The Holiness of God


Psalm 99
1The Lord reigns; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
2The Lord is great in Zion; he is exalted over all the peoples.
3Let them praise your great and awesome name! Holy is he!
4The King in his might loves justice. You have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.
5Exalt the Lord our God; worship at his footstool! Holy is he!
6Moses and Aaron were among his priests, Samuel also was among those who called upon his name. They called to the Lord, and he answered them.
7In the pillar of the cloud he spoke to them; they kept his testimonies and the statute that he gave them.
8O Lord our God, you answered them; you were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings.
9Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at his holy mountain; for the Lord our God is holy!

When I ponder that time when I meet the Lord face-to-face, there are two things that I am absolutely convinced will be confirmed. My sin is far greater than I care to admit and God’s holiness is exceedingly greater than I can even imagine. Psalm 99 points to the holiness of God and His loftiness cannot be denied.

This declaration of God’s greatness begins with the fact that we will tremble in His presence. The sheer magnitude of His holiness is fear inducing. And by fear, I mean that awe-filled reverence for His complete perfection in light of my total imperfection. The concept of fearing the Lord is a frequently repeated idea throughout the Old Testament. The Hebrew word is interesting in that it isn’t so much about being afraid of God as it is respecting His majesty and sovereignty.

In several Old Testament verses we find the mention of God’s footstool. The imagery here is of God seated on His throne, surrounded by His angels, with his feet rested upon the earth – His footstool.

Isaiah 66:1
Thus says the Lord: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest?

We inhabit that footstool and it is our joy and responsibility to spend time worshiping our Holy God right here, where we are located. Most of the time when I visual myself in His presence, all I can see are toes. I guess that idea comes from passages such as this one. I think it is time well spent to visualize ourselves present in His throne room, hearing the praises of the angels for the Most High God. For me, that time is spent listening and there is no need for me to fill up the air with words. It is enough to be in His presence, won for me by the blood of Jesus, and let my heart soar with His praise.

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