WWUTT 1144 He is Exalted Over All the Peoples?

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God alone is worthy of our worship, and He deserves not just an acknowledgement of Him, He deserves that we give our whole selves unto

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God, and He will give us His entire kingdom when we understand the text. This is

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When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature

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New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

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Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. Well, in our Old Testament study, we are up to Psalm 99 today.

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If you want to open up your Bible and join with me there. The first couple of Psalms that we're going to be looking at bring to a close the series of Psalms that celebrate

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God's kingship. We looked at a few of those last week, and you'll hear in this particular

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Psalm that we start with a celebration of God on His throne. Psalm 99, beginning in verse 1,

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The Lord reigns, let the peoples tremble. He sits enthroned upon the chair of Him.

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Let the earth quake. The Lord is great in Zion. He is exalted over all the peoples.

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Let them praise your great and awesome name. Holy is He. The King in His might loves justice.

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You have established equity. You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob. Exalt the

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Lord our God. Worship at His footstool. Holy is He.

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Moses and Aaron were among His priests. Samuel also was among those who called upon His name.

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They called to the Lord, and He answered them. In the pillar of the cloud, He spoke to them.

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They kept His testimonies and the statute that He gave them. O Lord, our

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Lord, You answered them. You were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings.

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Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His holy mountain, for the Lord our

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God is holy. You know, we have a series of hymns that we will sometimes often sing that celebrate the kingship of God.

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And I think of hymns like, Crown Him with Many Crowns, Holy, Holy, Holy, All Hail the

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Power of Jesus Name, Majesty. Just a few of those hymns that we like to sing celebrating

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God on His throne. And that's what these series of psalms have been about that we've been reading here.

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The Lord reigns. So being enthroned over all creation, He reigns over everything.

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And it's not just the substance of things that He reigns over, but He reigns even over things unseen.

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As we read about the kingship of Christ in Philippians chapter 2,

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God has highly exalted Him and given Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is

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Lord. Tongue confess is not merely like talking about a person's tongue in their mouth. We're talking about languages.

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Every language will proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord. And again, whether that's on earth, in heaven, under the earth, everyone will know that Christ is

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Lord. So where we read here in Psalm 99 that the Lord reigns,

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He is over all and every living creature and thing will acknowledge that He is

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King. Now I mentioned He reigns not just over substances, but even those things that are unseen.

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He also reigns over time. Time itself is a thing that God has created, and He exists outside the bounds of time.

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He is not constrained by time. That's difficult for us to understand because we only exist in time.

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We don't know what it means to exist outside of time. But a day is coming in which we will know that, when we will join the

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Lord in glory. Those who fear Him and believe on His name. As we go on here to read in Psalm 99, let the peoples tremble.

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He sits enthroned upon the cherubim. Let the earth quake.

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The Lord is great in Zion. He is exalted over all the peoples. The holy mountain of the

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Lord at the time that this psalm was written and sung was Jerusalem.

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It was there at Mount Moriah where the temple was going to be built. That was the greatest mountain on earth.

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And it didn't naturally occur as the greatest mountain on earth. It's because God dwelled there and He chose that place to descend and be with His people.

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The Lord is great in Zion. He is exalted over all the peoples.

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As the people of God, Israel, proclaim His name and sing

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His praises, He is exalted over all the peoples. For God who created all things, heaven and earth and everything, seen and unseen, had chosen

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Israel in whom to make His name known. Through Israel He has made

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His name known to the world. So when the people of Israel exalt God, He is exalted over all the peoples.

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And this is how we as Christians should be. We take forth the name of God to the world.

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God has chosen us and has made Himself known to us through His Son, Jesus Christ.

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By faith in His gospel, we are saved and we become His people. And so we proclaim

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His praises and in so proclaiming, sing His name to the nations that others may know the name of God and come to worship

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Him. His name is great over all the peoples. Let them praise Your great and awesome name.

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Holy is He. The King in His might loves justice.

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You have established equity. You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.

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And what is being said here in verse four is that God does that fairly. He doesn't give justice to one group of people and then withholds it from another.

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But the Lord executes justice. As it says in Deuteronomy, all His ways are justice.

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When we talk about the justice of God, we're talking about what God says is right, not justice as we see it or as we think it should be exercised.

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But God in everything He does is just. He is always righteous and good and holy in every decision that He makes.

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Righteousness in Jacob. Verse five, exalt the Lord our God. Worship at His footstool.

