Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 99:5
Exalt ye the LORD our God, and worship at his footstool; [for] he [is] holy.
5. his footstool ] In 1Ch 28:2 the Ark is called Jehovah’s footstool, and so too probably in Psa 132:7; but as there was no Ark in the Second Temple, the Temple itself must be meant here, or possibly (cp. Psa 99:9) Zion. Cp. Lam 2:1; Isa 60:13; Isa 66:1 (of the earth).
for he is holy ] Holy is he.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Exalt ye the Lord our God – See the notes at Psa 30:1. The meaning is, Let his name be, as it were, lifted up on high, so as to be conspicuous or seen from afar. Let it be done with a lofty voice; let it be with ascriptions of praise.
And worship at his footstool – By humble prostration at his feet. The footstool is that on which the feet rest when one is sitting, and the reference here is to the footstool on which the feet of a king rested when he sat on his throne or chair of state. To worship at his footstool – compare 1Ch 28:2; Psa 132:7 – denotes the deepest humility and the profoundest prostration and reverence. It is as if we could not look on his face, or on his throne, or on his gorgeous and magnificent robes, but bowed our heads in lowly reverence, and deemed it sufficient honor to lie low before that on which his feet rested. To show the dignity and majesty of God, the earth itself is represented as being merely his footstool; as being, in comparison with the heaven – the place of his seat – his throne, only as the footstool is as compared with the splendid chair of state. Isa 66:1; Mat 5:34-35.
For he is holy – See Psa 99:3. Margin, it is holy. The translation in the text best expresses the sense. The fact that God is holy is a reason for lowly and profound prostration before him.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 99:5
Exalt ye the Lord our God, and worship at His footstool; for He is holy.
Jehovah exalted
The grand distinction between real godliness and every description of its counterfeit lies in this one point; all counterfeit professions tend to exalt the creature, and all real godliness aims at exalting God alone.
I. The first principle of Christianity is the exalting of Jehovah. Exalt ye the Lord our God, by ascribing to Him the plan of salvation whereby millions upon millions of ruined sinners shall be brought home to glory.
II. The order of worship which exalts Jehovah, and which we are called on to do personally. Worship at His footstool.
1. Mark the position, and say, have you ever been there, so low at the footstool of Divine mercy as to be ashamed and confounded before God, respecting all that we find and feel in ourselves, and yet favoured with a glimpse of Divine glory in the face of Jesus Christ by a supernatural aid? Oh, wondrous position! Then, indeed, we may look on the world, with all its toys and trifles, as utterly contemptible. This is not only compatible with, but the true consequence of, the highest attainments a Christian can make.
2. Now what shall we say about the worship? The two prominent acts of worship are prayer and praise; and I do not know if they may not be said to include everything. But they must be in spirit and in truth; and if our offering of prayer is a mere ceremony, a mere repetition of words, a mere display of talent, it is rather mockery than worship.
III. The reason assigned. For He is holy. All the persons and perfections of Deity are our inheritance, to be enjoyed personally as long as eternity shall endure. And then mark, that this inherent holiness is in Him, not in us. The man who possesses real holiness has it imparted to him; and hence the exhortation, Be ye holy, for I am holy. A solemn command, and a gift with it; so that Jehovah the Spirit imparts a holy nature, and a holy life to the soul of the real believer, to make him like God, that he may grow up into Christ Jesus and perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord. Follow on to mark, that it is an official holiness, which is given as the reason why we should exalt Him. The Father is so holy in His covenant engagements of an official kind that He cannot withhold any good thing from the objects of His love who walk uprightly. The Son is so holy in His mediatorial character, that He cannot allow it to be tarnished by the failure of any one part of the work He undertook to perform. The Holy Ghost is so holy, as Comforter, over and above the inherent holiness on which I have been dwelling, that He cannot allow a sanctified vessel to be polluted; but will cleanse it thoroughly from every sin. Moreover, it must be a national holiness that we derive from our God, and on account of which we exalt Him (1Pe 2:9). (J. Irons.)
On public worship
I. The duty and propriety of public worship.
1. The universal homage which under various forms is paid to the Deity, is a proof that it is founded in human nature, and is, consequently, of moral and perpetual obligation.
