Psalm 93, 97, and 99 all start with the words, “The Lord is King.” “The Lord is king! He is robed in majesty. Indeed, the Lord is robed in majesty and armed with strength. The world stands firm and cannot be shaken.” (Psalm 93:1). “The Lord is King! Let the earth rejoice! Let the farthest coastlands be glad.” (Psalm 97:1). The Lord is King! Let the nations tremble! He sits on His throne between the cherubim. Let the whole earth quake.” (Psalm 99:1).
This psalm is about the holiness of God. And what does God require of me? “You must be holy because I am holy.” (Lev. 11:45). Why did God say this to Israel? “For I, the Lord, am the one Who brought you up from the land of Egypt, that I might be your God.” God brought the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt so they would not be tempted to worship the gods of Egypt. He wanted to fulfill His promise to Abraham that his descendants would be blessed. “And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.” (Gen. 15.6). But Abraham was never holy as God is holy; he was holy because of his faith in God.
Paul tells us that, “Abraham was, humanly speaking, the founder of our Jewish nation. What did he discover about being made right with God? If his good deeds had made him acceptable to God, he would have had something to boast about. But that was not God’s way. For the Scripture tells us, ‘Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith’.” (Rom. 4:1-3).
So, God was trying to teach the Israelites the same lesson. They could not be holy as God is holy. Therefore, God gave them many rules to live by. While they could keep some of the rules some of the time, they could not keep all of the rules all of the time. And since they could not meet God’s perfect standard, God gave them animal sacrifices to make so they would understand the wages of sin is death. They could only be made righteous by believing the promise that God would provide the perfect sacrifice, and by faith in God’s promise, they could have eternal life. And we have eternal life through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ, but unlike those animals, He rose from the grave to show us He had the power over death.