Psalm XCIX
1 The Lord reigneth, let the people tremble:
He sitteth between the cherubim, let the earth be moved.
2 The Lord is great in Zion; and he is high above all the people.
3 Let them praise thy great and terrible name; for it is holy.
4 The king’s strength also loveth judgment; thou dost establish equity, Thou exccutest judgment and righteousness in Jacob.
5 Exalt ye the Lord our God, and worship at his footstool; For he is holy.
6 Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among them that call
upon his name;
They called upon the Lord, and he answered them.
7 He spake unto them in the cloudy pillar:
They kept his testimonies, and the ordinance that he gave them.
8 Thou answeredst them, O Lord our God: thou wast a God that forgavest
them,
Though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions.
9 Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at his holy hill; For the Lord our God is holy.
The King and kingdom having come and been established, the Psalmist sings of the principles of government. Holiness is the rale. Jehovah is as holy as when he manifested himself to Israel dwelling be’tween the cherubim. Or rather, the idea seems to be that Jehovah, while fulfilling the type exhibited in his dwelling between the cherubim by dwelling with men in Zion, is nevertheless so holy that earth bows prostrate before him, and the nations quake.
“They praise thy name I
Great and terrible, holy is He!
And * royal strength loveth judgynent.’”
This is their song, because he has established judgment in Jacob. They call on others to join (ver. 5), bidding them fall before “His footstool,^’ i.e., his ark, where he gave his manifestation of himself to men who approach to worship. “He is holy” (ver. 5),
* Like “the iniffht of Gabriel fought” (Milton, P. L- vi. 355), “Crispi facunda senectus.” (Juven. iv. 31). Others refer back to verse 3, “Let them praise the stretigth of the King (who) loveth judgment.”
This is one of their arguments; another is, Moses and Aaron, Israel’s leaders in the wilderness, are there; and Samuel, the first of the judges in the land, is there. These men, and such as these, used to call upon the Lord and get answers, during their days of trial, he speaking from the pillar-cloud. “They kept his testimonies” —
this is an abridged description of the obedient life of all these saints — even as John xvii. 6, “They have kept My word,” is the Master’s delineation of his disciples.
“He gave them a code of statutes,”
refers to such a passage as Deut. xxxiii. 4, where the law is
reckoned among the prime blessings of Israel. Yes, it was
always thus; Jehovah answered them, and forgave them, yet
was
“An avenging God because of their iniquities.”
He is the same for ever. Just, sin-hating, righteous! And then a third time, as if to cause earth to respond to the song of heaven (Isa. vi. 3, Rev. iv. 8), the Psalmist extols Jehovah’s holiness —
“Worship at the hill of his holiness,
For Jehovah our God is holy /”
It is throughout a Psalm proclaiming the untarnished perfections of the King,
Messiah ruling lu holiness.