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
Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs are all about rhyming and timing, with verses and stanzas repeating God’s story in the lives of God’s people. This Psalm is no different. If we will see it, we will hear it.
Seven times the psalmist speaks of the “LORD.” Seven times the psalmist refers to him by personal pronouns. “The Lord reigns!” “Holy is he!”
How often must we repeat it? Daily in our devotions? Weekly in our worship?
How often must we repeat our love for one another? Daily? Weekly? Certainly more often than annually on Valentine’s Day!
We need to repeat our I love yous to each other often because life frequently finds us walking around with our heads in the clouds, confused with love, distracted or diminished by our 'misdeeds.' We need to repeat our I love yous to God for the same reason. And when we do, God speaks to us, as he did to Moses and Aaron and Samuel when they called upon him.
Prayer
O Lord, we call upon you again and again. Repeat to us your promises of love and justice over and over. Our song is “Amen!”