Psalm 99 (NRSV)
Read Psalm 99 on biblegateway.com
Verse 1The Lord is king; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
Verse 2The Lord is great in Zion; he is exalted over all the peoples.
Verse 3Let them praise your great and awesome name. Holy is he!
Verse 4Mighty King, lover of justice, you have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.
Verse 5Extol the Lord our God; worship at his footstool. Holy is he!
Verse 6Moses 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.
Verse 7He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud; they kept his decrees, and the statutes that he gave them.
Verse 8O Lord our God, you answered them; you were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings.
Verse 9Extol the Lord our God, and worship at his holy mountain; for the Lord our God is holy.
Devotion
“The Lord is king; let the peoples tremble!”
These days you don’t often hear people being described as “God-fearing.” Christians, imbued with incessant teaching on grace, may prefer to view God as their pal, rather than as someone to be feared. There is no doubt about God’s grace for us in Jesus Christ, but grace would be without any purpose if it weren’t also for God’s wrath.
The peoples gather before the mountain of God. There is fear and trembling. “We are to fear and love God,” the Catechism teaches. We fear God just exactly because we find it so hard to love God. Nevertheless, the God we fear, or don’t fear, has come in Jesus Christ to love us, to suffer with us, to forgive, reconcile and restore us, and to make us friendly once again with God. “Sometimes it causes me to tremble.”
Prayer
Lord God, I tremble at the depth of your love for me. By your grace, help me to love you, for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.