB 38 – 40:5
That passage is all about the holiness of God.
It is all about God’s Preeminent Position
• Job was reminded that day of the great distance between him and God.
• God is holy, Job is not.
• God is great and awesome and beyond Job in every way.
Who in their right man would belittle God so as to make Him like us?
Romans 9:20 “On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it?”
That is one way in which His holiness is explained, but it’s not the only way.
We also see HIS PREEMINENT NATURE (4-5)
It’s not just the intrinsic greatness that sets this King apart,
BUT ALSO HIS MORAL CHARACTER.
“The strength of the King loves justice; You have established equity; You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.”
This King is also morally superior in every possible way.
• None of us measures up to His righteous standard.
• He is the very epitome of perfection and justice.
He is not only greater than us, but He is better than us.
• We do not compare.
• We do not measure up.
It is such a blasphemy to assume the behavior of God
Would in any way be like the behavior of man.
To say “I wouldn’t do this, so God wouldn’t do this”
IS THE PINNACLE OF STUPIDITY.
God is not like you.
And while you are called to imitate God, you are not like Him.
• We are evil, He is righteous
• We are fickle, He is faithful
• We are rebellious, He is loyal
• We are corrupt, He is just
There is no comparison.
And so THE REQUIREMENT and THE COMMAND is obvious.
(5) “Exalt the LORD our God and worship at His footstool;”
There is no need to approach Him to give Him advice.
• He doesn’t need your counsel.
• When you draw near it will not be to render advice.
Romans 11:33-36 “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR? Or WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.”
God doesn’t need your instruction.
When you show up, it will be FOR WORSHIP.
God will be exalted by you for “Holy is He”
Not only intrinsically better, but morally better in every way.
Deuteronomy 32:4 “The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.”
Job ran into this too:
Job 40:6-14 “Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm and said, “Now gird up your loins like a man; I will ask you, and you instruct Me. “Will you really annul My judgment? Will you condemn Me that you may be justified? “Or do you have an arm like God, And can you thunder with a voice like His? “Adorn yourself with eminence and dignity, And clothe yourself with honor and majesty. “Pour out the overflowings of your anger, And look on everyone who is proud, and make him low. “Look on everyone who is proud, and humble him, And tread down the wicked where they stand. “Hide them in the dust together; Bind them in the hidden place. “Then I will also confess to you, That your own right hand can save you.”
And of course Job learned his lesson again:
Job 42:1-6 “Then Job answered the LORD and said, “I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ “Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.” ‘Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You instruct me.’ “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You; Therefore I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes.”
Job learned of the holiness of God.
Quit comparing God to yourself!
He is not like you and you are not like Him!
He is preeminent in position and He is preeminent in His very nature.
“Holy is He”
And so when you want to know
What sort of King is about to reign upon the earth?
We can confidently say: A HOLY KING
That is God’s Reign Announced
#2 GOD’S REIGN EXPLAINED
Psalms 99:6-9
For those who still need some explanation regarding this great King
The Psalmist takes you on a history lesson
Where he seeks to help you understand this God.
• He carries us back into the days of Moses and the days of Samuel
• He uses them as an example of what it will be like when this great King reigns on the earth.
And in looking at these men
There are some themes or similarities that emerge.
1) These were men who prayed to God and men whom God answered.
(6) “Moses and Aaron were among His priests, And Samuel was among those who called on His name; they called upon the LORD and he answered them.”
Now the reason Moses and Aaron and Samuel are mentioned
IS NOT just because these were men of prayer;
Indeed many Old Testament saints might fall into this category.
These men are chosen because
They emerge as great intercessors in Scripture.
In fact, you might remember when Jeremiah was pronouncing certain judgment on Jerusalem he actually said:
Jeremiah 15:1 “Then the LORD said to me, “Even though Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, My heart would not be with this people; send them away from My presence and let them go!”
Moses and Samuel were regarded as the GREAT INTERCESSORS of old.
So what we’re talking about here is that
This holy King will certainly be a merciful king.
We know that because that’s who He has always been.
(Moses and Samuel proved that over and over)
And we can’t look at them all, but consider the great intercessions of these men.
• We know of Moses on Sinai in Exodus 32 when God said He was going to
wipe out Israel, Moses interceded and God’s anger relented.
• We remember Numbers 12 when Miriam grumbled against Moses and was
turned into a leper, but Moses interceded and she was forgiven.
• We remember Numbers 14 when the children of Israel failed to enter the
Promised Land and God threatened again to wipe them out but Moses
interceded.
