Holy, Holy, Holy (Psalm 99)
When you consider the holiness of God, which passages of Scripture come to mind? More than likely, your thoughts are drawn to Isaiah 6:3 or Revelation 4:8. These verses contain the threefold designation of God's holiness, “holy, holy, holy,” known as the trisagion (from the Greek word tris meaning “thrice” and the Greek word hagios meaning “holy”).[1] Rather than merely saying that God is holy, this repetitive phrase takes it to the superlative degree, as if to say, “God is holy, holier, and holiest!”[2] But another passage of Scripture that emphasizes God's holiness in a threefold fashion is Psalm 99. Though this psalm does not contain the trisagion, it does divide neatly into three sections, with each section ending in a statement of God’s holiness (cf. Psa. 99:3, 5, 9).[3] Thus, like the chorus to a song, the repetition found in Psalm 99 also reminds us that God is “holy, holy, holy.”
But what exactly does it mean to be holy?
Academic theologians have typically understood God’s holiness to have two aspects. The primary aspect is God’s majestic holiness, which highlights the fact that He is transcendent, distinct from His creation, and infinitely unique. This is seen in passages such as Exodus 15:11, which says, “Who is like You among the gods, O Lord? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders?” It is, quite simply, God’s “otherness.” The secondary aspect is God’s moral holiness, which highlights the fact that God is entirely separate from sin and ethically perfect. This is seen in passages like Leviticus 19:2, which says, “Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, 'You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.’”[4]
Thus, the word “holy,” translated from the Hebrew word qadosh and the Greek word hagios, speaks of God’s inherent and absolute greatness, distinct above everything outside himself, as well as being morally separate from sin.[5] When it comes to God’s moral holiness, His people are called to be like Him, striving towards ethical purity. But when it comes to God’s majestic holiness, it is by definition something that describes only Him.
With that said, it must also be noted that holiness—majestic holiness in particular—is not so much an attribute that God possesses as much as it is His very nature that bears influence on all of His other attributes.
The late R.C. Sproul explained this as follows:
We often describe God by compiling a list of qualities or characteristics that we call attributes. We say that God is a spirit, that He knows everything, that He is loving, just, merciful, gracious, and so on. The tendency is to add the idea of the holy to this long list of attributes as one attribute among many. But when the word holy is applied to God, it does not signify one single attribute. On the contrary, God is called holy in a general sense. The word is used as a synonym for his deity. That is, the word holy calls attention to all that God is. It reminds us that His love is holy love, His justice is holy justice, His mercy is holy mercy, His knowledge is holy knowledge, His spirit is holy spirit.[6]
In other words, everything that God is and does is holy. Psalm 99, which celebrates God’s majestic holiness, describes His holy reign over all creation, His holy righteousness expressed in justice, and His holy relationships with His people.
Holy in His Reign (Psalm 99:1-3)
The Lord reigns, let the peoples tremble;
He is enthroned above the cherubim, let the earth shake!
The Lord is great in Zion,
And He is exalted above all the peoples.
Let them praise Your great and awesome name;
Holy is He.
As an enthronement psalm, this passage depicts God ruling and reigning—and not only over His people, but the whole earth. Thus, it begins with a call for all the world to recognize his holy reign. Unlike a local leader or provincial prince, God's reign is universal. Thus, it is a totally different kind of reign—a majestically holy reign—because nothing else compares to it. As the ultimate cause of all things, God meticulously governs everything that comes to pass, working all things according to the counsel of His will (cf. Eph. 1:11). He speaks, and it is done (cf. Psa. 33:9).
