Today’s reading is Psalm 99.
For all the differences we might find as people explain their perspectives on Psalm 99, everyone recognizes vss. 5 and 9 are parallel. They say the exact same thing with one difference. In vs. 5, we are to worship at God’s footstool. In vs. 9, at His holy mountain. Clearly, in this psalm, Zion, the temple mount is the footstool of God. The word translated “worship” is a word picture of bowing or prostrating one’s self before another. When you bow and prostrate, you are at the feet of the one you are worshiping. We are to bow ourselves and prostrate ourselves at God’s feet.
Though in one Old Covenant passage, the footstool of God is pictured as the entire earth (Isaiah 66:1), it was more specifically recognized as the temple on Mt. Zion. David says in 1 Chronicles 28:2:
Hear me, my brothers and my people. I had it in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the LORD and for the footstool of our God, and I made preparations for building (ESV).
In the Songs of Ascent in Psalm 132:7-8, we find the following reference back to David’s statement above:
“Let us go to his dwelling place;
let us worship at his footstool!”
Arise, O LORD, and go to your resting place,
you and the ark of your might (ESV).
When Isaiah foretells the restoration of the temple in Jerusalem in Isaiah 60:13, he writes:
The glory of Lebanon shall come to you,
the cypress, the plane, and the pine,
to beautify the place of my sanctuary,
and I will make the place of my feet glorious (ESV).
Clearly, the temple on Mt. Zion was the specific earthly location of God’s footstool. However, when Jesus established His covenant, the footstool shifts. When Jesus spoke with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:20-24, she asked about the mountain of worship.
The hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father…the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshiper will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth (ESV).
Jesus made it clear that at the time they were speaking, Zion was the mountain of worship. He could have quoted all the verses we mentioned above and others. But, He explained a time was coming (which has already come for us) when the geographical orientation of the body would no longer matter, but only the spiritual orientation of the heart and mind.
Further, we read in Hebrews 12:22-24:
You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel (ESV).
Christ’s church is now the temple, the city of the Living God, Mt. Zion. We worship at God’s footstool when we worship with the church. Though Israelites could worship individually, they must not neglect worshiping a God’s footstool. In the same way, though we may worship individually, we must not neglect worshiping at God’s footstool either.
Our God is holy. Let us gather with His holy ones at His footstool and worship. Praise the Lord!
Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 99.
PODCAST!!!
PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family
How does Psalm 99 prompt or improve your trust in God?
Read the Bible 