Living in a modern democracy, we find it difficult to imagine life under a monarchy. When we think of an absolute ruler, our minds are filled with images of a dictator or tyrant. We like kings and queens only when they are ceremonial rulers, upholding a national tradition but lacking real political power or authority.
In our anxious age of worrying, we want a God who makes us feel secure. In our alienation and loneliness, we want a God who accepts us, provides abundance, and doesn’t make demands. We are interested in a God who will build our self-esteem, self-confidence, and forgive our sins. We are much less interested in hearing about or relating to a God who is King and who is Holy.
In Psalm 99, the psalmist calls the nations to tremble and worship the Lord, the mighty King. “The Lord reigns, let the nations tremble; he sits enthroned between the cherubim, let the earth shake. Great is the Lord in Zion; he is exalted over all the nations.
Let them praise your great and awesome name – he is holy. The King is mighty, he loves justice – ….
Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his footstool; he is holy. Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy mountain, for the Lord our God is holy.
Other psalms call us to celebrate and worship the Lord as King; (47:2) – How awesome is the Lord Most High, the great King over all the earth! (93:1) – The Lord reigns, he is robed in majesty; the Lord is robed in majesty and is armed with strength. (95:3) – For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods.
What do we do with this picture of God as King? Verses 1 and 2 tell us that God is sovereign over all and is a great and awesome King, who “sits enthroned between the cherubim”. If he is “the great King over all the earth,” then what is our position – we who resist being told how to behave and are not accustomed to standing in respectful awe of anyone?
In Isaiah 6:1-5, we read that when Isaiah enters the temple and sees the Lord seated on a throne, with seraphs calling to one another “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory,” Isaiah cries out, “Woe to me! I am ruined.” Why do you think he says that?
I believe that when we truly sense being in the presence of God’s kingly majesty, greatness, and holiness, our heart melts in awesome knowing of our sinfulness and the knees shake and bend until we fall on our faces in proper humility and worship.
Psalm 99 repeatedly tells us that our God is not only a great King, but also a holy king. In verses 3, 5, and 9, the majesty and greatness of God in reigning over all the earth is sealed by the psalmist words, “he is holy.” The whole of Psalm 99 declares that the Lord our God is King and reigns with perfect holiness.
The word “holy’ means justice, equity, and forgiving love. The coexistence of God’s judgment and grace, so incomprehensible to human minds is vigorously affirmed in verse 8. God forgives and God punishes. These are the two sides of God’s awesome, holy kingship.
The word “holy” also means separate or distinct. When used in reference to God, it means that there is no other being like God. He stands alone and above all authority and power. As creatures and as sinners we are separated from him in authority, power, and righteousness. “Holy” emphasizes the distance between God and humanity.
But, and this is big, God loved us so much and so deeply that, in Jesus’ death and resurrection, he bridged that separation and invites us into his holy presence, being clothed with the holy righteousness of Christ. And most amazingly, he wants us to call him “Father.”
The apostle Paul becomes so overwhelmed by God’s gracious love to him, that when writing about being such an unworthy recipient of God’s grace, he bursts forth with a doxology of praise in the first chapter of his letter to Timothy – “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (1:17).
May we also be overwhelmed with joy and sing the hymn written by Robert H. Grant;
“O worship the King, all glorious above, O gratefully sing his power and his love; our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days, pavilioned in splendor, and girded with praise.
Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail, in thee do we trust, nor find thee to fail; thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end, our Maker, Defender, Redeemer and Friend!”
“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – October 2, 2019
Ray M. Geigley
Healing Rays of Righteousness 
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