2. Public worship is a duty of positive institution, and being expressly enjoined by Divine authority, involves an obligation which will not surely be called in question.
3. The great and beneficial consequences with which its due and regular observance is attended.
II. The effects of public worship upon our moral conduct. Suppose that the solemn observance of the Sabbath was no more; that the altar and its worship were abandoned; that all days and seasons were alike; and that the business and bustle of the world knew no pause; what would be the dreadful result? The depravity of the human heart, already too general, would be universal; science and the elegant arts would languish; men would revert to a state of barbarity, without government, law or control; and unheard of crimes would follow the destruction of those sacred piles, which the approved wisdom and piety of ages had consecrated to religion. (A. Stirling, LL. D.)
How to determine whether our love is selfish
I. Certain principles in natural men which prepare them to relish a false or defective image of God under the name of the true God. Here are five of these principles: selfishness, which delights in a benefactor and a friend; humanity, which, when self-interest does not too strongly oppose, is affected with kindness to men in general; conscience and the love of natural fitness, which, with the aid of self-love and humanity, are pleased with a good government and social order, when personal interest does not stand in the way; and sympathy, by which the soul, in view of moving grief or the tenderness of love, is melted into compassion or tenderness. All these are found to a high degree in many infidels.
II. There is a false or defective image of God which natural men often form, and which they love from no higher principles than those which have been stated. Among the great variety of natural men I will select two classes.
1. Those who think superficially, have little to do with the moral character of God as exhibited in a moral government. The order of their thoughts is somewhat as follows. First they contemplate Him as a benefactor to themselves; as the one who preserves their lives, who sends them rain and fruitful seasons, who sent His Son to save them, and has filled their lives with mercies. This is pleasing to their selfishness. They next consider His kindness to the world, and contemplate the generous being who pours His bounty upon all nations. This gratifies their humanity; and it does not disturb their selfishness, pride, or love of the creature. But His moral character, as manifested in a moral government, is still out of view.
2. But there is another class of natural men who think more deeply and systematically.
(1) The more ignorant suppose that the Divine law relates only to outward actions (like human laws), and requires nothing but that integrity, decency, and kindness in the different relations of life which all admit to be necessary to the order and happiness of society.
(2) The less ignorant class are aware that the Divine law extends to the heart, and requires them to love both God and man. Well, they do. Their natural humanity wishes well to their fellow-men. They love God as a benefactor and a friend, and admire His generous munificence to the world. But let the Holy Spirit suddenly open their eyes, and they will see that the feelings required by the Divine law, and the temper of the Lawgiver, are altogether different from anything they ever conceived. They have been contemplating a law and character which called forth only the selfish and humane affections, and the love of which (self-righteous as that love was) only inflamed instead of weakening pride, and had no tendency to wean them from the idolatrous love of the creature.
III. Some ways by which we may test the genuineness of our love.
1. Is the Divine love in view of which we are affected, the mere fondness of creature love, fitted only to melt the animal affections? Or is it that holy love which, under the guidance of infinite wisdom, hates and punishes sin, which maintains a vigorous moral government, requiring all to be holy under penalty of eternal death?
2. If it is the true God you love, you will love all the essential truths which relate to Him, as comprehended in the doctrines of the Gospel.
3. Does your love, as far as it goes, subdue your selfishness, pride, and love of the world? This is an infallible test.
4. If you have no genuine love to man, you have no sincere love to God. But all love to man is not genuine. To say nothing of the domestic affections, humanity wishes well to mankind where no self-interest is in the way, and therefore almost always is gratified with the prosperity of distant nations. But try your love to man by something nearer home,–something that comes most in competition with selfishness. Select your rival in business or honour; select your greatest enemy. Do you, in any sense or degree, love him as yourself?
5. Do you conscientiously and habitually obey God? I do not ask whether you are what the world calls moral. This you may be from the mere influence of natural principles. I ask whether you habitually act, from hour to hour, with a sensible reference to Gods authority,–often asking yourselves, How would God have me do in this thing? Do you cheerfully perform the most self-denying duties from a sacred regard to His authority? (E. D. Griffin, D.D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 5. Worship at his footstool] Probably meaning the ark on which the Divine glory was manifested. Sometimes the earth is called God’s footstool, Mt 5:35; Isa 66:1; sometimes Jerusalem; sometimes the temple, La 2:1; sometimes the tabernacle, Ps 32:7; and sometimes the ark, 1Ch 28:2. The Israelites, when they worshipped, turned their faces toward the ark, because that was the place where was the symbol of the Divine Presence.
