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
With its message of God’s greatness, today’s psalm is set in the midst of psalms of praise and joyful singing with songs and musical instruments. In the midst of such singing and praise, it is as though the concluding verse 9 seems to lift us up a mountain into God’s presence. Moses had been on the mountain at a time of special mission. Jesus was there, too, with Peter and John and James, transfigured in the glorious light of God’s divine presence.
The serious nature of Jesus’ mission, accented on a mountaintop as God’s mission with and through him, can be remembered by us and infuse our singing as if we were on a mountaintop with Jesus. This can give us greater strength of spirit to look beyond today into the season of Lent that begins tomorrow, Ash Wednesday.
Prayer
God of glory, infuse us with your spirit, that we may extol your name as if lifted up in song on your holy mountain. Amen.