1The LORD reigns—peoples tremble,
enthroned upon cherubim—the earth shakes.
2The LORD is great in Zion
and exalted over all the peoples.
3They acclaim Your name:
He is holy.
4And with a king’s strength He loves justice.”
You firmly founded righteousness,
judgment and justice in Jacob You made.
5Exalt the LORD our God
and bow down to His footstool.
He is holy.
6Moses and Aaron among His priests
and Samuel among those who call on His name
called to the LORD and He answered them.
7In a pillar of cloud did He speak to them.
They kept His precepts and the statute He gave them.
8LORD our God, it was You Who answered them,
a forbearing God You were to them,
yet an avenger of their misdeeds.
9Exalt the LORD our God
and bow to His holy mountain,
for the LORD our God is holy.
PSALM 99 NOTES
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1. The LORD reigns—peoples tremble. The fearsome power of God as king of all the earth makes both the inhabitants of the earth and the earth itself tremble in fear. But from verse 6 to the end of the psalm, the global perspective switches to a national one, introducing national historical memory and the cult on Mount Zion.
cherubim. Readers should be reminded that these are not the dimpled darlings of Christian iconography but fierce mythological beasts—with the body of a lion, large wings, and a human face—that were imagined as God’s celestial steeds and also as the throne on which God sat (cherubim were carved on the top of the Ark of the Covenant).
3. Great and fearful. The translation infers that these are the words with which the peoples acclaim God’s name. That would provide a ready motivation for the switch from second to third person in the references to God. Such switches, however, often occur in biblical usage, so the assumption that these are the words pronounced by the peoples is not certain.
4. And with a king’s strength. There appears to be a small glitch in the Hebrew text at this point. The Hebrew ʿoz melekh merely says “a king’s strength.” And “with” in the translation—perhaps there was a deleted particle be in the original text—is added to make sense of the whole clause.
5. footstool. A king sitting on a high throne could well have used a footstool on which to rest his feet; in fact, kings are depicted doing this in Egyptian paintings.
6. Moses and Aaron . . . / and Samuel. This little catalogue gives us the prototypes of prophet and priest (Samuel was both, and Moses was from a priestly clan). The historical memory invoked provides a rationale and reassurance for the act of cultic celebration carried out through the psalm. Just as Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and Samuel after them, were answered when they called out to God, the throng of celebrants—led by the priests of their own day, and enjoined here to exalt God on Mount Zion—will also be answered.