Sadly, there is often resistance—even among professing Christians—to the notion that God is sovereign over all things. Some believe that God may control weather, but not warfare. Others recognize that God determines human welfare, but deny that He has power over the human will. Some think God simply tries to accomplish His plans, but has no guarantee that they will come about. But make no mistake about it: God is in control of the life and death of men (cf. Job 1:20, John 11:41-44), the life and death of creation (cf. Matt. 10:29), death itself (cf. Rev. 1:18, 20:14), the thoughts of men (cf. Ezra 7:27), the hearts of men (cf. Prov. 21:1), the plans of men (cf. 2 Sam. 17:14), the destinies of men (cf. Rom. 9:19-24, 1 Pet. 2:8), sleep (cf. 1 Sam. 26:12), finances (cf. 1 Sam. 2:7), nations (cf. Psa. 60:6-8), nature (cf. Mark 4:39), pregnancy (cf. Psa. 127:3), illness (cf. Matt. 8:18), war (cf. Judg. 1:4), raising up leaders (cf. Judg. 2:18), raising up evil (2 Sam 12:11, Hab. 1:5-6), commissioning evil (cf. 1 Kin. 22:22-23, Isa. 10:6), using evil (cf. Gen. 50:20), preventing evil (cf. Gen. 20:6), destroying evil (cf. Hab. 3:12, Isa. 63:2-6), unjust government (cf. 1 Kin. 12:15), just government (cf. Rom. 13:4-6), Satan (cf. Job 1:12), demons (cf. Matt. 8:29-32), worldwide judgment (cf. Rev. 6:1), eternal torment (cf. Rev. 14:10-11), and eternal life (cf. John 5:21)!
Because God’s reign is so utterly transcendent, all the “peoples” (men from every nation) are called to “tremble,” which is a verb that can speak of literally shaking.[7] Those who understand God’s supremacy have a healthy fear of Him. People often ask, “If God is sovereign, then why evangelize?” In reality, it is because God is sovereign that we ought to evangelize—only a fool would dare disobey the King of the universe!
Furthermore, God is not only exalted above man, but even above the angels, as the Psalmist states that God is “enthroned above the cherubim” (Psa. 99:1b). In contrast with the seraphim, who are understood to be six-winged angels who praise God’s holiness as they fly around His throne (cf. Isa. 6:2), cherubim are four-winged angels who guard God’s holiness while He sits on His throne (cf. Gen. 3:24, Ezek. 1:4-14, Isa. 37:16). This reality was vividly portrayed to the Israelites using angelic figurines mounted on either side of the ark of the covenant (cf. Exod. 25:18).
The only legitimate response to God’s reign is for His people to praise His “great and awesome name” (Psa. 99:3a).
Why? Because “holy is He” (Psa. 99:3b).
Holy in His Righteousness (Psalm 99:4-5)
The strength of the King loves justice;
You have established equity;
You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.
Exalt the Lord our God
And worship at His footstool;
Holy is He.
The second section of the psalm describes the righteousness of God that is utterly holy as well. A historian in the late nineteenth century once famously remarked, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”[8] This is undoubtedly true on a human level, especially seen in totalitarian forms of government. But not so with God. Though He has absolute power and unlimited ability, He “loves justice” (Psa. 99:4a). Referring to God as the King that He is, verse 4 in this psalm goes on to explain that God has established equity, executing justice and righteousness.
Concerning this description, Dr. Steve Lawson notes the following:
The King, a lofty, regal designation for God, is mighty, able to do all that he pleases. Moreover, he loves justice. He delights in using his sovereignty with perfect equity and fairness. His power is never misused but is always exercised properly. God’s equity means his righteousness, or his right set of rewards and punishments. God always does what is just and right.[9]
Unlike many human rulers, God cannot be bribed to turn a blind eye to justice. Unlike many human rulers, God is not an irrational dictator drunk on his own power. Unlike human rulers, God always makes sure that the punishment fits the crime. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?” (Gen. 18:25). Indeed, He shall. The “strength of the King loves justice” (Psa. 99:4). Whereas the strength of human kings so often results in oppression and tyranny, God’s strength is used to govern in righteous ways only. As R.C. Sproul said, “The basic assumption of Israel is that God’s judgments are always according to righteousness. His justice is never unfair, never whimsical, never tyrannical. It is impossible for God to be unjust, because his justice is holy.”[10] In other words, His righteousness is unhindered by His sovereignty, because it is a holy righteousness.
Though Scripture depicts the nation of Israel’s tragic failure in upholding God’s standards of justice and righteousness over the course of many centuries, God certainly cannot be to blame—He established the nation properly when He gave them the Law of Moses. They knew how a kingdom founded on righteousness was supposed to function. It is to this origin that the Psalmist refers when he says, “You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.” The name “Jacob” is often used to refer either to the nation of Israel’s beginning (since Jacob was the patriarch’s name before being changed to Israel), or to indicate the nation of Israel’s sinful departure from their covenant relationship with God (since Jacob was the patriarch’s name at such a time when God had not yet re-established the Abrahamic Covenant with him). Here in this psalm, the reference is to the former. God built the nation upon righteous laws from its beginning.
