1 The Lord is King; let the peoples be in fear: his seat is on the winged ones; let the earth be moved.
2 The Lord is great in Zion; he is high over all the nations.
3 Let them give praise to your name, for it is great and to be feared; holy is he.
4 The king's power is used for righteousness; you give true decisions, judging rightly in the land of Jacob.
5 Give high honour to the Lord our God, worshipping at his feet; holy is he.
6 Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among those who gave honour to his name; they made prayers to the Lord, and he gave answers to them.
7 His voice came to them from the pillar of cloud; they kept his witness, and the law which he gave them.
8 You gave them an answer, O Lord our God; you took away their sin, though you gave them punishment for their wrongdoing.
9 Give high honour to the Lord our God, worshipping with your faces turned to his holy hill; for the Lord our God is holy.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 99
Commentary on Psalms 99 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 99
Still we are celebrating the glories of the kingdom of God among men, and are called upon to praise him, as in the foregoing psalms; but those psalms looked forward to the times of the gospel, and prophesied of the graces and comforts of those times; this psalm seems to dwell more upon the Old-Testament dispensation and the manifestation of God's glory and grace in that. The Jews were not, in expectation of the Messiah's kingdom and the evangelical worship, to neglect the divine regimen they were then under, and the ordinances that were then given them, but in them to see God reigning, and to worship before him according to the law of Moses. Prophecies of good things to come must not lessen our esteem of good things present. To Israel indeed pertained the promises, which they were bound to believe; but to them pertained also the giving of the law, and the service of God, which they were also bound dutifully and conscientiously to attend to, Rom. 9:4. And this they are called to do in this psalm, where yet there is much of Christ, for the government of the church was in the hands of the eternal Word before he was incarnate; and, besides, the ceremonial services were types and figures of evangelical worship. The people of Israel are here required to praise and exalt God, and to worship before him, in consideration of these two things:-
In singing this psalm we must set ourselves to exalt the name of God, as it is made known to us in the gospel, which we have much more reason to do than those had who lived under the law.
Psa 99:1-5
The foundation of all religion is laid in this truth, That the Lord reigns. God governs the world by his providence, governs the church by his grace, and both by his Son. We are to believe not only that the Lord lives, but that the Lord reigns. This is the triumph of the Christian church, and here it was the triumph of the Jewish church, that Jehovah was their King; and hence it is inferred, Let the people tremble, that is,
God's kingdom, set up in Israel, is here made the subject of the psalmist's praise.
Psa 99:6-9
The happiness of Israel in God's government is here further made out by some particular instances of his administration, especially with reference to those that were, in their day, the prime leaders and most active useful governors of that people-Moses, Aaron, and Samuel, in the two former of whom the theocracy or divine government began (for they were employed to form Israel into a people) and in the last of whom that form of government, in a great measure, ended; for when the people rejected Samuel, and urged him to resign, they are said to reject God himself, that he should not be so immediately their king as he had been (1 Sa. 8:7), for now they would have a king, like all the nations. Moses, as well as Aaron, is said to be among his priests, for he executed the priest's office till Aaron was settled in it and he consecrated Aaron and his sons; therefore the Jews call him the priest of the priests. Now concerning these three chief rulers observe,