THE LORD REIGNS
Opening Prayer
Thank you, Lord God for making yourself known to me and for giving me countless reasons to worship you. Thank you for your Word that teaches me to worship you in spirit and in truth.
Read PSALM 99
Psalm 99
1 The Lord reigns,
let the nations tremble;
he sits enthroned between the cherubim,
let the earth shake.
2 Great is the Lord in Zion;
he is exalted over all the nations.
3 Let them praise your great and awesome name—
he is holy.
4 The King is mighty, he loves justice—
you have established equity;
in Jacob you have done
what is just and right.
5 Exalt the Lord our God
and worship at his footstool;
he is holy.
6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests,
Samuel was among those who called on his name;
they called on the Lord
and he answered them.
7 He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud;
they kept his statutes and the decrees he gave them.
8 Lord our God,
you answered them;
you were to Israel a forgiving God,
though you punished their misdeeds.[a]
9 Exalt the Lord our God
and worship at his holy mountain,
for the Lord our God is holy.
Footnotes
- Psalm 99:8 Or God, / an avenger of the wrongs done to them
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Acknowledge God as the King of your life. Ask him to reveal more of what that might mean in practice.The Lord reigns! The rulers of the nations have power, but only in so far as God allows. The psalm is a celebration of God’s rule over Israel. At her best, Israel recognized and lived under God’s rule in a way that other nations did not. She thus became, in fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham, a blessing to other nations by modeling what living under God’s rule could be like (Genesis 12:2, 3). Look back through the psalm to see what marked God’s rule.
God is great, awesome, and holy—beyond our understanding, and yet intimately involved with us. Not only does God rule justly (v. 4), he also enters into a relationship with his people. He speaks to them (v. 7), he sets boundaries for their own good, and he holds them accountable (v. 8). The same is true for us as we enter into relationship with him through Jesus. Israel experienced the forgiveness of God (v. 8) through the system of sacrifices, but we find forgiveness through the death of Jesus. So, we can join in this wonderful celebration, praising this great God whom we can never fully understand but who is worthy of our worship.
Apply
Identify three things, from the psalm or from your own experience, for which to praise God—and do it.
Closing prayer
Thank you, Father, that you are the God of Scripture, of history, and of each of my days. You always have been, are now, and always will be, worthy of all praise!
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