“Describing God in One Word”
(Psalm 99)
Have you ever had to look for the right word to describe something? A place (Man, that’s beautiful, it’s breathtaking), A smell (ugh, that’s awful, it’s horrible), How about a taste? (uuumm, good, rich, yummy)
Sometimes it’s hard to put into words when we want to accurately describe something. Let me ask you a question, “How would you describe God?” Awesome? Loving? Merciful? Gracious? Just? What if you could use just one word to describe Him? Could you do it?
Turn if you will, to Psalm 99. I’ve entitled tonight’s message, “Describing God in One Word”. There are only 9 verses in this psalm and in these 9 verses we’re going to get the answer to the question I asked a minute ago. (Read Psalm 99/ Pray).
Well, as you can see in this psalm if you could use just one word to describe God I believe it would be “Holy!” I’ll tell you some reasons I’m convinced of this. Now, we used some other words a minute ago to describe God like awesome and love and God certainly is both of those. But when we pick up our hymnal and sing praises to God, do we sing “Awesome, awesome, awesome, Lord God Almighty?” No! We sing “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty.”
I’ll tell you another reason. In Isaiah chapter6, Isaiah said, “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood Seraphim (that’s a certain type of angel that were some type of agents of cleansing), each had six wings; with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried out to another and said, Love, Love, Love is the Lord God Almighty! Eternal, Eternal, Eternal is the Lord God Almighty? Faithful, Faithful, Faithful is the Lord God Almighty? Wise, Wise, Wise is the Lord God Almighty?” No! They cried out, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.”
Folks, God is Holy! Holiness is probably the most significant of all of God’s characteristics. The word “Holy” in the Greek is the word “Hagios”, which means separateness, a separation from sin or any kind of evil or impurity. God is the only One who possesses that characteristic in absolute perfection. Psalm 111:9 says, “Holy and reverent is His name.” Job 6:10 refers to God as “The Holy One.” I Samuel 2:2 says, “There is none Holy like the Lord for there is none besides Thee.” (Again that’s a part of the Holy, Holy, Holy hymn)
Folks, when we look at the word of God we see the words “Holy Bible.” His word is Holy. Not only is His word Holy, His day is Holy. In the Old Testament when the Tabernacle was assembled, the place behind the veil, where the Ark of the Covenant was located was called “The Holy of Holies” because that’s where God was. He said, “To those who approach Me I will show Myself Holy.” He even tells us to be Holy because He is Holy (Lev. 11:45). Speaking of the Ark of the Covenant, if you’ve ever seen a picture or a drawing of it, you’ll see two angels on top of it with their wings covering the Ark. That type of angel is known as the Cheribum. They are responsible for guarding the Holiness of God.
Well, holiness is one of His characteristics and in Psalm 99 there are 3 areas that show the Holiness of God.
The first one is that God is,
I.Holy in His Person – verses 1-3.
Did you know that God is a person? He’s not just a force that guides us through life. He’s personal! He has intellect. He has emotion. He has will. That’s what personality consists of – mind, will, and emotion. It’s what make a person a person.
Verse 1 says, “The Lord reigns, let the people tremble. ”Well, let me tell you something folks, only a person can lead! Look at verse 2, “The Lord is great in Zion, and He is high above all the peoples.”
Remember Isaiah chapter 6 earlier – high and lifted up? That’s what Holy means, “to be set apart from.” God is set apart from sin. He can’t be around it. Did you know that God has 2 different kinds of characteristics that make Him God?
First of all, He has what are called “Natural Characteristics.” They all start with the letter “o.” They are Omniscience, which basically means that God is all knowing. He is unlimited in knowledge. He knows everything. He knows everything you’ve ever done or will do. You can’t hide anything from God so don’t try.
The second characteristic is God is Omnipotent, which means that God is all-powerful. He is able to do whatever He wills to do. How do you think the world came into being? God spoke the word and this universe came into being, situated itself and went into motion under His command. Psalm 33: 6 says, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the hosts of them by the breath of His mouth.” Psalm 33:9 says, “For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.”
