The Unshakable Throne and the Trembling Earth Text: Psalm 99:1-3
Introduction: The Politics of Reality
We live in an age that is pathologically political. Every man has his candidate, every tribe has its flag, and every faction believes that if they can just seize the levers of power, they can finally fix the world. Our news cycles are a perpetual motion machine of manufactured panic and outrage, all of it designed to convince you that the most important throne in the universe is located in Washington D.C., or Brussels, or Beijing. Men invest their hopes and fears in political systems, economic theories, and Supreme Court nominations. And because their hopes are built on sand, their fears are constant and their rage is impotent.
The modern world, in its frantic search for a savior, has forgotten what a king is. They have forgotten what true authority looks like. They have constructed a worldview that has no room for an absolute monarch, and so they are perpetually baffled when their little republics and democracies begin to shudder and crack. They are like men trying to build a skyscraper on a trampoline, wondering why everything is so wobbly. They have rejected the foundation, and so the whole structure is doomed to collapse.
Into this chaos of trembling nations and quaking institutions, Psalm 99 speaks a word of absolute, bedrock certainty. It does not offer a political program; it declares a political reality. It does not suggest a new way of ordering society; it announces the way the cosmos is already ordered, whether men acknowledge it or not. This psalm is a declaration of God's total, exhaustive, and holy reign. It is a summons for the earth to get in line with reality. And the reality is this: Yahweh reigns. This is not a campaign promise. It is the fundamental fact of the universe. And our response to this fact determines everything.
This psalm is part of a series of psalms, from 93 to 100, that are often called the Enthronement Psalms. They are a great chorus of praise, declaring that the Lord is King. This is not just pious sentiment. It is a direct assault on every idol, every human pretender, and every autonomous institution that would dare to claim final authority. It tells us where the real throne is, who sits on it, and what the only sane reaction is to this reality.
The Text
Yahweh reigns, let the peoples tremble;
He sits enthroned above the cherubim, let the earth quake!
Yahweh is great in Zion,
And He is exalted above all the peoples.
Let them praise Your great and awesome name;
Holy is He.
(Psalm 99:1-3 LSB)
The Reign That Shakes the World (v. 1)
The psalm opens with the central declaration of all history.
"Yahweh reigns, let the peoples tremble; He sits enthroned above the cherubim, let the earth quake!" (Psalm 99:1)
The statement is blunt: "Yahweh reigns." This is the Hebrew equivalent of dropping a boulder into a pond. Everything ripples out from this. This is not a statement that Yahweh will reign one day if we all vote correctly. It is not that He reigns in heaven but is wringing His hands about earth. He reigns now. His rule is not partial; it is total. It extends to every subatomic particle, every star in the Andromeda galaxy, and every secret thought in the heart of a king. Not a single molecule in the universe is a maverick. This is the absolute sovereignty of God, and it is the only thing that keeps the universe from flying apart into meaningless chaos.
And what is the proper response to this reign? "Let the peoples tremble." This is not the trembling of a slave before a capricious tyrant. It is the trembling of a creature before the uncreated reality of his Creator. It is the awe-full recognition that you are not the center of the universe. It is the healthy fear that banishes all other fears. If you fear God properly, you will fear nothing else. If you do not fear God, you will be afraid of everything: the economy, the climate, the polls, your neighbor. This trembling is the beginning of wisdom. It is the sanity of seeing things as they are. The nations rage and plot and scheme precisely because they refuse to tremble before the King of all nations.
Where does He reign from? "He sits enthroned above the cherubim." This is not a throwaway line about angelic furniture. This imagery points directly to the Ark of the Covenant, where the glory of God dwelt above the mercy seat, which was flanked by two golden cherubim. These are not the chubby, sentimental babies of Renaissance art. Cherubim in Scripture are terrifying, formidable creatures, guardians of the holy presence of God. Think of the cherubim with the flaming sword who guarded the way back to Eden. They are like the ultimate Secret Service. To be enthroned above the cherubim is to be seated at the very control center of the universe, in a place of unapproachable holiness and power. It signifies that His reign is not abstract, but specific, covenantal, and holy.
The result of this enthronement is that the earth must "quake." This is not just poetic hyperbole. When the uncreated God touches His creation in power, things shake. The mountains smoked and quaked at Sinai. The earth shook at the crucifixion and the resurrection. And when God's reign is finally and fully consummated, the heavens and the earth will be shaken one last time, so that what cannot be shaken may remain (Heb. 12:27). The stability of the believer is found in clinging to the unshakable King whose very presence shakes everything that is shakable.
