99:1 The LORD is king; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the
cherubim; let the earth quake!
99:2 The LORD is great in Zion; he is exalted over all the peoples.
99:3 Let them praise your great and awesome name. Holy is he!
99:4 Mighty King, lover of justice, you have established equity; you have
executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.
99:5 Extol the LORD our God; worship at his footstool. Holy is he!
99:6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests, Samuel also was among those who
called on his name. They cried to the LORD, and he answered them.
99:7 He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud; they kept his decrees, and the
statutes that he gave them.
99:8 O LORD our God, you answered them; you were a forgiving God to them, but
an avenger of their wrongdoings.
99:9 Extol the LORD our God, and worship at his holy mountain; for the LORD our
God is holy.
This is a great text for dealing with the tension present in God's holiness: God's
covenant love and God's desire for justice. Moses, Aaron & Samuel are held up as
ideals, yet it's made quite plain that even they are flawed, and are punished for their
flawed (sinful) actions. So, how does God balance love & justice? Ken in WV
What a high and lofty view of God the psalmist depicts. Today's God is often times seen
as sitting in the heavens wringing his hands because people aren't doing his will.
According to this psalm "Yahweh reigns!" Not only over his people but over the
earth, "let the earth quake!" In light of September 11, 2002 this is a great
comfort for the people of God. But for those who provoke God by mocking him and
suppressing the truth of his word in unrighteousness and not "confessing his name to
be great and awesome," a terrible judgement of justice awaits them. They should
tremble in great fear because Yahweh reigns, and this should cause them to "bow down
to his footstool," and "bow down to his holy hill," and confess that he his
holy and beg for him to be a "forgiving God to them."
I am struggling this week. The passages seem straight forward and I was set to deal with them in a "nice" way. However, now I am trying to put them in the context of the terrorism that has visited the gentle people of Bali; the context of Washington D.C. and surrounding communities confronted by the terrorism of a sniper. All this with the ongoing death and destruction that afflicts the Middle East. Are we all "crying to the Lord"? Are we looking for God to answer, "to execute justice and righteousness" in our day, in our world, or are we simply looking for the answers we want to uphold our own power, our own way of life? Rev. Tim, Ontario, Canada
What shines through in this psalm is God's righteousness as demonstrated to the people of Israel. Recounting the story of Moses and his brother Aaron, the psalm declares that God brings a loving justice, establishes equity, and avenges wrongdoing.
I'd submit, also, to the last unsigned offering, that God...answers (V. 6, 7) ...forgives, while still being the avenger of wrongdoing (v.80.) In the face of One so just, the response is worshipful awe, keeping His Word, leaning on Him (perfect to follow last week's lessons, the call to trust only in Him.) lkinhc
