Selected Psalms

Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord, our God!

“The Call to Tremble and Bow in Holy Intimacy with the Holy God....” - Psalm 99

Introductory Thoughts:

• I want to invite you to open your Bibles to Psalm 99...

• We have mentioned a few times from this pulpit that one of the biggest issues of many so-called churches today is that they have a low view of God and a high view of man.

• The tendency of our sinful hearts is to think more highly of ourselves than we should and to try and make God smaller than He really is.

• This has the result that we lose our awe and fear of God and that our worship of Him become very shallow and more-and-more man centred...!

• This in return leads to less intimacy with God for we are then not worshipping Him in spirit and in truth, but rather for who we want or imagine Him to be which is ultimately worshipping ourselves for we then try and “make God” in our image...!

• That is why Psalm 99 is so important for Psalm 99 calls us to reverently worship God because He is holy...!

• In this Psalm we will find a threefold repitition of God’s holiness – Holy is He! (v3) Holy is He! (v5) And, for the Lord our God is holy! (v9)

• This makes us think of Isa 6 where Isaiah saw the Lord and where he heard the angles saying in Isa 6:3: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!”

• This caused the foundations of the threshold to shake and for Isaiah to bow down before the Holy God.

• But then we see how this Holy God forgives Isaiah and calls Him to greater intimacy with Him...!

• Here is a statement that we will find to be true as we study Psalm 99:

The higher your view of God, the more intense and reverent will be your worship of Him and your submission to Him, and the greater will be your intimacy with Him...!

• The mood of Psalm 99 is one of reverence and fear and yet intimacy...!

• And so, our theme for this Psalm will be:

Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord, our God!

• And in this Psalm we will find “The Call to Tremble and Bow in Holy Intimacy with the Holy God....”

• With that being said, lets then read Psalm 99...

Teaching Points:

• I want to focus our attention on two realities concerning the holy God:

1. The reality that the Holy God is awesome and perfect and that we should tremble and bow before Him...! (v1-5)

• In these first five verses, the Psalmist is intent on helping us see these two aspects of the holiness of God namely that He is awesome in His being and far above us and that He is perfect in His being and absolutely without any fault.

• Holiness, at its root, has the idea of apartness. It describes someone, or something, which is set apart from other people or things.

• Holy, when used to describe God, is a word to emphasize the distance between God and man: not only morally, as between the pure and the polluted, but in the realm of being, between the Eternal Creator and the temporal creature.

1.1 The awesomeness of God – He is exalted and enthroned...! (v1-3)

• The Psalmist wants us to be overwhelmed with how great and awesome God is and the fact and reality that there is no one like Him...!

• God is in His own category – Creator and God...!

• God Himself is set apart in many senses. He is set apart from creation, in that the Lord God is not a creature, and He exists outside of all creation. If all creation were to dissolve, the Lord God would remain. He is set apart from humanity, in that His nature or essence is divine, not human. God is not a super-man or the ultimate man. God is not merely smarter than any man, stronger than any man, older than any man, or better than any man. You can’t measure God on man’s chart at all. He is divine, and we are human...!

• The Psalmist impresses it on our minds that God is higher and other than us... He is not like us but He is the One who reigns, who is enthroned, who is great and who is exalted...!

• He forces us to look up and look away from ourselves and to behold God...!

• What do we see when we look up, when we behold God...?

• God reigns – He is the only King and there is no rival who can match Him or go against Him, for He is the One who is enthroned and to whom belong all the power and authority...!

• All the mighty angels are underneath Him and are but simply His servants.

• The God of Israel, the God of Zion, is the great God who is exalted over all peoples – the Jews and the Gentiles alike.

• He is not just the holy God of Israel or even the church... He is the holy God over all...!

• What is to be the response of the people and the earth to this reality...?

• Tremble and quake and praise...!

• Fear and awe is what will be the natural response if we would see God for who He truly is...! And that is what He deserves...!

• Are you still mindful of who God really is...? Do you have a healthy fear of the holy God who reigns...? Do you still tremble when you think of standing before this Holy God...?

• Where there is no fear of God, there will be no awe and praise of God, but sin would rather abound...! (cf. Rom 3:18)

1.2 The perfectness of God – He is pure and complete...! (v4-5)

• God is holy and is set apart from sin – 1 Joh 1:5

• That is why He loves justice – to render unto everyone what is right and is deserved...!

• There is no corruption in Him...! And because of His might that is what He will also bring about... justice!

• He then also establishes equity – complete fairness...

• And He executes justice – he brings about that justice is done... He doesn’t just threaten but acts against unrighteousness to bring about righteousness...!

• The reality that God deals with sin in justice and equity and righteousness reminds us of the reality that He is pure and the way in which He deals with it shows us that He is completely pure – He love, establishes and executes justice – He deals with sin in its entirety...

• God is holy and He cannot and will not have any part in sin...! (cf. Hab 1:13; Jam 1:13)

• What is to be our response to the perfectness of God...?

• He should be exalted, lifted up and we should bow facedown in reverential, humble worship before Him...!

• When we see God is His holiness, in His utterly perfectness and sinlessness, we see ourselves for who we truly are and we cannot but bow down in great humility and need of mercy and grace...!

