I was walking on my treadmill the other day since it was one of those wintery days outside and walking on the icy sidewalks isn’t what I wanted to do. I was reading in Psalms as I walked. (My Kindle fits just perfectly on the treadmill.) Psalm 96 gave instructions to “sing a new song.” It also directed me to declare and proclaim the glory of the LORD to the nations and to all people.
Midway through the song there was another command. “Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth.” [vs9 NIV]
“The splendor of his holiness….” Our God is Holy. His Holiness is His splendor. The word that the NIV translates as splendor is defined as “beauty, honor.” If there is anything about God’s Holiness that is vivid in Scripture it is that when man comes face to face with it, he comes undone. Remember Isaiah when he saw the vision of God high and lifted up and the seraphs crying, holy, holy, holy? [Isa 6]
Verse 9 commands us to worship God according to His Holiness. When we do that the result will be that we will, as Isaiah did, “tremble before Him.” When we enter the presence of God, it will become apparent that one of us needs to change, and it won’t be God. It will be us.
I love to praise and sing and clap and dance freely in God’s presence as I think about His salvation and all He has done for us. But I need to also remember He is Holy, and that I need a good healthy “trembling” before Him also as I worship Him.
