The final section of this three-part psalm (the last two stanzas in the New International Version) breaks away from heaven to speak of three past leaders of Israel—Moses, Aaron and Samuel, and of the wilderness experience of the people, when God "spoke to them from the pillar of cloud" (vv. 6, 7).
The fourth element of holiness, the moral uprightness or righteousness of God, is developed in the second stanza of Psalm 99 (vv. 4-5), especially in terms of God's righteous rule among his people and over the nations. He is said to love justice, to have established equity, and to have done always what is just and right (v. 4). Therefore, says the writer, we must “exalt the LORD our God and worship at his footstool (v. 5).
As we saw in yesterday's study, holiness is the characteristic of God that sets him apart from his creation. It has at least four contributing elements:
"His awful holiness!" That is a good phrase of J.J. Stewart Perowne's, because it is exactly what the first stanza is intended to impress on the worshiper. It begins by picturing the Lord sitting upon his throne in heaven, much like an earthly monarch might receive visitors to his court while sitting on an earthly throne.
Psalm 99 is about the holiness of God. It is about his kingly reign, too, since it begins with the words "the LORD reigns” (it is the third psalm to do so; the others are Psalms 93 and 97) and it is the next to last in the series of eight royal psalms, beginning with Psalm 92 and ending with Psalm 100. But chiefly Psalm 99 is about God's holiness, which is important for us to understand if we are to appreciate the character of this supreme and reigning Monarch.
