Psalm 99: Footstools and Thrones

Don’t you love how God’s Word can be picked up, turned around, and examined from all different angles as the Holy Spirit shines His light on its many facets? There is a depth and brilliance of insight just waiting to be discovered!  Well, our Lord took me on an interesting journey of discovery today.  It wasn’t really anything ‘new,’ per say.  I have read these passages many times. But a powerful image formed in my mind as familiar passages were bathed in a new light.

Read Psalm 99 before you go any further so you can hear the words from His mouth first.

“The Lord reigns, let the peoples tremble; He is enthroned above the cherubim, let the earth shake! The Lord is great in Zion, and He is exalted above all peoples. Let them praise Your great and awesome name; Holy is He” (vs. 1-3).  There are countless passages throughout the Scriptures – in the Psalms, the book of Job, the prophets, all over the place – that describe, compare, and contrast God’s majesty, magnificence, splendor, grandeur, holiness, authority, dominion, omnipotence, and sovereignty. Psalm 99 is one of them. But verse 5 caught my attention today – the part about exalting the Lord and worshiping “at His footstool.”

2 Chronicles 9:18 says that there is a golden footstool attached to God’s throne in heaven.  We can envision our divine King sitting high and exalted on His throne while all the people of the earth assemble en masse down by His footstool (Isaiah 45:23-25; Psalm 86:9-10).

God promised to permanently establish His presence in Israel (Zion) (Psalm 132:13-14). Zion is where He chose to meet with His people and where His Son would one day die for the sins of the world, so He commanded that a temple be built there “for the footstool of our God” (1 Chronicles 28:2; Psalm 132:7). Interesting.  Because the temple was meant to serve as “a copy and shadow of the heavenly things,” it would be the physical place on earth where people from all nations could assemble and worship the Lord (Hebrews 8:5; 2 Chronicles 6:32-33; Isaiah 56:3-8).

We’re also given the analogy of heaven being God’s throne and the whole earth being His “footstool” (Isaiah 66:1-2, Matthew 5:35; Acts 7:46-50). …and we’re told, as well, that God’s enemies will become a “footstool for His feet.” This hearkens back to the practice of conquerors placing their foot on the neck of defeated enemies (Joshua 10:24-25; Psalm 110:1; Psalm 18:37-39; Psalm 47:3; 1 Corinthians 15:24-28).

I think James 2:3 pulls everything together to get at the significance of the footstool in all those other passages:  “You pay special attention to the one who is wearing fine clothes, and say, ‘You sit here in a good place,’ and you say to the poor man, ‘You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool.’”  The footstool, then, is always a very much lesser position – a position of humility, submission, subjugation, and dishonor.  All the earth is to recognize that we are but God’s footstool. He is enthroned far above us, and our position is beneath His feet. All of us. In fact, in our rebellion, we even became His enemies, with His foot of wrath crushing our necks.

But now we get to the mind-blowing part! (Read Ephesians 2:4-8.) Because of the richness of God’s mercy and the greatness of His love, we who believe have now been “raised…up with Him, and seated…with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus!”  That’s a drastic change.  What an awesome visual of what it means to be forgiven:  God stooping down to lift us up from beneath His feet and placing us right there next to Him, just like Jesus is seated at His right hand!  …from shame and disgrace to honor and privilege. I can’t even begin to wrap my brain around that.  Why did He do it?  “…so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”  Well, I would say so! Wow!

In other words, we haven’t been seated with the Almighty because we are somehow so great. No. We have nothing in ourselves to merit this place of honor. It is “by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  We cannot boast in our position because it’s only due to God’s incredible undeserved favor toward us. He gets all the credit from start to finish. Whereas we were once His enemies, He now calls us His friends (Romans 5:10; 1 Thessalonians 5:9-11; John 15:15).  But we must also remember as we’re “seated…with Him” that a friend of the king is (a) not the king and (b) not in any way equal to the king.  In fact, that’s the attitude that led to lucifer’s fall – his determination to make himself “like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:14). Rather, the king’s friend gets to enjoy an intimate relationship with the king and is a recipient of his steadfast favor.

Therefore, our hearts should remain bowed at our Father’s footstool while He simultaneously crowns us with lovingkindness and compassion (Psalm 103:4; James 4:10; 2 Corinthians 10:5; James 1:22-25; Galatians 5:16).  “For thus says the high and exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy, ‘I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite’” (Isaiah 57:15).  He is still Almighty King over all creation, and we are still…not. Just as Mary of Bethany sat in submission at Jesus’ feet as His student, so must we, even as we are also able to come boldly to His throne and nestle right up in His arms at any time (Luke 10:38-42; Romans 12; Hebrews 4:16; Psalm 91:4). For God’s children, the footstool is no longer a place of dishonor.  Humility and submission are required to serve our King well, and Jesus Himself modeled it for us perfectly (Philippians 2:3-11; John 13:13-17).

The divine power that raised Christ “from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named,” is the same power that works within us, enabling us to serve others and conduct ourselves in a way that reflects the heart and will of our Abba (Ephesians 1:18-20; 2 Corinthians 5:20). What an incredible blessing and responsibility we have as sons and daughters of the King to carry the truth and love and compassion of our Father straight from His throne to the world.  But it starts with our souls exalting the Lord our God and worshiping at His footstool.

…and I have to say, even from His footstool, the view is magnificent!