The Terrible Goodness of God Text: Psalm 99:6-9
Introduction: A God You Can't Tame
We live in an age that wants a manageable god. The modern imagination, when it allows for a god at all, wants a deity who is more of a cosmic therapist, a divine butler, or a celestial teddy bear. He must be endlessly affirming, entirely non-judgmental, and His chief attribute must be a sort of vague, squishy niceness. He is a god who would never make anyone uncomfortable, a god who fits neatly into our political platforms and personal preferences. The problem is that this god does not exist. He is an idol carved out of sentimentalism and rebellion. The God who does exist, the God of the Bible, is altogether different. He is holy.
The end of Psalm 99 is a threefold declaration of God's holiness. The refrain echoes through the psalm: "He is holy... He is holy... holy is Yahweh our God." And this holiness is not a tame, domesticated quality. It is terrifying. It is a consuming fire. It is an unapproachable light. And yet, this psalm shows us that this holy God is a God who answers prayer, a God who forgives, and a God who draws near to His people through mediators.
This passage presents us with what looks like a stark contradiction to our modern sensibilities. It holds two truths in tension that our generation wants to pry apart. It tells us that God is a forgiving God, and yet He is also an avenger of evil deeds. We want to take the forgiveness and quietly dispose of the vengeance. We want the cuddly parts of the gospel without the sharp edges of the law. But the Bible will not let us do this. God's forgiveness is not cheap grace; it is costly. It is a holy forgiveness, and it is extended to us precisely because His holy vengeance against sin has been fully satisfied. To understand this is to understand the very heart of the gospel.
So we must come to this text prepared to have our categories challenged. We must be willing to worship a God who is both a Savior and a Judge, a God whose mercy and justice kiss at the cross. We must learn to exalt the God who is actually there, not the one we have fashioned for ourselves.
The Text
Moses and Aaron were among His priests, And Samuel was among those who called on His name; They would call upon Yahweh and He would answer them. He would speak to them in the pillar of cloud; They kept His testimonies And the statute that He gave them. O Yahweh our God, You answered them; You were a forgiving God to them, And yet an avenger of their evil deeds. Exalt Yahweh our God And worship at His holy mountain, For holy is Yahweh our God.
(Psalm 99:6-9 LSB)
God's Appointed Go-Betweens (v. 6)
The psalm now turns from the general call to worship to specific, historical examples. It grounds our worship in God's actual dealings with His people.
"Moses and Aaron were among His priests, And Samuel was among those who called on His name; They would call upon Yahweh and He would answer them." (Psalm 99:6)
The psalmist brings three men to the witness stand: Moses, Aaron, and Samuel. Why these three? Because they represent the foundational offices of mediation in Israel. Moses was the great lawgiver and prophet. Aaron was the first high priest. Samuel was the last of the judges and a prophet who anointed kings. They were the go-betweens. They stood in the gap between a holy God and a sinful people.
Notice the pattern here. The people sin, God's wrath is kindled, and these men intercede. They "call upon Yahweh." This is not a casual chat. This is desperate, believing prayer. When the people made the golden calf, Moses interceded and God relented (Exodus 32). When the people grumbled, Aaron stood with his censer between the living and the dead to stop a plague (Numbers 16). When the people were oppressed by the Philistines, Samuel cried out to the Lord and He thundered from heaven (1 Samuel 7).
And the testimony is clear: "He would answer them." This is the foundation of our confidence. God is not a distant, deistic monarch. He is a God who hears and responds. He involves Himself in the messy affairs of His people. The fact that God answers prayer is a fundamental truth about His character. He is a conversational God. But this conversation, in the Old Covenant, was channeled through these specific, appointed men. This points us forward. These men, as great as they were, were types and shadows. They were placeholders for the one, true Mediator who was to come, the Lord Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, Prophet, and King.
The Basis of Fellowship (v. 7)
But this relationship was not a free-for-all. It had terms. God set the rules of engagement.
"He would speak to them in the pillar of cloud; They kept His testimonies And the statute that He gave them." (Psalm 99:7 LSB)
God's communication was tangible and awe-inspiring. He spoke from a pillar of cloud and fire. This was the visible manifestation of His holy presence, His Shekinah glory. It was a constant reminder that they were dealing with the transcendent Creator, not a local tribal deity. This was a fearful thing. You did not approach this cloud on your own terms.