• Regarding Samuel we remember how the children of Israel had offended
God by asking for a King and how God was ready to destroy them but Samuel interceded on their behalf and God turned away from His fierce anger.
What we learned about God through these men is that
When people mess up, if they repent, that God is merciful.
When Moses prayed for forgiveness God answered.
When Samuel prayed for forgiveness God answered.
And you can certainly expect this type of reign from your king.
He is Holy, but He will also be merciful.
So that’s one thing we learn about God through these men.
2) These were men who heard from God and who understood the importance of obedience.
(7) “He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud; They kept His testimonies And the statute that He gave them.”
Something else you learned about God through these men
Is that OBEDIENCE TO GOD IS VERY IMPORTANT.
• Moses after all gave us the very Law of God.
• Moses outlined for us all that God said to do and not to do.
• It was Moses who laid out the penalties for violating God’s Law.
Samuel as well.
• We remember when Saul made the sacrifice how Samuel rebuked him saying:
1 Samuel 15:22 “Samuel said, “Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.”
SO THEY WERE ALSO MEN
Who desperately understood the importance of obedience.
They were men then who taught us that God is to be obeyed,
And also that God is merciful.
These are the types of things we can expect from this king.
And so you get sort of the culmination or explanation about God’s reign.
(8) “O LORD our God, You answered them; You were a forgiving God to them, And yet an avenger of their evil deeds.”
There was a balance.
This King is very merciful, but do not assume that He is a pushover.
Spurgeon wrote:
“Many profess to admire the milder beams of the sun of righteousness, but burn with rebellion against its more flaming radiance; so it ought not to be; we are bound to praise a terrible God and worship him who casts the wicked down to hell. Did not Israel praise him “who overthrew Pharaoh and his hosts in the Red Sea, for his mercy endureth forevever.” The terrible Avenger is to be praised, as well as the loving Redeemer. Against this the sympathy of man’s evil heart with rebels; it cries out for an effeminate God in whom pity has strangled justice. The well-instructed servants of Jehovah praise him in all the aspects of his character, whether terrible or tender.”
(Spurgeon, C.H. [The Treasury of David; Vol 2; Psalms 58-110; Hendrickson Publishers; Peabody, MA] Pg. 223)
He’s correct.
• There are so many today who wish to swing their pendulum too far.
• They recognize the God of mercy and grace, but forget that He is a Holy God.
Through Moses and Samuel we learned repeatedly that He is both.
Remember when Miriam offended God and Moses prayed?
Numbers 12:11-15 “Then Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, I beg you, do not account this sin to us, in which we have acted foolishly and in which we have sinned. “Oh, do not let her be like one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes from his mother’s womb!” Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, “O God, heal her, I pray!” But the LORD said to Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not bear her shame for seven days? Let her be shut up for seven days outside the camp, and afterward she may be received again.” So Miriam was shut up outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until Miriam was received again.”
Mercy, but still discipline.
Remember when the children of Israel wouldn’t enter the Promised Land?
Numbers 14:17-23 “But now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great, just as You have declared, ‘The LORD is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generations.’ “Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness, just as You also have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.” So the LORD said, “I have pardoned them according to your word; but indeed, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the LORD. “Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice, shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see it.”
Mercy, but still discipline.
Remember when the Israelites wanted an earthly king?
TURN TO: 1 Samuel 12:12-25
What do we learn?
That this King is merciful, but He is also lawful.
Remember how God defined Himself?
Exodus 34:5-7 “The LORD descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the LORD. Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”
Do you want to know what His reign will be like?
HOLY-HOLY-HOLY
He is certainly merciful to who seek mercy when they fail,
But do not assume that He has no righteous standard.
His kingdom will be a righteous kingdom.
His reign will be a just reign.
And so the Psalmist again bids us:
(9) “Exalt the LORD our God And worship at His holy hill, For holy is the LORD our God.”
This is the reality about His reign.
And I would remind His church that
Though He does not yet reign on the earth, He still reigns in our hearts.
He is still our King; He is still our Lord.
And that means the truths we learn here
Are exactly how we are called to live even today.
• He is a merciful King
• He does forgive our sins.
• But are we to assume that our Lord does not care about our holy and righteous living?
Of course not!
• He disciplines us still so that we may share in His holiness.
• He sanctifies us still.
• This remains our calling.
This Psalm reminds us of who our God is.
He is a merciful God and yet also an Avenger of our evil deeds.
It’s not enough that you know THAT God is,
You should also know WHO God is.
Psalms 99 reminds us: HOLY IS HE.