The King in His City (v. 2)
The psalmist now brings this universal reign into a specific focus.
"Yahweh is great in Zion, And He is exalted above all the peoples." (Psalm 99:2 LSB)
Zion was the mountain in Jerusalem where the temple stood. It was the place where God had put His name. It was the capital city of His covenant people. To say that "Yahweh is great in Zion" is to say that His universal, cosmic kingship has a particular, earthly address. His reign is not a vague, philosophical concept; it is a historical, covenantal reality. He is not just the God of the cosmos; He is the God who has chosen a people and dwells among them.
But we must read this with New Covenant eyes. The writer to the Hebrews tells us that we have not come to the physical Mount Zion, but to "Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem" (Heb. 12:22). Zion, in its ultimate fulfillment, is the Church of Jesus Christ. It is the assembly of the saints, the people of God called out from all nations. This is where God's greatness is particularly displayed. The world sees the greatness of God in the mountains and the stars, but it is in the Church, in the forgiveness of sins, in the transformation of lives, in the fellowship of the saints, that the manifold wisdom of God is made known to the principalities and powers (Eph. 3:10).
And because He is great in Zion, He is therefore "exalted above all the peoples." His particular work in His Church is the basis for His universal claim over all nations. God is not one tribal deity among many. The God of Zion is the God of all the earth. The salvation He works in the midst of His people is the salvation that will, in the end, subdue all His enemies and cause every knee to bow. The Church is the capital city of the coming global kingdom of Jesus Christ.
The Name Above All Names (v. 3)
The psalm concludes this section with a call to worship, grounded in the very character of God.
"Let them praise Your great and awesome name; Holy is He." (Psalm 99:3 LSB)
The "peoples" who were trembling in verse one are now summoned to praise. This is the great trajectory of the gospel. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but it is not the end. That fear, when joined with faith in Christ, blossoms into joyful praise. The nations are called to praise His "great and awesome name." The word for "awesome" here is the Hebrew word for "terrible" or "fearsome." It is the same root used to describe the fear of God. We have domesticated God. We think of His name as something nice, something pleasant. But the Bible says His name is fearsome. It is a name that commands ultimate respect. It is the name of the one who spoke the universe into existence and who can unmake it with a word.
Why is His name so great and awesome? The psalm gives the ultimate reason in three simple words: "Holy is He." This is the bedrock. This is the foundational attribute of God from which all others flow. What does it mean that God is holy? In the Old Testament, the primary meaning was separation. God is utterly separate from His creation. He is other. He is not part of the system. He is in a category all by Himself. This is the Creator/creature distinction, and to forget it is the beginning of all idolatry. It is also a moral separation. He is separate from all sin, all impurity, all darkness.
But in the New Testament, we see another dimension of His holiness. In Jesus Christ, the Holy One of God, we see a holiness that is not just separate, but contagious. It is a conquering holiness. When Jesus, who is perfectly holy, touched a leper, the uncleanness did not defile Him. Rather, His holiness cleansed the leper. His life conquered death. His purity overwhelms our sin. This is the holiness of God that we are called to praise. He is not a distant, sterile deity. He is the holy God who, in Christ, has drawn near to make us holy.
Conclusion: The Holy King Is Our Father
So what do we do with a psalm like this? We must first allow it to re-calibrate our entire worldview. The central fact of reality is not who is in the White House, but who is on the Throne of Heaven. Yahweh reigns. This is the truth that stabilizes our souls in a quaking world. Our institutions will fail us. Our politicians will betray us. Our economies will falter. But His throne is established of old; it cannot be moved.
Second, we must respond appropriately. We must tremble. We must cast away our casual, chummy, buddy-Christ approach to God and recover a sense of His majesty and His awesome holiness. This is not a call to despair, but a call to sanity. It is in fearing Him that we find the courage to face anything else.
And finally, we must praise Him. The great terror of the Old Testament was, "How can a sinful man stand before this holy God?" The great glory of the New Testament is that we can. Because this King, enthroned above the cherubim, is the very one who stepped down from that throne. The eternal Son, Jesus Christ, became a man. He lived a perfect life, and He died on a Roman cross, taking the judgment for our treason upon Himself. The throne of God, which was a place of terror for the sinner, has now, through the blood of Christ, become a throne of grace (Heb. 4:16).
Because of Jesus, we who are part of Zion, the Church, can look at the great and awesome King of the universe and not be consumed. We can see His conquering holiness not as a threat, but as our salvation. He is the King who quakes the earth, and He is the Father who gathers His children. Therefore, let the peoples tremble, and let the redeemed rejoice. For Yahweh reigns, and He is holy.