Only God could do that!
The third of these characteristics is tells us that God is Omnipresent, which means that God is able to be everywhere at the same time. All of God in every place! Now in our finite minds and our limited understanding, we can’t explain that but we don’t have too! Since God is able to be everywhere, that explains how He can live in my heat and your heart and in the hearts of people all over the world.
God is distinct! God is high and lifted up, separated from sin and He’s perfect! And you know what? The devil’s not! Now, he knows a lot but he’s not all knowing. He’s powerful but he’s not all-powerful. The Bible says, ”Greater is He that is within us than he that’s in the world.” The devil’s in the world but he can’t be everywhere at the same time like God can. God is all knowing, all-powerful and everywhere present. Only God possesses those characteristics.
But God also has what are known as “Moral Characteristics.” These are characteristics that God possesses in absolute perfection but we can possess too in a relative sense. Some of those characteristics are Truth, Love, Righteousness and Holiness. (Explain these)
We can be Holy but not in absolute perfection like God is. You know why? Because we’re so used to being around sin all the time. It’s all around us in this world we live in. That’s what we’re used to seeing and being and being around. But God is Holy. He is Holy in His person. He’s not only Holy in His person. God is,
II.Holy in His Principles – Look at verses 4-5.
Did you know that God has a certain way of doing things? So do we, but the difference between the two is that God always operates from Holiness and righteousness and we don’t! That’s why He set standards for us. He doesn’t come down to our standards, we are to come up to His! You know why? Because He is our standard! You know what God’s standards are don’t you? Perfection and Holiness! Now, as sinners we’d be in big trouble if it weren’t for one person – the Lord Jesus Christ! When we trust Jesus we put on His righteousness and not our own because the Bible says in Isaiah 64:6 that “We are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousness is like a filthy rag.”
You know that’s a great verse when we look at who we are in comparison to God?
You’ve read about and heard about leprosy in the Bible and when a leper came near someone they had to cry out, “unclean, unclean.” They had to be kept away from everybody else because they were deadly contagious. Well, if you could take off some of the bandages wrapped around a leper’s arm and look at it up close, do you know what you would see? It’s dirty, it’s rotten, it stinks, it’s infected and it’s diseased!
The Bible says without the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives, that’s the way our righteousness is, just like that filthy rag from the leper’s arm. But when Christ comes into our lives it’s not our righteousness God sees, it’s His Son’s! So we don’t have to worry about measuring up to God’s standards because we can’t. But Jesus can because He’s perfect and we depend on His righteousness.
God only moves in one direction – The Right Direction! He always does the right thing the right way. And He wants us to do the same. Micah 6:8 says, “He has shown you, O man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” We are to do the right thing when the opportunity comes. Look at verse 4, “The King’s strength also loves justice, you have established equity.” God not only does the right thing, He does the impartial thing and the fair thing! But here’s what else a Holy God does, He straightens out lives! Look further in verse 4, “You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.”
Remember Jacob? He’s one of the Old Testament patriarchs. He’s a key player in the Old Testament. The 12 tribes of Israel came from him. But did you know how he started out? He was kind of a low-life! The Bible says he was mild mannered and dwelt in tents. He didn’t even go outside much! He was a mama’s boy. He conned his brother out of his birthright and got the blessing from his dad instead of his brother. Needless to say, that caused quite a stir and as a result of that he had to flee for his life.
But guess what happened? At a place called Bethel, Jacob had a life-changing encounter with the living God and he was never the same! That’s what happens when the King establishes righteousness in our lives. There’s a change and we should thank Him for that change everyday of our lives. But do we? Look at all He’s brought us through. Look at what He’s brought us to. Folks, our best friend is the Creator of the universe!
