Psalm 99
"He is holy"
Psalm 99 is described as an enthronement psalm, a song of praise exulting the kingship of God. What strikes me about the psalm is the repeated refrain, "He is holy."
Holiness has moral, cultic, and ontological implications. I'd like to focus on the ontological. Specifically, the holiness of God, God's "set apartness," speaks to God's Otherness, God's qualitative difference from creation. Nicholas of Cusa described God as non aliud, God as "not-other." That is, God cannot be "other" than us as a "different sort of thing." Which is why God is often called "Wholly Other," with a capital "O." God is so different that the word "different" doesn't apply. God is so other that the word "other" fails.
Appreciating all this about God was a long time in coming for me. My mind was long poisoned by that literalness frequently found among atheists. But once the insight arrived it became a touchstone in both my devotional life and theological thinking.
A breakthrough moment for me came in reading The Divine Names by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. Writing in the 5th or 6th centuries, Pseudo-Dionysius creates in The Divine Names, along with his other works, a fusion between Neoplatonic philosophy and Christianity. In doing so, Pseudo-Dionysius becomes one of the great theologians of the apophatic and mystical tradition, what some call the Via Negativa of theology.
In regards to God's ontological difference, in The Divine Names Pseudo-Dionysius describes God as "the Nameless One." God cannot be named because God "transcends all things." God is "at total remove" from the "totality of existence."
And yet, while God cannot be praised as "word or power or mind or life or being," God is "the cause of everything" and "at the center of everything."
Pseudo-Dionysius goes on to pile up names and descriptions for God. God is the Source of every source. God is the Being of beings. God is the Life of the living. God is the Sacred Stability upon which we stand. God is the Center around which all things revolve. God is the Destiny of everything. God is the Longing of every creature.
It goes on, these mystical descriptions, our achingly feeble attempts to catch a glimpse the Uncreated Light.
But it all comes back to: "He is holy."
Catherine Keller's process theology take on God's transcendence really comes through in her book "Cloud of the Impossible: Negative Theology and Planetary Entanglement". Your post reminds me of some of what she writes there. She quotes Nicholas of Cusa at length. The whole apophatic strain of theological thinking across multiple religions helps explain why God seems so hidden to many of us. God may be interacting with us deeply but we simply can't grasp it (until we spiritually evolve dramatically). My main problem with appealing to God's transcendence is that, for God, anything goes and God is still considered good. God could do horrific things - for example, consign the majority of sentient beings in the universe to eternal conscious torment because they failed to grasp some essential aspect of faith or practice. Causing such unending torment is impossible for humans to understand as good, and yet some would say, yeah God does that but we simply can't understand God's ways. If we could, we would realize that God is good no matter what.
I struggle with God’s Holiness, I think, because I’ve spent so many years trying to build intimacy with the Father and with Jesus and in many ways, that is antithetical to viewing God as Wholly Other. How can I be intimate with Wholly Other? And if we are created in His image, why are we so unholy? I think I’ve probably swung too far in my efforts to make God relatable to ME but it’s a challenge to find the balance. Or is there a balance? Our 21st Century conception of marriage and intimate relationships (not sexual of course) probably obfuscates our vision of what our relationship with God should be like. We are the bride. He is the Groom. That relationship was VERY different 1975 years ago when Paul wrote about it, using that analogy to describe our relationship with God. He is the Master, and yet, a Friend. God help us understand!