“The Lord reigns; let the peoples tremble! He dwells between the cherubim; let the earth be moved! The Lord is great in Zion, and He is high above all the peoples. Let them praise Your great and awesome name – He is holy.” Psalm 99:1-3.

The above has been kept to maintain context. We will continue now with Psalm 99:4-5 in this study.

“The King’s strength also loves justice; You have established equity; You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.” Psalm 99:4.

A king’s strength, when you come before a king, you can appeal to no one higher, this is the last stop. A king’s strength may be founded on greed, injustice, self interest, or even childishness.

If you are fortunate enough to stand before a good king, your case may be won on its merits, or not, if he is angry about something, even something else, it could sink you.

But Jesus loves justice and that will not be compromised for any reason, because:

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Hebrews 13:8.

This is a good point to remember because God says of Himself in Malachi:

“For I am the Lord, I do not change; therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.” Malachi 3:6.

One of the most descriptive pictures of the principle of God not changing is in the book of James.

“Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” James 1:16-17.

To see how there is no variation or shadow of turning with God, find an oak tree or some other large tree in the middle of a field and watch it during the day; you will notice that as the sun moves, so does the shadow.

Unlike that shadow, God does not change; He does not change His mind, nor renege on His promises or oaths.

Try to imagine a heaven with a God who changes. Maybe in a thousand years He might say, “You know something I’m kind of bored with things the way they are, let’s try this.”

Perhaps in another ten thousand years; “Or this, or that, or something else; Wait! Let’s try this!”

Finally a million years later He might say, “You know, you guys caused me a lot of trouble on earth; I’m tired of you all!” I think that if heaven were like that, I would put in for a transfer to hell, because it could be no worse.

A man stood up in church one Sunday morning and quoted from Malachi 3:6 saying, “I am God I change not.” Then he said, “I take comfort in that.” All of mankind should take comfort in that.

The King’s unchanging strength also loves justice. “You have established equity…” Psalm 99:4b; according to the dictionary, equity is the quality of being fair, or impartial; something that is fair and just.

Establishing equity, impartiality, fairness, justice is something that the downtrodden of the world cry out for, yet will never receive because of the sin nature.

Instead the world offers egalitarianism which is a belief in the equality of all men. This sounds noble enough, and it is, but this is an egalitarian belief in the equality of all men regardless of moral beliefs, whether they are a homosexual, pedophile, rapist, sadist, Satanist, witch, Hindu, Muslim, Spiritist, liar, or crooked businessman.

All are equal, all are right; all are accepted in the brotherhood of man; all except, Jews, Christians, and anyone with moral compunction and the spine to speak out. Egalitarianism does not guarantee equity.

“…You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.” Psalm 99:4c. Do you remember the quote from Malachi 3:6 earlier, there is more.

“For I am the Lord, I do not change; therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob. Yet from the days of your fathers you have gone away from My ordinances and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of hosts. “But you said, ‘In what way shall we return?’ Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation.” Malachi 3:6-9.

After a period of revival in Nehemiah’s time the nation again began to backslide with worship becoming a mechanical thing and things like tithes and offerings were neglected. The Lord also accuses them of bringing the stolen, the lame and the sick as burnt offerings rather than animals without blemish.

Even the priests are an abomination before God.

“For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge, and people should seek the law from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But you have departed from the way; you have caused many to stumble at the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says the Lord of hosts.” Malachi 2:7-8.

The Lord says that He will judge sorcerers, adulterers, perjurers, and those who exploit wage earners, widows and orphans among other things. Another thing that is pandemic today, even among Christians, is judged:

“For the Lord God of Israel says that He hates divorce, for it covers one’s garment with violence,” says the Lord of hosts. “Therefore take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously [with the wife of your youth].” Malachi 2:16.

The final straw that destroyed Israel was the rejection of their Messiah, Jesus Christ.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; and assuredly, I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’” Luke 13:34-35.

Jacob (Israel) will not cry out “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” until they are about to be wiped off the face of the earth.

Jesus’ glorious appearance will not happen until the end of the tribulation when He comes back to set up His kingdom. It is then that it can be said as the psalmist wrote it:

“…You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.” Psalm 99:4c.

“Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at His footstool; for He is holy.” Psalm 99:5.

Too often Christians call God, our Father, and rightfully so; then forget to show respect for who He is – the Creator of everything.

Those of us fortunate enough to have a good father know that at home or in private we can talk about our problems to our dad, we can argue baseball or football with him, we can wrestle or play catch with him, we can also cry, whine and plead.

We can even disobey or sass him (how did that work out for you?), but one thing we do not do is show disrespect for him in front of others. No one has to tell us this; this comes from love and a reverence for who he is.

God is no different from our dad, in fact He is our dad, love Him, talk to Him, ask Him questions, complain to Him, pray to Him, ask Him to comfort you, take quiet time to let Him hold you.

However, one of the most powerful things God the Father and a good father can do is come to your aid when you have fallen into a crisis.

“The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies.” Psalm 18:2-3.

Too often my friends, Christians forget to cry out to the Lord when they see a crisis approaching. Prayer should be the first thing one does in a crisis, not an afterthought. Even crying out to God during an auto accident can save yourself and your passengers in seconds.

But by all that is holy, when you walk into a worship service, come to His footstool and exalt Him, worship Him, and give Him offerings of thanksgiving and praise.

You can do no less for the one who died a horrific and lingering death to rescue you from a life of futility ending with an eternity in hell.

Psalm 99:4-5 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 2-28-15, updated on 2-5-23.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.