Ps. 99.7-8

 From the pillar of cloud / he spoke to them 
they obeyed / his commands and the decrees / he gave them
O Yhwh / our god
you answered them. 

Moses, Aaron and Samuel are the ‘crown’ of the psalm. The represent that point whereby Yhwh most intimately comes to associate himself with Israel because it is through them that Yhwh actually “answers”. Here, in these priests, dialogue is established. What becomes apparent in these verses is that the ‘dialogue’ that has been opened is the ‘dialogue-of-the-Lord’. In other words, Yhwh does answer his people, but he remains the incomparable Lord and King over them. The fact that he has given them his name does not, as it does in many other situations when the ‘name’ is given, place himself under their control or authority; the reverse seems to happen. When he gives them his name, they are taken into his sphere. We see this clearly in this verse—the ‘answer’ comes from a ‘pillar of cloud’. Even at the moment when he has made himself responsive to them, when the Divine “I” expresses itself to them, he remains shrouded in cloud. In other words, he remains the Creator-King even in the midst of his ‘condescending’ to speak with his people.  Importantly, the only ‘answer’ provided in the psalm is actually “commands and decrees”. Perhaps we are to hear, then, that Moses, Aaron and Samuel posed the question of, “What would you have us do?” rather than a question involving ‘information’ or some other form of power and control. Unlike Adam, their quest for wisdom is in the form of Yhwh’s will. In other words, when they ‘reach for wisdom’, they pose a question focused entirely on what is pleasing to Yhwh rather than what is ‘pleasing to their eye and is ‘good to eat’’. This profoundly important initial stance of ‘asking rather than grasping’ is then confirmed when Yhwh responds with decrees and commands—they obey. In other words, the psalmist sees in Moses, Aaron and Samuel examples of ‘perfect priests’, those who begin in a proper attitude, open communication with Yhwh, and then obey him. These men are the ‘heart of Israel’; they are what keeps Israel ‘blood running’, so to speak, by and through their priestly attitudes toward Yhwh. This is why, as the psalm has progressed, we find them at the ‘pinnacle’ or ‘the heart’—from Zion, to Jacob (Israel), to the priests.