TRUE WORSHIP

Bill Fitzhenry's Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

Psalm 99  NKJV

¹The Lord reigns;
Let the peoples tremble!
He dwells between the cherubim;
Let the earth be moved!
² The Lord is great in Zion,
And He is high above all the peoples.
³ Let them praise Your great and awesome name—
He is holy.

The beauty, equity, mercy, and love of God is so revealed in the Psalms with the human experience as the ground for the exercise of these Divine qualities that they, the Psalms, have been for all the ages since they were written the great consolation and encouragement for believers.  There can hardly be any new information given on them.

Luther, Calvin, Matthew Henry, and Spurgeon are only a few of the giants who have written on the Psalms.  But for the believer, of all places, the Psalms need the least comment.

Not only are the Psalms deeply devotional they are as important theologically.  To my knowledge, there is no Biblical doctrine that is not found in the Psalms.  And in Psalm 99 is found the beauty of God, His holiness, praised with some of the characteristics of it explained.

There is really no way to appreciate or understand the Psalms as you should unless the basic premise of Psalm One is realized.  Simply put, the “blessed” in Psalm One is the person to whom the Psalms are written, the one who will understand.  And he is the only one who will benefit from them.  The uncaring, ignorant, and wicked are not blessed and will not benefit from the message they communicate.  The description of the “blessed” is required to benefit in this Holy poetry.

The first stanza, 99:1-3, is a sovereign corrective to the light and silly exercise that is called worship in the present day church.  This Psalm in its entirety, describes the true worshiper.  The only worshiper of any account is the one who worships “in truth”.

The beginning of worship is a commitment to the sovereignty of God – “The Lord reigns”.  Or, He is King.  The truth of this is the understanding of what the King and His reign mean.  He was absolute.  His will was supreme.  He had the right to life and death.

Therefore, “the peoples tremble”.  Until our worship is entered under this standard, it is specious twaddle.

To be continued.