Holy Is He!

Psalm 99

Introduction

I suspect many of you watched the closing ceremonies of the Olympics last Sunday. It was interesting to see the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin participating in a world event. It was a happy occasion, and yet, I noticed that the man never smiles. With HDTV coverage we got a pretty accurate picture of his face? Was the lack of a smile an indication of a man who has no joy? Is that what he is really like?

What about God. Do we have an accurate image of God? Does God smile? Is God always serious? Does God listen? Does God show friendliness? People have many impressions of what God is like. Some people see him as a friendly father, some as a buddy, like Morgan Freeman in the movie “Bruce Almighty.” Many people see God as a tyrant making demands of perfection and condemning anyone who does not measure up. Are these accurate images of God? The Bible gives us many words to describe God, and of course it is these words we must listen to. This morning, we will look at Psalm 99 in which one phrase is repeated three times and forms the basis of one of the most important characteristics of God. Let’s read the text.

Did you catch the repeated phrase? The phrase “Holy is He” is found in verses 3, 5 & 9. The Psalm not only declares the holiness of God, but also helps us understand something of what that means. I hope that reflection on Psalm 99 will be helpful and encouraging for you. But there is more than encouragement here. If God is holy, then we also need to think about how we relate to a holy God? Over the next few weeks, I want to think about that with you, but we need to do so on the basis of the foundation we are building today of understanding God’s holiness.

I.                God is exalted as King 1-3

Holiness is the underlying truth about God in this Psalm because it is the theme that is repeated at the end of each section. Each section helps us understand a different aspect of what that holiness is all about.

A.               The King Enthroned Upon the Cherubim!

The first thing we learn in the first verse is that God is King. But besides being called king, the sovereignty of God is also illustrated with the phrase, “He sits enthroned upon the cherubim.” When we think of cherubs, the image that comes to mind is the child-like winged creatures that represent love and gentleness. The image of cherubim in the Bible give us a much different picture, however. The first time the cherubim are mentioned in the Bible is in the Garden of Eden, in Genesis 3:24 where we read, "He drove out the man; and at the east of the Garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life." Here the Cherubim are depicted as guards, demonstrating the power of God and the reality that you can’t pass by when God’s cherubim are on guard.

The mention of Cherubim are frequent in the Bible because the tent of meeting and later the temple that Solomon built included statues of two Cherubim. In Exodus 25:18 they were instructed, "You shall make two cherubim of gold; you shall make them of hammered work, at the two ends of the mercy seat." These images of cherubim are winged beings whose wings spread out widely and who are “at the two ends of the mercy seat.” They are in the place of the presence of God and it is likely this image that is behind the statement in Psalm 99:1.

Yet these Cherubim are representative of real creatures and we meet the real creatures again in Ezekiel where it talks about how the presence of God left the temple at the time of the exile. We read a description of them in Ezekiel 10:20-21, "These were the living creatures that I saw underneath the God of Israel by the river Chebar; and I knew that they were cherubim. Each had four faces, each four wings, and underneath their wings something like human hands."

So with these images of God enthroned upon the Cherubim we have an amazing picture of what the holiness of God is all about. It tells us of sovereignty. It speaks of glorious majesty. In fact, we read in Ezekiel 10:19, “…the glory of the God of Israel was above them.”

The closing ceremony of the Olympics was pretty impressive with light, sound and fantastic images, but there is something about the presence of God that we can hardly imagine that is communicated by the fact that God reigns over all. This image reminds us that His presence is amazing and glorious. As we consider His holiness, this image of God must be in our minds.

B.               Great in Zion…over all people!

This powerful majesty and sovereignty of God is declared in verse 2 to be “great in Zion.” Zion is the place where God lived at the time when this was written. Zion was the place where God was present with His people and where people acknowledged the reign of God. God is great and acknowledged as great among those who are His people and who accept His reign. As we have come together to worship Him today, we are among those who believe that he is Sovereign Lord. We accept that, acknowledge it and rejoice in it.

But the second verse presents us with a bit of a twist when it says that “He is exalted over all the peoples.” Not only is God great in Zion, among those who acknowledge Him. He is also great and sovereign over those who do not acknowledge Him. Whether people acknowledge Him or not, He is Lord and King over everything. He is Sovereign over all creation, over all the earth, over every living creature and over every human being. Those who refuse to acknowledge that God even exists are still under His sovereign power. Genesis 18:25 declares that He is “Judge of all the earth.” Hebrews 4:13, speaking of God says, "And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account."