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Holy is He. And one of the ways that we worship Him is we listen to His word and we do what it says.

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Jesus said, you will show me that you love me when you obey my commandments. And James said in James chapter one, don't just be hearers of the word and then walk away and forget what it is that you heard, but do what it says.

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And in so doing, we worship the Lord. Verse six, Moses and Aaron were among his priests.

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Samuel also was among those who called upon his name. Now, as we know, the scriptures, those are elite names.

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Moses and Aaron were among his priests who were the priests of a king.

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Like off the top of your head, can you name any priest of any king of Israel or Judah?

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I can think of a couple just because it wasn't that long ago that we were going through first and second Kings and first and second

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Chronicles. But those are not just automatically things you think of off the top of your head. Priests to the king.

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But these names that have been cited here, these are definitely names we know, right? You know Moses, his brother

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Aaron. You know Samuel, the guy that anointed David. These are the priests of God.

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So we're talking the elite of the elite in the priests and prophets of Israel.

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They are the priests of God. Samuel was among those who called upon his name. They called to the

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Lord and he answered them. And so as these men have done, so we must also in the pillar of the cloud, he spoke to them.

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He kept his testimonies and the statute that he gave them. Oh Lord, our

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Lord, you answered them. You were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings.

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Now it could be perceived that what's being said here is that that God avenges the wrong that is done on his people.

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That's Deuteronomy 32, 43. But rather the way that we should understand this is that God will even punish his own people.

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Just because a people might be called out by God and would be a singled out as his own doesn't mean that they're automatically free from any and all punishment or judgment of God.

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For those who do wickedly will indeed be punished by God. As it says in the book of Ezekiel, that God takes no delight in the punishment of the wicked, but he would rather that they turn from their way and live.

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Yet he will exercise his justice and he will not withhold from those who do not repent.

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That's the way the Lord describes himself, even in the book of Exodus, a God who is merciful and gracious, but will judge the ungodly.

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So the Lord is forgiving, but he's also an avenger of wrongdoings.

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And so we must fear God and not take him for granted or take advantage of his mercy and his grace.

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That would be testing the Lord God. Verse 9, exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy mountain.

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For the Lord our God is holy. You have nothing to fear of the judgment of God if you are worshiping his name for his favor and blessing are upon you.

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We come next to Psalm 100. This is a psalm for giving thanks. Very short psalm, five verses, but this is the conclusion of the kingship songs as we are celebrating the kingliness of God.

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Verse 1, make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. Serve the

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Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing. Know that the

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Lord, he is God. It is he who made us and we are his.

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We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.

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Give thanks to him. Bless his name for the Lord is good.

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His steadfast love endures forever and his faithfulness to all generations.

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The whole earth is being invited into the presence of God here. Make a joyful noise to the

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Lord all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing.

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Know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who made us and we are his.

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And this is not just in the sense that God made Adam out of the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into him.

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And then everyone who is descended from Adam is likewise made in the image of God. That is certainly true.

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God is the one who made us. But this is also in the sense that God made us his.

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We are his children because he has adopted us and that spirit of adoption we have in our

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Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that it says in Ephesians chapter 3 that it is from God that every family on earth is named.

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Paul writing in Ephesians 3 .14, for this reason I bow my knees before the father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.

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And then we also have it in Ephesians chapter 4 that there is one God and father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

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You have a surname, you know, your last name, which is the name that you've received from your father.

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And when you get married and have children, you pass on your name down to your children.

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And so they have that surname, which is the last name that they got from their father.

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Well, we when we're adopted into the family of God, we wear his name. He is our father.

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And we're part of this family and this household. And this has happened because God has made us this way, not because we chose what family we were going to be part of.

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You didn't choose what family you were born into. You don't choose what family you're born again into.

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God has chosen you and he has made you his and we are his. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture.

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And that can't broadly be talking about every single person on earth because not every person on earth does belong to God.

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Some and most people, in fact, have been turned over to Satan. Every one of us are following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.

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That's in Ephesians chapter two. So that was all of us at one point. We were all chasing after our own fleshly delights.

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And we're therefore servants of Satan. It is in John chapter eight where Jesus rebukes the

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Jews and says, you worship your father, the devil, and your desire is to do your father's desires.

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So not everybody belongs to God, only those whom God has made his.

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We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.

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Give thanks to him. Bless his name. We have access to his presence because he's called us to himself.

