SYNOPSIS: What a thought! You can walk and talk with God like Moses. You can minister to God and for God people like Aaron. You can hear God’s voice and know his will like Samuel. You can hear God’s voice, experience his power, receive his forgiveness (although keep in mind, he is never soft on sin), present your needs before his throne—and be heard! Now tell me this: What other god is there like our God?
Moments With God // Psalm 99:6
Praise the Lord our God. Worship before his footstool. He is holy! Moses and Aaron were among his priests; Samuel was one of those who prayed to him. They prayed to the Lord and he answered them. He spoke to them from a pillar of cloud; they obeyed his regulations and the ordinance he gave them. O Lord our God, you answered them. They found you to be a forgiving God, but also one who punished their sinful deeds.
Over the course of several palms, the writer has been extolling the majesty and holiness of God—which makes him separate, distinct, and altogether higher than any other being. He alone is God—high and exalted, pure in righteousness and justice, beautiful in his majesty, and unapproachable in his holiness. The only possible response anyone, either high or low, has in his presence is to tremble before his throne:
The Lord reigns! The nations tremble. He sits enthroned above the cherubim; the earth shakes. The Lord is elevated in Zion; he is exalted over all the nations. (Psalm 99:1-2)
Yet he is a God who has made it possible to approach him; he is a God who listens to his people when they call upon him; he is a God who, although he punishes misdeeds, also forgives sin and restores the penitent heart:
O Lord our God! You answered them and forgave their sins, yet punished them when they went wrong.Psalm 99:8)
Of all the people on earth, Moses, Aaron, and Samuel were arguably the closest to God. They witnessed his awesome power, heard his voice, and represented his will to the people of Israel. Yet each was still a flawed, fallen human being—one a rehabilitated murderer, another the designer of the golden calf-idol, and the third a relationally isolated, hard-nosed prophet.
Although we hold each of these three men as bona fide Bible heroes, and rightly so, the details of their lives demonstrate that they were just regular guys—and yet each was invited to walk with Almighty God in an intimate relationship. Perhaps through these three holy men, God was saying that he desires to bring his people into a saving, sanctifying, and enduring relationship, and that includes you and me.
What a thought: You can walk and talk with God like Moses. You can minister to God and for God like Aaron. You can hear God’s voice and know his will like Samuel. You can hear God’s voice, experience his power, receive his forgiveness (although keep in mind, he is never soft on sin), present your needs before his throne—and be heard!
Now tell me this: What other god is there like our God? And what other people are so blessed like us to have a god who walks with them, forgives their sins, and hears their prayers? There is no other god like that—only our God.
Perhaps today you are not feeling so blessed. Not true, you are blessed beyond measure, because you belong to Almighty God. And when that truth hits you today—and I pray that it does—perhaps you will respond as the psalmist did in his final verse,
Exalt the LORD our God and worship at his holy mountain, for the LORD our God is holy. (Psalm 98:9)
How blessed you are to be able to approach the Unapproachable!
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