• And so in these first five verses, the Psalmist focuses on God and His holiness – that He is awesome and perfect... that He is high above us and set apart from us and completely perfect and by implication without sin... He makes it clear that God is far above us so that we cannot reach Him... because of His being and because of His character...

• And then He shifts the focus... look at verse 6... he shifts the focus to mere men and the fact and reality that they called upon this holy God... how would this holy God respond to these mere men, these creatures who called upon Him...?

• And it is here where we find this mindblowing twist... He answered them...!

• Verse 6-8...

• And that leads to the second reality that I want to focus our attention on, namely...

2. The reality that we can have real and true intimacy with the Holy God that is marked by holiness...! (v6-9)

• This is an awesome thought and reality... that we, mere sinful creatures, can have intimacy with the holy God...!

• The fact and reality that the holy God of the universe would be mindful of us and be willing to be in relationship with us, should blow our minds...!

2.1 The nearness of God – He is the God who hears and speaks...! (v6-7)

• This is an amazing truth namely that the transcendent God who is above everyone and everything would be near and present with His creatures called man...!

• Isa 57:15

• This holy God is the God who answers those who calls upon Him... implied in this is that He hears those who calls on Him...! What a great joy and comfort to again be reminded that God, the God, the holy God hears us when we call upon Him...! (cf. Heb 4:16)

• He heard them and... He spoke to them...!

• On Mount Sinai, Moses and Aaron heard God speaking to them...

• Samuel heard it one night while he was sleeping...

• What a wonder that God would speak to us... His creatures... that He would communicate with us and make Himself known to us...!

• And for us – every time we open and read the Bible, the Word of God, we hear God Himself speak to us...!

• This all I believe to emphasize the reality that we can have intimacy with the holy God...!

• But please note that the Psalmist does give us a requirement for this intimacy, namely obedience... (cf. v7)

• It is as we live a life of obedience, flowing from faith in Christ, that we can experience this intimacy with God... (cf. 1 Joh 1:5-7; Joh 14:21, 23; Heb 12:14)

• But we also know that these men were not able to always obey God... we know that they sinned...

2.2 The fairness of God – He is the God who forgives and disciplines...! (v8-9)

• Aaron build a golden calf which he gave to Israel to worship while Moses was on the Mountain...

• Moses struck the rock instead of speaking to it...

• Samuel’s sons where not Godly men and yet He made them judges over Israel...

• And we find that God in His mercy and grace forgave them...!

• Praise God that He doesn’t deal with us according to what we deserve...! (cf. Ps 103:8-14)

• But also note that God’s forgiveness does not mean that He will not discipline us and make us bear the consequences of our sin in this life...!

• Aaron and Moses where not allowed to enter the promised land... Samuel was removed as judge...

• We also know that David experienced great consequences because of his sin with Bathsheba even though we know from Ps 32 & 51 that He repented and the God forgave Him...!

• And this discipline is not without purpose and it is not that God is taking revenge...

• Lingon Duncan shares a wonderful insight about this reality: “God’s punishing of the sins of believers is always an act of grace, because God is attempting to separate the believer from that which would destroy his or her soul. God’s punishment is never retributive; it’s never an act of vengeance against the believer. It’s always an act of grace. And what’s it designed to do? It’s designed to drive a wedge between the believer and the enemy of his or her soul, which is sin. Because sin will destroy you. And so when God manifests His punishment on those who are forgiven in Christ, it is always an act of Fatherly chastening to bring them back to Him and to drive a wedge between them and that which would destroy them.”

• God is holy and He wants and desires us to be holy too, and so He will deal with us in our intimacy with Him, with holy discipline... (cf. Heb 12:7-11)

• And again, we see the only worthy response to these great realities is that we are to exalt God and worship Him... but note the one addition in this last verse in contrast with verse 5... “for the Lord our God is holy...!”

• What a great joy to know, that for those of us who are in Jesus Christ, God is not just the holy God, but that He is our holy God – that we are His and He is ours...!

Closing Thoughts:

• I would like to close then with these four points of application:

1) Aim at getting a bigger view of God in His majesty and holiness.

As you read the Bible, like Moses (Exo 33:18), ask God to show you His glory. Moses had already seen God’s majesty and power at Mount Sinai. He had communed with God for forty days and nights on that mountain. He had repeatedly seen the Shekinah glory. Wasn’t that enough? No, Moses wanted to see more!

2) Aim at getting a more Biblically accurate view of yourself in God’s holy presence.

This will follow the first aim almost spontaneously, as it did with Isaiah. Seeing God in His majesty and holiness will cause you to see yourself as a needy recipient of His grace.

3) Aim at increasing personal holiness on the heart level.

• Judge and cut off every sinful thought the instant it pops into your mind.

• Don’t tolerate so-called little sins as if they don’t matter.

• Don’t justify yourself with the consolation that everyone does it.

• Don’t expose yourself to TV shows or movies that defile you. If you wouldn’t be comfortable watching it with the Lord, don’t watch it.

4) Aim at meeting alone with God every day to exalt Him and worship at His footstool.

The point of your quiet time is not just to read through the Bible in a year, although that’s a good thing to do. The point is to meet with God. See Him as revealed in His Word. Humble your heart before Him. Call upon Him in prayer. And remember, “Holy is the Lord our God.”