The one true living God is Holy in His person. He’s set apart from all sin. He’s Holy in His principles. He always does the right thing, the right way and as a result, right things take place. The final thing I want us to see in Psalm 99 about God is that God is,
III.Holy in His Presence – Look at verses 6-9.
Now, there are 3 people mentioned here. You have Moses, the prophet God used to bring the nation out of bondage. Remember what God told Moses on Mt. Sinai when He spoke to Him from the burning bush? What did He say? He said, “Take off your sandals, for the ground on which you stand is Holy ground.” Do you know why it was Holy? Because God was there! Even the ground where God is, is Holy!
Aaron is also mentioned here. Aaron of course, was Moses’ brother and was the first high priest. He presented the sacrifices in the Tabernacle. He went into the Holy of Holies. As a matter of fact, he’s the only one who could go back there (tell about the rope around the ankle).
The high priest had to make sure his life was in order and all sin in his life was confessed before he entered the Holy of Holies. He had to be pure because he was entering the presence of God. Now, you read later on that many of the priest weren’t pure, they were defiled and offered sacrifices in the wrong way and it cost them their life! The high priest had a major responsibility!
Then it mentions Samuel. Now, Samuel’s big moment as the prophet of Israel was when the people kept bugging him about having a king like the other nations. So God sends them Saul to be Israel’s first king and Samuel was the prophet during Saul’s reign as king. You may wonder why these 3 are mentioned in these verses. Could it be that all 3 of these knew what it was like to stand in the presence of a Holy God? We’ve already mentioned Moses and Aaron, but what about Samuel? The unique thing about Samuel is that the Bible says in I Samuel 3, verse 1 that, “The word of the Lord was rare in those days, there was no widespread revelation.” The Lord wasn’t saying much to the prophets, but He did speak to a little boy and call him to be a great prophet of God. And the thing about Samuel’s case is that God wasn’t calling from some far off distance. You remember the story, Samuel is sleeping and he hears someone calling his name so he gets up and goes to Eli, thinking it’s him. Well, that happens two or three more times and Eli tells him the next time it happens to say, “speak Lord, for Your servant hears.” Well, I Samuel 3:10 says, “Now the Lord came and stood and called as at other times.” He wasn’t calling from some far off place, He was right there with Him.
Back to Psalm 99, verse 6 says, ”They called upon the Lord and He answered them.” You know what? That’s what God tells us to do. Jer. 33:3 says, “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” What a great promise! Do you think God wants us to be in the dark about things? We may feel that way sometimes but listen to this verse of scripture, it’s an important verse. Deut. 29:29 says, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever.” There are some things we need to know but there are also some things we don’t need to know.
God spoke to those who called upon Him and instructed them and showed them what to do. He’s still the same today! He hasn’t changed! When we mess up and fail Him (which we often do) He doesn’t just pack up His bags and leave us in the dark. He said, “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (Explain the word “confess”)
Folks, He forgives because He’s the God of forgiveness!
This is a Holy place where we’re assembled tonight. Not just because it’s a church but because if Christ lives in our lives and if two or three are gathered together in His name, He is here!
Notice that Psalm 99 uses the phrase “He is Holy” 3 times. He is Holy, He is Holy, He is Holy!
“Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty (Holy seems to come in three’s and 3 is the number for God in the Bible)
There are many words that we can use to describe God (many, many), but if you could just use one to describe Him that word would be the word “Holy”.
Now, I’ve said all this tonight to say this, Did you know that even though God is Holy and separated from all evil and impurity, He loves a world that’s lost in sin. He loves us so much that He sent the One that He loved the most to come and live here among us and be one of us. To live a sinless life around sinful people. To be despised and rejected of men and to be put to death on a wooden cross between two criminals.
He shed His blood and died on that cross just for you, friend. He paid the price that we couldn’t pay. And if you’ll put your trust in Him tonight, He’ll give you eternal life! That’s a promise from His word and everything God says is truth so it can be relied on when nothing else can!
Folks, my question to you is “What will you do with Jesus?”
Prayer/Invitation
