Ps. 99.9

Exalt Yhwh / our God
bow down / at his holy mountain
for holy / is Yhwh / our God. 

This verse concludes, and in many ways summarize the psalm. We should first note the repetition of ‘our God’. As we have seen this phrase is a type of shorthand for the covenant (“You will be my people, and I will be your God”). While Yhwh is ‘exalted over all peoples’ (vs. 2), he has not covenanted himself to them; only Israel can say to Yhwh, “our God”. As such, Israel stands, so to speak, ‘within’ Yhwh, in dialogue with him. They have Zion and they have Yhwh’s priests, and they have Yhwh’s ‘commands and instructions’. Yhwh answers to them. As we have also seen, however, Israel is only the beginning. “All peoples” are to “praise your name” (vs. 3). This psalm does look forward to the Zion-izing, or Adam-izing, of creation and its people. So, what we see here, in this concluding verse, is the covenantal dynamic that will, eventually, overtake all of creation, when all of creation will be brought ‘within the name’. Israel is a type of ‘already-but-not-yet’ reality of Yhwh’s governance over all of creation. They are an ‘alpha’ looking forward to its ‘omega’. Another thing to note is that this verse almost mirrors verse 5, except there they ‘bow down’ “at his footstool” and distinguished from “his holy mountain”. It may be that these are synonyms. It may be that in verse 5 what is in view is the ‘arc’ whereas here the entire Mount Zion is in view. What is clear, regardless, is that it is the holiness of Yhwh that has imbued both the arc and the mountain with reverence. This ‘holiness’ has been referred to in other places: the ‘name’ is holy (vs. 3); Yhwh is holy (vs. 5); and the mountain (vs. 9). Importantly, whenever ‘holiness’ is mentioned it is surrounded by ‘exaltation’ and ‘praise’. In other words, this ‘holiness’ seems to be a thing of profound beauty; it is ‘appealing’ and an object of desire. It engenders praise and the ‘over-flow’ of those who perceive it.