The holiness code of Leviticus declares this: “You shall be holy to me; for I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from the other peoples to be mine” (Leviticus 20:26; also 19:2). Writing more than a thousand years later, the psalmist echoes this theme: “Extol the Lord our God; worship at his footstool. Holy is he!” (Psalm 99:5).

The psalmist is convinced that the Lord is not just a local god, good for us but insignificant to the other tribes and peoples in the neighborhood. “The Lord is great in Zion; he is exalted over all the peoples. Let them praise your great and awesome name. Holy is he!” (99:2-3). The whole earth can shiver in awe before the Lord: “The Lord is king; let the peoples tremble!” (99:1).

If we are to live in holiness, what will that mean? The psalmist might have listed many aspects to holiness: here the emphasis especially falls on justice. “Mighty King, lover of justice, you have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness” (99:4). How will we bring our hearts, our communities and our nation, into alignment with this, insisting that justice must be established, so that we might live in the holiness that our God expects of us?

For the Lord our God is a God of forgiveness, but also a God that will bring vengeance upon us for our sins (99:8). We often suppose this must be an absolute either-or: if God forgives us, there’s no more room for punishment; if God punishes us, there is no forgiveness. But the psalmist saw more clearly than we do, understanding that both punishment and forgiveness were held in God’s keeping. And in the end, needy sinners that we are, God still calls us both to obedience to the scripture (99:7) and to deeply passionate worship: “Extol the Lord our God, and worship at his holy mountain; for the Lord our God is holy” (99:9).

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You are holy, O Lord, perfect in righteousness and glory: and we are not. Justice is so far from us; we stumble like the blind. Let your grace transform our hearts, so that we might learn obedience, so that we might worship you in holiness, exalting your name forever.

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