For he is holy.] The burden chanted by the chorus.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
At his footstool; before the ark, which is so called,
1Ch 28:2; Psa 132:7.
For he is holy; or rather, for it, to wit, the ark, is holy; it is consecrated to be a pledge of Gods presence, and the only place of Gods public worship.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Exalt ye the Lord our God,…. Christ, who is Lord of all, and Immanuel, God with us, God in our nature, our Lord and our God; exalt him in his person, as God over all, blessed for ever; in his offices of Prophet, Priest, and King, by hearkening to his word, by trusting in his blood, righteousness, and sacrifice, and by submitting to his ordinances, and obeying his commands; exalt him in heart, thought, and affection, thinking highly of him, and affectionately loving him; exalt and extol him in words, speak of his love and loveliness, and of the great things he has done; exalt him in private and in public, in the family and in the house of God; make mention of him everywhere, that his name be exalted:
and worship at his footstool; worship him who is the object of the adoration of angels, and ought to be of men; worship him privately and publicly, internally and externally, in spirit and in truth; at his footstool, on earth, he being on his throne in heaven; see Isa 65:1 or else the ark is meant, which is so called, 1Ch 28:2, and this being a type of the human nature of Christ, that may be meant here; and which, though not the object of worship, nor is it said, worship his footstool, but at it; yet, in worshipping Christ, respect is to be had unto him, as in our nature, in which he has done such great things for us: the Targum is,
“worship in or at the house of his sanctuary;”
so Kimchi interprets it of the sanctuary, which agrees with Ps 99:9,
for he is holy: essentially holy, glorious in holiness as a divine Person, and therefore to be worshipped: or “it is holy”; the footstool, the ark, the human nature of Christ, in which the Godhead dwells bodily.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
5 Exalt Jehovah our God This exhortation is properly addressed to the Church alone, because having been made a partaker of the grace of God, she ought the more zealously to devote herself to his service, and to the love of godliness. The Psalmist, therefore, calls upon the Jews to exalt that God from whom they had received such manifest help, and enjoins them to render that worship appointed in his Law. The temple indeed is frequently in other places denominated God’s seat, or house, or rest, or dwelling-place; here it is called his footstool, and for the use of this metaphor, there is the best of all reasons. For God desired to dwell in the midst of his people in such a manner, as not only to direct their thoughts to the outward temple and to the ark of the covenant, but rather to elevate them to things above. Hence the term house or dwelling-place tended to impart courage and confidence to them, that all the faithful might have boldness to draw near unto God freely, whom they beheld coming to meet them of his own accord.
But as the minds of men are prone to superstition, it was necessary to check this propensity, lest they should associate with their notions of God things fleshly and earthly, and their thoughts should be wholly engrossed by the outward forms of worship. The prophet, therefore, in calling the temple God’s footstool, desires the godly to elevate their thoughts above it, for he fills heaven and earth with his infinite glory. Nevertheless, by these means he reminds us that true worship can be paid to God no where else than upon mount Zion. For he employs a style of writing such as is calculated to elevate the minds of the godly above the world, and, at the same time, does not in the least degree detract from the holiness of the temple, which alone of all places of the earth God had chosen as the place where he was to be worshipped. From this we may see, since the days of Augustine, how vainly many perplex themselves in endeavoring to ascertain the reason for the prophet ordering God’s footstool to be worshipped. The answer of Augustine is ingenious. If, says he, we look to Christ’s manhood, we will perceive a reason why we may worship the footstool of God, and yet not be guilty of idolatry; for that body in which he wishes to be worshipped he took from the earth, and on this earth nothing else than God is worshipped, for the earth is both the habitation of Deity, and God himself condescended to become earth. All this is very plausible, but it is foreign to the design of the prophet, who, intending to distinguish between legal worship, (which was the only worship that God sanctioned,) and the superstitious rites of the heathen, summons the children of Abraham to the temple, as if to their standard, there, after a spiritual manner, to worship God, because he dwells in celestial glory.