The holiness of God includes the understanding of His sovereignty over everything. He is indeed “Lord…over all the peoples.”

C.               Tremble!

How do we respond to such majesty, such sovereignty? These verses declare, “Let the peoples tremble…let the earth quake.” The holiness of God is not something that allows us to come to God with familiarity or carelessness. The holiness of God when properly perceived will drive us to our knees and shake our hearts and cause us to fear God, which is not a bad thing. To fear God is not to fear punishment at the hands of a tyrant as we will see in a moment. It is, however, to have a full and deep recognition of the glory and holiness of God in whose presence we have no right to enter apart from His invitation and before whom we must tremble because of His holiness.

We have been far too quick to approach God casually without duly understanding His holiness. Kidner says, “Holy 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 and the creaturely.” He also says, “The repeated cry, Holy is He! Forbids us to take it casually.”

II.             God Is Just 4-5

But holiness means more than this. The “Mighty King” also has a significant relationship to what is just and right.

I had an interesting conversation with someone a few weeks ago about governments. Their perspective was that there is no government that does right. For example, the media has portrayed the former president of the Ukraine as a tyrant who has maliciously killed the citizens of his country. If he did that, he is not just, but is that the whole story? Was he unjust in putting down rebellion in the way that he did? How do we know what is right in any given situation? Do we believe that our government is doing what is right? Some of you have experienced powerless and corrupt governments or powerful and evil governments and you would probably say that we live in a pretty good place, but I am pretty sure that not everything done in the name of the government is always right even in Canada.

In contrast, the holiness of God means that He does everything right. There are three phrases in verses 4, 5 that tell us about this, each giving a little different aspect of God’s justice.

First of all, it says that God is a “lover of justice.” He doesn’t do what is right simply because He is commissioned to do right or because He is obligated to do so. God loves justice. He does what is right because the underlying motive God has is doing what is right. Being a lover of justice tells us that, for God, doing right comes out of a heart that is committed to it.

            Out of God’s desire to do what is right we read that He has “established equity.” This tells us that God makes the rules that govern the universe. He declares what is good and what is not good. Much law today is relative often based on what is deemed best for the most people. But sometimes things are declared good based on a flawed understanding of the world and how humans operate. God, however, has created everything and He declares what is fair and just based on His knowledge of how everything works.

God has also “executed justice.” He carries it out in the world He has made. Every judgment God makes is fair and good. He does so out of a knowledge of every aspect of truth. The thing that makes justice in the human courts so difficult is that the truth is never fully known. God knows the truth. He knows the underlying motives in each situation and He understands every side of an issue.

The holiness of God speaks to His justice and when it comes to justice, if we are to use the image of the scales of justice we are assured that with God there is absolute equality.

How do we respond to this aspect of His holiness? On the one hand, this is a great encouragement because we can rest assured that in a world filled with injustices, God is not unaware. When genocide occurs, when tyrants oppress, when slavery and abuse occur, when one nation oppresses another, God is aware. He, the holy judge of all the earth, takes note and justice will be done. Whatever has been missed by the International Criminal Court in The Hague has not been missed by God and for that we can be thankful.

Yet, when we understand our own complicity in evil and sin, we also stand before the eternal judge of all the earth guilty and trembling. Once again the fear of the Lord is an appropriate response to the holiness of God who is just.

III.           God is Approachable and Holds Accountable 6-9

The holiness of God leads us to see the majestic sovereignty and perfect justice of God. These things cause us to fear before Him, but there is even more to God’s holiness than this. The next section mentions specific people who experienced God. Their stories help us understand another aspect of God’s holiness. Once again, we know that this is a description of His holiness for the Psalm ends with the phrase, “the Lord our God is holy.”

What we see in these stories is that God is approachable and forgiving. Yet the holiness of God also reminds us that this approach and this forgiveness is not such that lightly dismisses wrongdoing. God remains one who is “an avenger of their wrongdoings.” Let’s examine these things in the stories of the three Biblical characters mentioned in verse 6.

A.               Moses

Moses had many amazing encounters with God. He first met him at the burning bush, where the holiness of God was reinforced to Moses in the invitation to take off his shoes because he was standing on holy ground. He also encountered God at Mount Sinai. Exodus 24:17-18, describes that encounter when it says, "Now the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights."

God had chosen and prepared Moses for a life of service and Moses was willing to be God’s servant. In Exodus 40:16 we read, "Moses did everything just as the LORD had commanded him."

