(upbeat music)
- Welcome to our look at Psalm 99 in Drive Time Devotions.
Psalm 99 is a holy, holy, holy Psalm.
Many times when we sing about God's holiness,
we recognize the Trinity
by saying these words, holy, holy, holy.
And in Psalm 99, you have this phrase, God is holy.
You are holy in verse two, verse five, and verse nine.
You are a holy God, set apart and set above.
And my prayer today is that in our hearts
we'll have this sense that I trust you today, Father,
in the perfection of who you are, in your holiness.
What does it mean to call God holy?
That's what this Psalm is about.
And it's important because the word holy
is a word that's under attack as all powerful words are.
Holy does not mean picky or judgmental.
It's not a negative word.
Don't be so holy.
The evil one tries to make the most positive words
sound negative.
And those negative of words sound enticing.
Holy is not negative.
Holy is all that is right with nothing that is wrong.
All that is beautiful with nothing that is ugly.
All that is good with nothing that is evil.
All that is powerful with nothing that is weak.
And to live in relationship with God
means that I live in appreciation of his holiness.
Not in fear of it, but in appreciation of it.
The Bible tells us that we're gonna be doing this
for all eternity.
The song that Revelation tells us we'll be singing
in heaven is, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty
who was and is and is to come.
But we don't have to wait.
We don't have to wait till we get to heaven.
Psalm 99 is a holy, holy, holy song.
And I invite you to sing the truth of this song
into your heart as we look at what it tells us
about three ways that you and I interact
with God's holiness.
God's name, God's throne, and God's mountain.
First, Psalm 99 tells us your throne is holy.
Verses one and then the verses four to five.
The Lord reigns.
Let the nations tremble.
He sits enthroned between the cherubim.
Let the earth shake.
And then verse four, the king is mighty.
He loves justice.
You have established equity.
In Jacob you have done what is just and right.
Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his footstool.
He is holy.
Now notice in verse one it says, our holy God reigns.
His throne, he sits between the cherubim.
What does that mean?
Well, to sit between the cherubim
refers to the mercy seat.
That place on the Ark of the Covenant
where the mercy seat, the place of forgiveness,
had these two cherubim that went over that seat.
So to sit on that throne of the mercy seat
was to sit in the place where the forgiveness
of the people was asked for,
where the forgiveness of the people received.
The throne, God's throne is equated
with the mercy seat of the temple.
You know what that means?
God's throne is a place of grace.
And when you truly see that in your spirit,
what God's throne is,
it makes all the difference in your heart.
This is a Psalm that tells us how God reigns.
Your throne is holy.
He is good.
He listens.
He forgives.
Now the throne is where God is.
The footstool, we worship at the footstool
for he is holy.
That's where we worship.
And there's a picture here.
The footstool is literally what it says.
The place where you would put your feet.
The throne was always glorious and majestic.
The footstool, often not so much
'cause it's just where you put your feet.
And you and I, when we worship at God's throne,
we're not proud to be there.
Wow, look at how great I am
that I get to stand beside God's throne.
We are humbled to be there.
I'm at the footstool of his feet
only because he's invited me here.
So the footstool is this place of humility before God.
So humble grace.
Grace that is mixed for the heart of humility.
Your throne is holy.
And then he tells us in this Psalm,
your name is holy.
To appreciate the holiness of God
is to appreciate the truth that God's name is holy.
Beginning in verse two, great is the Lord in Zion.
He is exalted over the nations.
Let them praise your great and awesome name.
He is holy.
Now God has hundreds of names in the Bible.
Jesus taught us to pray, hallowed be your name.
Hallowed just means to make holy,
to see something as holy.
And when you look at God's name throughout the scripture,
there's some things that you and I recognize
when we pray for God's name to be holy, to be honored.
Let me mention three of them here.
First, when I say God, your name is holy,
it means I'm recognizing that God
is able to meet my deepest needs.
To hallow God's name is to know
that his name means something for my life.