To God’s righteousness, the only appropriate response is to “exalt the Lord our God and worship at His footstool” (Psa. 99:5a).
Why? Because “holy is He” (Psa. 99:5c).
Holy in His Relationships (Psalm 99:6-9)
Moses and Aaron were among His priests,
And Samuel was among those who called on His name;
They called upon the Lord and He answered them.
He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud;
They kept His testimonies
And the statute that He gave them.
O Lord our God, You answered them;
You were a forgiving God to them,
And yet an avenger of their evil deeds.
Exalt the Lord our God
And worship at His holy hill,
For holy is the Lord our God.
The final portion of the Psalm depicts the transcendent wonder—the majestic holiness—of God’s relationship with His people. How often is it that when someone finds fame and fortune, or conquers the business world, or strikes it rich, that he discards his former relationships? Whether money and popularity change people, or merely reveal who they always were, the all-too-common end result is that many end up seeing themselves as too important, too superior, or too prestigious to maintain contact with those from their former lives whom they view as socially inferior.
It should be absolutely startling to us, then, to know that God is just the opposite. Despite enjoying eternal and infinite preeminence, He has condescended to interact with mankind. We think nothing of worms in the ground, and yet God, to whom man is but a worm (cf. Job 25:6), has established a covenant relationship with His people. As one theologian said, “Let us then wonder at the condescension of God, in taking such worms into covenant and communion with himself!”[11]
Rather than remaining aloof, God appointed men like Moses and Samuel to be prophets to represent Him to the people, and men like Aaron to be priests to represent the people before Him. When they called upon Him in praise, confession, intercession, or supplication, “He answered them” (Psa. 99:6). He spoke to them not only from the pillar of cloud at the tabernacle (cf. Exod. 33:9), but even “to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways” (Heb. 1:1). He is a good God who gave them testimonies and statutes through which to remain in relationship with Him—not by earning or meriting righteousness with their own obedience (which was impossible)—but by the sacrificial system to which their faith in the promised Messiah was tethered. Thus, even in their sinfulness, He was a “forgiving God to them” (Psa. 99:8).
Of course, such forgiveness was not in lieu of justice. As the Psalmist stated, God was “yet an avenger of their evil deeds” (Psa. 99:8). Even though He called Israel as His chosen nation, it was not some kind of nepotistic relationship in which God casually overlooked their iniquity in the name of familial love. For example, when the generation of Israelites that came up out of Egypt doubted God’s ability to bring them into the land of Canaan, every single one of them, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, died in the wilderness (cf. Num. 14:28-30). His relationship with His people is holy in this way as well.
Ultimately, the greatest example of God’s holy relationship with mankind, both in condescending to interact with us, as well as forgiving us without suspending justice, is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. The fact that the Father would love us enough to send His Son in order to become like us (cf. Heb. 2:17), experience our sorrows (cf. Isa. 53:3), bear our sins (1 Pet. 2:24), and die in our place (cf. Rom. 5:8), is a testament to just how majestically holy His relationship with His people is. As one commentator said, with regards to Psalm 99, “The forgiveness offered by God’s grace is never cheap. That is why at the center of the gospel stands a cross.”[12]
When considering such an amazing relationship, it was only right that God’s people would “exalt the Lord our God and worship at His holy hill” (Psa. 99:9a).
Why? “For holy is the Lord our God” (Psa. 99:9b).
References:
[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Trisagion
[2] Steven J. Lawson, Made In Our Image (New York, NY: Multnomah Books, 2000), 214.
[3] Robert Davidson, The Vitality of Worship: A Commentary on the Book of Psalms (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998), 324.
[4] Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2012), 73.
[5] John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, eds., Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017), 183.
[6] R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1998), 39-40.
[7] https://biblehub.com/hebrew/7264.htm
[8] Roland Hill, Lord Acton (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000), 300
[9] Steven J. Lawson, Holman Old Testament Commentary: Psalms 76-150 (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2006), 129.
[10] R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1998), 103-104.
[11] https://biblehub.com/commentaries/benson/job/25.htm
[12] Robert Davidson, The Vitality of Worship: A Commentary on the Book of Psalms (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998), 326.