Psalm – Psalm 99-101

We read in yesterday’s reading on 1 Chronicles of how King David conducted a nationwide referendum on whether to bring the ark of the covenant back home to the city of Zion. Today’s psalms give us this reason and more why we praise our God. We read: Psalms 99 – 101.

Bible Passage:  Psalm 99-101

“The Lord dwells between the cherubim” (Ps 99:1)

Not physically among the cherubim, yet, the Lord spiritually abides in His mercy. The cherubim represent the mercy seat atop the ark and thus the Lord is merciful. For by His mercy, our sins are relinquished and we receive forgiveness.

Mercy is an abstract concept, very much similar to grace. When we grasp how amazing grace is, then we can understand how boundless is the Lord’s mercy. It requires us to revere His presence, and to honour His commandments (what’s within the ark).

At the same time, “the King’s strength also loves justice” (Ps 99:4). While the Lord is merciful, He demands justice from His people. These two go hand in hand in the kingdom of God. We receive His mercy, He demands justice from us.

For the perfect symmetry present in all all-complete God, we give praise to Him!

“Know that the Lord, He is God, He made us” (Ps 100:3)

What more could be said of us the created when we seek a response to our Creator? It seems like we can never grow weary of the marvel that God created us. To the rest of the world, it is they themselves that they seek to please, because they choose their own destiny in life. But to us, we know that God made us for Himself. We are His people, We are His sheep.

When the shepherd cares for us, we fear no evil. We may walk beside dangerous ravines, but we place our trust in Him. Those tortuous pathways and rock steeps will lead us into His courts. When we grow weary of the mundane tasks in life, we have the comfort of being His, and we have a place to call our home.

“I (will) cut off all the evildoers from the city of the Lord” (Ps 101:8)

That is the promise of God revealed to David. We trust in that reassuring hope that heaven holds no place for sinners and evil ones. In God’s kingdom, we praise Him for mercy and justice once again (cf. Ps 101:1).

Before all that can happen though, there is the work that we need to do on earth. All of these are seen in Ps 101:2-7. When we fulfil them, we are not the evildoers but the ones who find favour with God in His house.

In particular, v2, 4, 5, and 7 stand out because they remind me of the smallest twitch in my life that can cause me to fall short of God’s standard. These are no easy standards to attain to. “Behave wisely in a PERFECT way” says David, and we will be dwelling in God’s city.

How is that possible? We have often heard that no one can be perfect, but we all attain to completeness according to the individual standards set for us by God.

Admittedly, this is a lifelong endeavour, but we must continue to sing of God’s mercy for us so that we can achieve it. We should continue to seek God’s justice so that we also are just, just like Him.

Just to share a nice song I came across: