"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."

Psalm 99:8-9

The dominant theme of this little hymn is the holiness of God (vv. 3, 5, 9). Everything in it serves to illustrate and emphasize this characteristic of our God. The second stanza (vv. 4, 5) connects the core divine attribute of holiness with justice, equity, and what is right, pointing to the fact that God’s nature has practical and that to worship him in truth must result in a way of life which mirrors his character. Bereft of this, it degenerates into an empty and powerless ritual.

Human beings will inevitably be conscious of sin and failure; for this reason the psalmist rejoices that ‘you were to Israel a forgiving God, though you punished their misdeeds’ (v. . Weiser comments that awe and terror are combined in this hymn with joyful confidence, and he says that it is the combination of these two experiences which alone ‘produce the true note of biblical faith’ (Artur Weiser, The Psalms: A Commentary, Westminster Press, 1962) should ask ourselves how our public worship measures up against this standard.

CLOSING PRAYER

Thank you, Father, that you are the God of Scripture, of history, and of each of my days. You always have been, are now, and always will be, worthy of all praise!

(Edited from Encounter with God)