Psalm 99 also indicates that these men, “called on His name…and He answered them.” Moses had many experiences in which God heard his pleas. One of the most significant prayers of Moses was when the people made the golden calf. Their sin was very great and in Exodus 32:31, 32 we read the prayer of Moses for the people, "So Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin; they have made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if you will only forgive their sin…” God did forgive them and did not completely destroy the people.

In all of these encounters, we see something of the intimate and wonderful relationship that Moses had with God. God came to him, invited him into relationship, guided him, gave Him His word and helped him lead the people.

Yet the holiness of God also held Moses accountable. In Numbers 20:9-13 we read the story of how Moses dishonored the name of God before the people because of his anger and frustration with the people. We read in verse 12, "But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me, to show my holiness before the eyes of the Israelites, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.”

B.               Aaron

Aaron had a similar story. He was with Moses in many of the things which Moses experienced. He also encountered God and saw God in the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. He did not experience the same intimacy as Moses did, but He was aware of God’s presence with the people and He saw the power of God on the mountain and experienced the presence of God with His people.

Aaron’s effectiveness in prayer is seen particularly in the time of Korah’s rebellion which is recorded in Numbers 16. Aaron’s actions as a priest of God demonstrated his prayer and also shows how God listened to him. Because of the rebellion, God sent a plague among the people to punish them. But Aaron prayed for the people and we read in Numbers 16:47, 48, "So Aaron ran…into the middle of the assembly, where the plague had already begun among the people. He put on the incense, and made atonement for the people. He stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stopped."

Aaron experienced God’s presence and also experienced His answers to prayer, but the holiness of God was not only seen by him in God’s approachability and answering prayer. It was also seen in that God held him accountable. Numbers 12 tells the story of a time when Aaron and Miriam rebelled against the leadership of their brother Moses. God punished Miriam with leprosy for seven days, but it was Aaron who acknowledged their wrongdoing when he said in verse 11 “Oh, my lord, do not punish us for a sin that we have so foolishly committed." And so in His holiness, God was “an avenger of their wrongdoings.”

C.               Samuel

Samuel is known as one who listened to the voice of God. We all know the story. Samuel was just a young child when God spoke to Him and Samuel responded with the wonderful prayer, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.” He continued in this kind of a relationship with God, experiencing the holiness of God as One who was approachable. He also experienced God as one who hears those who pray. At one time Israel was at war with the Philistines. They were afraid and we read in 1 Samuel 7:9, "So Samuel took a sucking lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the LORD; Samuel cried out to the LORD for Israel, and the LORD answered him."

Almost all of Samuel’s life is one in which we see the holiness of God in this relationship of knowing God, encountering God, praying to God and seeing God answer prayer. In fact in Samuel’s case, it is difficult to find any wrongdoing in him. The only flaw in his life is what we read in I Samuel 8 that “he made his sons judges over Israel…Yet his sons did not follow in his ways.” As a result of this wrongdoing, the people were provoked to ask for a king which led to all kinds of trouble for the nation.

In all of these encounters the holiness of God is revealed in that God is approachable. In spite of being the King over everything and the one who is absolutely just, God’s holiness also means that He comes to people and desires a relationship with them. His holiness also reminds us that God answers prayer. But the approachability of God is always on the terms of His holiness. When even those who have known God engage in wrongdoing, God holds them accountable. This too is part of His holiness.

Conclusion

Today we have learned about God’s holiness from Psalm 99. We have learned that His holiness includes His sovereign rule, His Justice, His forgiveness and His approachability but that He also keeps account of those who sin. All this is His holiness. We must know God in all these aspects. We cannot just look at one aspect or another, but all. We must learn to have a complete view of God.

As we come to understand God, we are brought to stand in awe of Him. Kidner exclaims, “…how exalted and holy He is, and how profound is the reverence we owe Him.” Spurgeon also invites us to such worship when he says, “…who would not farther adore Jehovah, whose character is unsullied purity, unswerving justice, unbending truth, unbounded love, in a word, perfect holiness…”

            As we, God’s children, examine God’s holiness, there is, however one fact that we cannot escape. I Peter 1:16 says, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” We understand that God’s holiness causes us to tremble before Him. We can rejoice and be thankful that God is approachable. We can know that He knows us and wants a relationship with us. But how can we be holy as He is holy? Today, I invite you to meditate deeply and carefully on the holiness of God. Over the next few weeks I want to think more with you about this call to be holy as He is holy.