In conversations with folks in my community, I find that most folks believe that God exists. Sure, I run into atheists, but few are willing to say that all we are and all we experience is a result of random chance. Most folks recognize that God is, but not near as many recognize who God is. Psalm 99 sets forth who God is. God is an awful God. Listen, Psalm 99. The Lord reigns. Let the nations tremble. He sits enthroned between the cherubim. Let the earth shake. Great is the Lord in Zion. He is exalted over all the nations. Let them praise your great and awesome name. He is holy. The king is mighty, he loves justice. You have established equity. In Jacob you have done what is just and right. Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his footstool. He is holy. 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. He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud. They kept his statutes and the decrees he gave them. Lord our God, you answered them. You were to Israel a forgiving God, though you punished their misdeeds. Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His holy mountain, for the Lord our God is holy. Hi, I'm Pastor Joel of Heart City Church and we are sampling the Psalms. And Psalm 99 is the last of a set we would call the Royal Psalms. Psalms that show God's majesty on his heavenly throne. And Psalm 99 reveals not only that God is, but who God is. God is an awful God, and I'm speaking of the older sense of that word, full of awe. God is awe-inspiring, a God to fear. We should be full of profound dread of our God. In Jewish literature, the way they emphasize something was not with capital letters or underlining, but they emphasize something by repetition. Did you hear the threefold repetition in Psalm 99? There are three sections, and each end with, God is holy. Who is God? God is holy, holy, holy. In the first section, we read about the Seraphim. These are the magnificent angels that surround God's throne. As we read in Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4, they ceaselessly cry to God, Holy, Holy, Holy. God sits alone in heaven as the one who causes all people to tremble and the earth to shake. This really captures the first sense of what it means that God is holy. God is completely separate from all creation. It's the wonder of a child who asks you, who made God? And there is no answer. He always has been and always will be. God is completely other. This is why every time a person encounters God in the fullness of His glory in the Bible, they are overwhelmed as they experience for the first time what their creatureliness really is. Only when we stand before the awful God on that last day will we discover the gall, the horror of Satan's temptation. When we bought into that lie, you will be like God. Genesis 3, 5. The second section of the psalm speaks then of the sense of holiness that we're familiar with. Holiness in terms of morality. We hear about the justice of God, doing what is right. And here's where we often go wrong. We tend to see holiness as a sliding scale. So like a mass murderer would be on the low end, perhaps scoring a 1 or a 2. And if we're upstanding citizens, you know, who go to church, don't swear, we pay our taxes, well we might score an 8 or maybe even a 9. And God smiles at our holiness. Friends, let's put Jesus, God's Holy Son, on that scale. And of course, He's at the highest point, a perfect 10. Are you still thinking that you're an 8 or a 9, cozying up close to Jesus? Uh-uh. In fact, we slide all the way down to the other end of the holiness scale with the worst of people. every bad thought, everything that we've ever failed to do. These are what R.C. Sproul rightly calls acts of cosmic treason. He writes, sin is treason against a perfectly pure sovereign. It is an act of supreme ingratitude toward the one to whom we owe everything, to the one who has given us life itself. Have you ever considered the deeper implications of the slightest sin? We are saying, God, your law is not good. My judgment is better than yours. Your authority doesn't apply to me. I am above and beyond your jurisdiction. I have the right to do what I want to do, not what you command me to do. The last section then gives the testimonies of three of Israel's greatest leaders, Moses, Aaron, and Samuel, and each testify to God and His forgiveness, while also affirming God punishes all sin, and they recall the terror of God at the holy mountain. Friends, Psalm 99 tells us that God is awful. Yes, I know. God is love. God is kind. God is patient. But God is never described in the superlative in three-fold repetition as love, love, love, or kindness, kindness, kindness, or any other characteristic. But God in the Bible is described again and again as holy, holy, holy. That ought to humble us, even as we see and experience so much unholiness, so many injustices in our world. In light of God's otherness, and God's staggering demand for our absolute perfection, well, let us be staggered at the cross of Christ. were the only holy man to ever live before God on this earth, who was punished for sins that he did not commit, so that you and I could be made like him. And it is all of grace, all of grace, that fallen folks like you and I could be made holy like our God. My friend, remember who you are and who you belong to.