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And who is the gate through which we enter to get to God? Jesus said this also in the

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Gospel of John. He is the gate. And we read it also in Matthew chapter seven.

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Enter through the narrow gate for wide is the way that leads to destruction and broad is that way because many will find it.

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That's the easy way. But narrow is the gate and long is the road that leads to to life and few will find that Jesus is the gate that leads to eternal life.

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And we've been invited to come through that gate with praise. Give thanks to him.

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Bless his name for the Lord is good. His steadfast love endures forever and his faithfulness to all generations.

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You have heard the gospel. You have come to salvation in Christ because God's faithfulness endures in all generations.

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His steadfast love is with you even now. And though heaven and earth may crumble around you,

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God will hold you fast and deliver you into his eternal kingdom.

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Hold fast to him and do not lose heart. We're up to Psalm 101.

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We're actually changing gears a little bit here. When we get to Psalm 101, you'll notice there's an author at the beginning of this, which we haven't seen the last several

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Psalms, a Psalm of David. I will sing of the steadfast love and justice to you,

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O Lord. I will make music. I will ponder the way that is blameless.

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Oh, when will you come to me? I will walk with integrity of heart within my house.

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I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. I hate the work of those who fall away.

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It shall not cling to me. A perverse heart shall be far from me. I will know nothing of evil.

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Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly, I will destroy. Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart,

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I will not endure. I will look with favor on the faithful in the land that they may dwell with me.

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He who walks in the way that is blameless shall minister to me. No one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house.

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No one who utters lies shall continue before my eyes. Morning by morning,

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I will destroy all the wicked in the land, cutting off all the evildoers from the city of the

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Lord. We see such a fervor and a passion for the holiness of God in this psalm that we are willing to pronounce sentence against those who do wrong wherever, whenever we have like something here in verse five, whoever slanders his neighbor secretly,

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I will destroy. This does not mean that if you've heard somebody lying about someone else, mischaracterizing them, spreading a false and malicious rumors about them, this is not giving you permission to now go over and strike that person down, but rather that you would pronounce sentence against them.

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Think of this in terms of the way that we would share the gospel with somebody. If you say to someone, hey, have you ever told a lie before?

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And they and they say, well, certainly. And you say to them, well, what does that make you if you've told a lie and they'll say a liar?

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That's right. It makes you a liar. So you've actually pronounced sentence upon them and you have destroyed them, though not with a sword that would cut off an arm or pierce flesh.

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You're using the sword of the spirit that it would pierce through their heart and convict them of sin so that they may die to themselves and be made alive in Christ.

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That's what's being done there. Whenever we are using the law of God to bring a person to a knowledge and an awareness of their sin so that they might see that they've transgressed against God and what they deserve for that transgression is death.

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But what God has promised to us for all who will repent of sin and put our faith and trust in the

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Lord Jesus Christ, he's promised us life. He will forgive that sentence of death that is upon us so that we may be made alive together with Christ.

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Jesus, who has paid our sentence, he has paid our fine. Therefore, God is just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, as it says in first John one nine.

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So this is the way with a spiritual application here that we might use this particular

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Psalm and fulfill it in the way we would share the gospel with another. Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly,

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I will destroy. Now, this may not result in repentance and turning to Christ, but nevertheless, the heart has been penetrated by hearing that in the law they have transgressed against God and we won't execute justice in this lifetime against the slanderer.

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But God will certainly on the day of judgment. And let us not walk in the ways of those who will fall under judgment of God, for we will likewise, if we have a haughty look and an arrogant heart, we must understand, as David says here, whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart,

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I will not endure. I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless.

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I hate the work of those who fall away. It shall not cling to me. That was verse three.

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We must have a passionate hatred for our sin that we would not walk in it anymore, but put it to death, walking instead in the light of Christ, have nothing to do with the fruitless works of darkness.

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Instead, expose them for we for we are children of light. Therefore, let us walk in the light of Christ.

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Amen. Let's conclude with prayer. Our heavenly father, we thank you so much for these Psalms teaching us how to praise your name, exalting your kingship, the throne on which you dwell, sitting over all of creation, all of heaven and earth.

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You alone are worthy of our praise. And so we don't leave it to anyone else or anything else to sing the praises of God.

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It is a privilege for us to come exalting your great and glorious name and let our reverence of you be so great and so alive in our hearts.

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We desire to live in righteousness and holiness before you, giving our whole selves unto you for this is our spiritual act of worship.

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Romans 12 one. Keep us in these things in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to when we understand the text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.

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