It means that God wants to reduce my stress.
Judges 6-24 says that God is the God of peace,
Jehovah Shalom.
He wants to reduce my stress.
God also wants to forgive my faults.
Jeremiah 23-6 says that God is my righteousness,
Jehovah-Sid-Kanu.
He is the one who forgives.
God wants to meet my deepest needs.
He also wants to heal my hurts.
Exodus 15-26 says that God is my healer,
Jehovah-Raphi.
He heals my deepest hurts.
To make God's name holy is to recognize that God,
and only God, is the one who can meet my deepest needs.
To make God's name holy is to recognize
that God is greater than my biggest problems.
God has a big name.
Honoring God's name means recognizing
that he is anything but ordinary.
Take the biggest problem you're facing right now.
God is greater, much greater.
By the way, he's also greater than my biggest success.
God has names like Almighty, All-Powerful, Lord.
When I recognize his greatness, the focus shifts,
and I realize I'm not at the center of the universe,
he is.
It's not up to me to hold everything together.
Sometimes we fool ourselves into thinking
we are holding the universe together.
Our plans, our strategies, even our worries.
Some of us think that if I stop worrying,
the universe as we know it would cease to exist.
No, he is holy.
God is greater than my biggest problem,
and we all need something greater than us
to give us the security that we need to make it
in this insecure world.
When I recognize the holiness of God's name,
there's a third thing I recognize.
I recognize that God calls me to be part of his family.
Here's the amazing thing.
This great and holy name that God has,
he invites us to share it.
He invites us to be part of his family.
God's name is God's reputation,
because character has to do with what we are,
and name has to do with character.
God puts his reputation in our hands,
because we're called by his name.
We're his family.
Romans 8 tells us we're adopted into his family.
He is our father.
God puts his own reputation on the line
by inviting you and I to be part of his family,
calling us his children.
He says that we bear his name.
He sends us out into the world saying his name.
He sends us out into the world saying,
don't do anything I wouldn't do,
and saying, do everything I've called you to do.
His name is holy.
And then in Psalm 99, we're also reminded
that God's mountain is holy.
Listen to verses six to nine.
Moses and Aaron were among his priests.
Samuel was among those who called on his name.
They called on the Lord, and he answered them.
He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud.
They kept his statutes and the decrees he gave them.
O Lord our God, you answered them.
You were to Israel a forgiving God,
though you punished their misdeeds.
Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy mountain,
for the Lord our God is holy.
Now God's holy mountain, especially in the book of Psalms,
is the mountain on which the temple stood.
It is the place of God's presence.
God's presence is holy.
It is unique.
It is more valuable than anything on earth.
It is more meaningful than any other relationship.
There is nothing greater.
There is nothing greater than being in God's presence.
But I have to admit, and maybe you feel the same way,
in my humanness, I sure don't always feel that as I should.
Less important things so often intrude
on the greatness of God's presence.
Verses like these, they remind me
of the eternal value of God's presence.
And then you and I need God's spirit
to speak into our hearts the truth
of what God's spirit has written.
Our God is holy.
We worship at his holy mountain.
So let's ask God's spirit to do that right now.
Holy Spirit, we do ask you to speak the truth
of these words into our heart.
You said you would guide us into all truth.
So guide us into the truth of what it means
for you to be holy.
That God, your throne is holy.
And we worship at that footstool.
We humble ourselves before your greatness right now.
And we come to the place of grace.
And that God, your name is holy.
You do meet our needs.
You do care for us in every circumstance.
You do show your power.
You do invite us into your family.
Your name is a holy name.
And your mountain is holy.
Your presence is a holy place.
Invite us right now into your presence
through your spirit once again.
And help us to take up that invitation
by listening to you.
God, we want to live daily in your presence.
Help us to learn more and more how to do that, we pray.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Well, join us tomorrow.
We're gonna be looking at Psalm 100,
another wonderful song of celebration.
(upbeat music)