FRIDAY 3rd
Psalm 99
NIV – (v5) ‘Exalt the LORD our God and worship at his footstool; he is holy.’
ESV – (v5) ‘Exalt the LORD our God; worship at his footstool! Holy is he!’
This psalm commences with a resounding declaration, ‘The LORD reigns; let the peoples tremble!’ It is a statement of fact, ‘The LORD reigns’, we are as I mentioned yesterday, living at a time when it would seem that the eyes of the unbeliever are blinded in such a way that they are going around in a drunken stupor, oblivious of the coming judgement, they do not all deny God, but they also do not accept what he has done and is doing, but there are those as well, who would vehemently deny the very existence of God, therefore they do not care whatsoever, but no amount of denying the existence of God will ever lead to him not existing, it is a sure fact, ‘the LORD reigns’! The day will come when those who deny God, will have knees that will knock together like they have never done so before because, because they will find themselves standing before the very presence of the One who they said does not exist, and what an awful day it is going to be for them.
It is far better to face God now as sinners, to tremble before him, to acknowledge who he is and what he has done, and to receive his grace into our hearts and lives, so that we may enter eternity knowing that we stand right before him now and will stand right before him then, because of what Jesus has done on our behalf.
The verse that I have highlighted today is a call to exalt the LORD our God, to worship at his footstool, for he is holy. God has the right to demand our worship, as we will see in the next psalm for it is he who has made us, he deserves the honour and the glory and the praise that is due his holy name, and it is far better to kneel before God now, willingly, with hearts that are forgiven and in a right relationship with him, than to face eternity without him, and to stand one day where it will be through compulsion that ‘every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father’, for, for so many then the bowing and the confessing will be too late, they will see him and confess him as Lord, but will not know him as Saviour!
The same psalm continues, ‘you were a forgiving God to them’ that is that God will forgive those who call upon him, but it continues, but ‘an avenger of their wrong-doing’ and God will avenge all who have done wrong and have not come to him for forgiveness, and when he avenges, when he judges, he will do so with righteousness and truth.
Where do you as you read this devotion today stand regarding your relationship to the Lord God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you willingly bow the knee, and exalt the LORD God, knowing him as your heavenly Father because you have come to know Jesus as your Saviour, or are you still shunning his loving kindness, still rejecting his offer of salvation, refusing to bow the knee? One day you will have to bow the knee, why not begin to do it now, willingly, by accepting what God has done for you through the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.