At His footstool

Exalt the LORD our God;

worship at his footstool!

Holy is he!

Psalm 99:5

I believe that I often have too high an opinion of myself when I worship God. The imagery in the call to worship here in Psalm 99 is very clear: God is exalted. Mankind is debased. God is holy. He is on His throne. We are humble, facedown, at His footstool.

There are certainly postures of worship of various positions in scripture. At times we are called to lift up our hands, to clap in praise, even to dance and shout for the joy of worshipping God our Savior. At other times the call is to kneel, to bow down, before an awesome and holy God. Sometimes silence at His majesty is the appropriate form of praise. We recognize His greatness in all the postures. We emphasize our need of Him and our unworthiness before Him when we fall down at His footstool.

We should not miss the significance of worshipping “at his footstool”. It is the place of the lowliest slave. The Bible uses the footstool to emphasize humility, lowliness, even humiliation. Enemies were made to grovel at a footstool. The one using the footstool is seated far above the footstool… far superior to those at the footstool. To be at a footstool was to be on the ground, dirty, ragged, and debased. The entire earth is said to be God’s footstool, including all of us who reside here right now. Our first position of worship then must be humility. We may end up shouting, clapping, or lifting hands and voices in praise, but ALWAYS we must begin bowed before His footstool.