“Exalt ye the Lord our God, and worship at His footstool; for He is holy.”

Exalt ye the Lord

This verse repeats the sense of verse 3, “Let them praise thy great and terrible name; for it is holy.”
To exalt the Lord is not for us to lift up God, but for us to lift our vision of Him, above our earthly and human-centred framework, to God’s infinite and almighty nature. We are to praise him for who he really is, not for who we would like to picture him to be.

In his infinite nature He is beyond our understanding or imagination. The cloudy pillar of verse 7 points to His almighty and elusive nature, and his sitting between the cherubims of verse 1 points to how He is so far above us that He dwells in a different realm or dimension.

Worship at His footstool

To worship at His footstool is to put ourselves at the lowest position before him, to become completely humble in our praise, as we recognise the huge gap between His nature and ours. It reminds me of the elders in Revelation 4:11, who fell down before Him, and they cast their crowns before His throne, symbolizing that whatever earthly achievements we think are ours are really His, they are done in His power as He equips and guides us to do all good things for His purpose.

To recognise He is holy is to see His essential nature, His perfect righteousness, the source of all goodness, wisdom and truth.
It reminds us of how we were meant to be as created in the image of God, and that is God’s requirement for us to be acceptable to Him, as commanded in Leviticus 19:2, “Be holy, because I, the Lord your God, am holy.”
There is an immense chasm between us, of how we and this world, are separated from Him by our fallen state of sin.

God who forgives

Verse 8 points to another reason to praise him: “You were to them God-Who-Forgives.”
In His greatness He is not aloof from us, but He answered his prophets who called upon him, and forgave them.
And God entered into our human space and time. Jesus was not only present with us, but He took upon himself the pain and sorrow of our sinful condition, to save us and offer forgiveness to us, to bridge that immense chasm and restore us to a right relationship with Him.

All this reminds me of Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” – only when we recognise His great and terribly almighty nature can we begin to understand our fragile and fallen nature, and our world, and how we are completely dependent upon Him.

Praise almighty God for revealing Himself to us in his word.

him to be;
In his infinite nature He is beyond our understanding or imagination. The cloudy pillar of verse 7 points to his almighty and elusive nature, and his sitting between the cherubims of verse 1 points to how he is so far above us that he dwells in a different realm or dimension.

To worship at His footstool is to put ourselves at the lowest position before him, to become completely humble in our praise to him, as we recognise the huge gap between his nature and ours. It reminds me of the elders in Revelation 4:11, who fell down before our eternal God, and they cast their crowns before his throne, symbolizing that whatever earthly achievements we think are ours are really his, they are done in his power as he equips and guides us to do all good things for his purpose.

To recognise He is holy is to see his essential nature, his perfect righteousness, the source of all goodness, wisdom and truth.
It reminds us of how we were meant to be, created in the image of God, and that is God’s requirement for us to be acceptable to him – Lev 19:2, “Be holy, because I, the Lord your God, am holy.”
There is an immense chasm between us, of how we and this world, are separated from him by our fallen state of sin.

Verse 8 points to another reason to praise him: “You were to them God-Who-Forgives.”
In his greatness he is not aloof from us, but he answered his prophets who called upon him, and forgave them.
And God entered into our human space and time. Jesus was not only present with us, but he took upon himself the pain and sorrow of our sinful condition, to save us and offer forgiveness to us, to bridge that immense chasm and restore us to a right relationship with him.

All this reminds me of Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” – only when we recognise his great and terribly almighty nature can we begin to understand our fragile and fallen nature, and our world, and how we are completely dependent upon him.
Praise almighty God for revealing himself to us in his word.