Thursday after Ash Wednesday

Thursday after Ash Wednesday – March 7, 2019 –Psalm 99:1

The Lord reigns; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!

[1]

The Psalm is a hymn celebrating the Lord as the great and holy King in Zion. Seven times the psalmist will speak of the Lord. We are called to worship our Lord as the antiphon suggests, “Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at his footstool; he is holy.” (v.5) At the mountain of the Transfiguration, the disciples see the Lord Jesus in all of His holiness, glory and splendor. We see Jesus’ glory now in the cross and at the open tomb.  Jesus says, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself. He said this to signify the kind of death He was going to die.”  John 12:32-33 Peter would remind us, "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,"  1 Peter 3:18

To call God “holy” is to acknowledge that God is radically different from anything in the universe that exists or that we could imagine. Psalm 99 uses this profoundly powerful concept as a lens through which the awesomeness of God may be contemplated and praised.  

Direct us, O Lord, in all our doings with Your most gracious favor, and further us with Your continual help; that in all our works begun continued, and ended in You, we may glorify Your holy Name, and, finally, by Your mercy, obtain everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.[2]

[1] David in Worship Schnorr von Carolsfeld woodcuts © WELS

[2] Collect for Thursday after Ash Wednesday, http://www.liturgies.net/Lent/LentenCollects.htm