Now that the shadowy dispensation has passed away, I believe that God cannot otherwise be properly worshipped, than when we come to him directly through Christ, in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells. It were improper and absurd for any one to designate him a footstool. For the prophet merely spake in this manner to show that God was not confined to the visible temple, but that he is to be sought for above all heavens, (119) inasmuch as he is elevated above the whole world.
The frantic bishops of Greece, in the second Council of Nice, very shamefully perverted this passage, when they endeavored to prove from it that God was to be worshipped by images and pictures. The reason (120) assigned for exalting Jehovah our God, and worshipping at his footstool, contains an antithesis: he is holy For the prophet, in hallowing the name of the one God, declares all the idols of the heathen to be unholy; as if he should say, Although the heathen claim for their idols an imaginary sanctity, they are nevertheless very vanity, an offense, and abomination. Some translate this clauses for it is holy; but it will appear from the end of the psalm that it was the design of the prophet by this title to distinguish God from all idols.
(119) “ Comme aussi il est esleve par dessus tout le monde.” — Fr.
(120) “ La cause qu’il rend.” — Fr. “ Causae redditio.” — Lat.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(5) Worship at his footstool.Prostrate your. selves at His footstool. The earth is called the footstool of God (Isa. 66:1; comp. Mat. 5:35); in other places the expression is used of the sanctuary (Psa. 132:7; comp. Isa. 60:13; Lam. 2:1). In 1Ch. 28:2 it seems to refer to the ark. No doubt here, after mentioning the throne above the cherubims, we must think of the ground on which the ark stood, or of the ark itself.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. For he is holy With this refrain close the three divisions. The first, (Psa 99:3,) ascribes holiness to God’s name; the second, (Psa 99:5,) ascribes the same to his abode; the third, (Psa 99:9,) to his nature. Some, as Tholuck, regard these verses as a chorus, sung by a second, or responsive, choir.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 99:5. Worship at his footstool Towards his footstool [the ark] Nold. 1008. See 1Ch 28:2. Psa 132:7. The Israelites when they worshipped turned their faces towards the ark.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 99:5 Exalt ye the LORD our God, and worship at his footstool; [for] he [is] holy.
Ver. 5. Exalt ye the Lord our God ] Have high apprehensions of him and answerable expressions; set him up, and set him forth to the utmost.
And worship at his footstool
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
God. Hebrew. Elohim. App-4.
He. Compare Psa 99:3 and Psa 99:9, and see note on Psa 93:1, Psa 93:5.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Exalt: Psa 99:9, Psa 21:13, Psa 34:3, Psa 108:5, Exo 15:2, Isa 12:4, Isa 25:1, Hos 11:7
footstool: Psa 132:7, 1Ch 28:2, Isa 66:1
he is holy: or, it is holy, Psa 99:3, Lev 19:2
Reciprocal: Lev 11:44 – ye shall Lev 20:26 – the Lord Jos 24:19 – holy 1Sa 2:2 – none holy Psa 93:5 – holiness Psa 107:32 – exalt Psa 111:9 – holy Psa 138:2 – toward Lam 2:1 – his footstool Eze 43:7 – and the place Mat 5:35 – the earth Rev 15:4 – thou only
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 99:5. Exalt ye the Lord Give him the glory of the good government you are under, as it is now established. And worship at his footstool That is, at his ark, which was the footstool to the mercy-seat, between the cherubim. Or we must cast ourselves down upon the pavement of his courts; and good reason we have to be thus reverent, for he is holy, and his holiness should strike an awe upon us, as it doth on the angels themselves, Isa 6:2-3. Observe, reader, that God is to be worshipped and glorified, is the one inference always drawn from every position of David. And surely the greater the public mercies are in which we have a share, the more we are obliged to bear a part in the public homage paid to God. The setting up of the kingdom of Christ, especially, ought to be matter of our praise. Observe further, when we draw nigh to God to worship him, our hearts ought to be filled with high thoughts of him, and we ought to exalt him in our souls. And the more we abase ourselves, and the more prostrate we are before God, the more we exalt him.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
99:5 Exalt ye the LORD our God, and worship at his {c} footstool; [for] he [is] holy.
(c) That is, before his temple or ark, where he promised to hear when they worshipped him, as now he promises his spiritual presence, wherever his Church is assembled.