And the response required from these mediators, and through them the people, was obedience. "They kept His testimonies and the statute that He gave them." Fellowship with God is conditioned on covenant faithfulness. You cannot claim to be in a relationship with God while trampling His law underfoot. To call upon His name means to submit to His name. Moses, Aaron, and Samuel were answered because they took God's Word seriously. They honored His law. This is not legalism; it is the necessary structure of a covenant relationship. Grace does not obliterate law; it fulfills it and writes it on our hearts.
This is where so much of modern evangelicalism goes off the rails. We want the intimacy of God's presence without the demands of His Word. We want Him to speak to us, but we don't want to keep His testimonies. We want the pillar of cloud without the stone tablets. But God's presence and God's precepts are bound together. To love Him is to keep His commandments.
The Terrible Tension of Grace (v. 8)
This next verse is the theological heart of the passage. It is a compact statement of the gospel that should make us tremble and rejoice at the same time.
"O Yahweh our God, You answered them; You were a forgiving God to them, And yet an avenger of their evil deeds." (Psalm 99:8 LSB)
Here is the paradox. God is a forgiving God. The Hebrew word here for forgiving implies lifting a burden, carrying it away. God, in His mercy, does not hold their sins against them in a final, damning sense. He pardons. He restores. He is rich in mercy.
But in the very same breath, the psalmist says God is "an avenger of their evil deeds." He brings retribution. He punishes wrongdoing. He does not simply shrug His shoulders at sin. He takes it with deadly seriousness. How can these two things be true of the same God, often in response to the same people?
We see this clearly in the lives of the men mentioned. God forgave Aaron for his role in the golden calf incident, but he was barred from entering the Promised Land. God forgave Moses for striking the rock, but he too was kept out of Canaan. God forgave the people time and again in the wilderness, but that entire generation, save two, perished there because of their unbelief. God's forgiveness does not always eliminate the temporal consequences of our sin. There is a fatherly discipline that comes from His hand precisely because we are His children (Hebrews 12:6).
But the ultimate resolution of this tension is found at the cross. How can God be both just (an avenger) and the justifier of the wicked (a forgiver)? The answer is the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ. On the cross, God poured out the full measure of His holy vengeance against our evil deeds upon His own Son. He was the ultimate avenger of sin at Calvary. And because that wrath was fully satisfied, He can now be a forgiving God to all who are in Christ. He doesn't waive the penalty; He transfers it. Our sin was avenged, just not on us. This is why our forgiveness is not a flimsy, sentimental thing. It is a just and holy forgiveness, purchased with blood. God did not compromise His holiness to save us; He satisfied it.
The Only Right Response (v. 9)
Given who this God is, what is the only sane, logical, and joyful response? The psalm concludes with a final, emphatic call to worship.
"Exalt Yahweh our God And worship at His holy mountain, For holy is Yahweh our God." (Psalm 99:9 LSB)
We are to "exalt" Him, to lift Him high in our praises and in our lives. We are to "worship at His holy mountain." In the Old Testament, this was Zion, the location of the Temple, the place where God's presence dwelt in a special way. It was the center of the world, liturgically speaking.
But for us, the writer to the Hebrews tells us that we have not come to a physical mountain that can be touched, but "to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem" (Hebrews 12:22). Our worship now ascends to the true holy mountain, to the heavenly reality where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. When we gather for worship on the Lord's Day, we are, by the Spirit, joining that heavenly assembly. We are participating in the worship that is happening right now at the true holy mountain.
And why do we do this? What is the ultimate reason? "For holy is Yahweh our God." This is the foundation and the pinnacle of everything. His holiness is the reason for His forgiveness and the reason for His vengeance. His holiness is the reason we need a mediator, and the reason Christ's mediation is effective. His holiness is the reason for our worship. We worship Him not because He is useful, not because He makes us feel good, but because He is worthy. He is set apart. He is in a category all by Himself. He is holy, holy, holy. And a people who have been saved by such a God, forgiven by His terrible goodness, can do nothing less than exalt Him forever.