Fear of the Lord

| Gods PleasureHis delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man, but the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love. (Psa 147:10-11 ESV)   |

FEAR OF GOD

Fear of God involves a reverential trust toward God through awareness of His awesome person and character. In its biblical sense, fear of God contrasts with a cringing, anxious dread or with unrelieved guilt due to a wrong relationship God (cf. Ge 3:10); Job 9:35; 1 Jo 4:18). Biblical fear of God accords with His own love and with Christian love toward Him since a reverential love holds God in highest esteem. Fear of God is “the beginning of knowledge” (Pr 1:7). One who fears God takes His person and holiness seriously and consequently has a repulsion toward sin and all that is contrary to God’s character (Pr 16:6). Reverential service to God is motivated by God’s great work for His people (1 Sa 12:24). Irreverence toward God leads to disrespect for fellow men (Ne 5:9–12; Lu 18:2–4).

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What Kind of Command Can Be Good News?

Now what kind of response can accomplish both of these things: good news for sinners and glory to God? The answer is given clearly in Psalm 147:10–11:

His delight is not in the strength of the horse,

nor his pleasure in the legs of a man;

but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him,

in those who hope in his steadfast love.

Consider with me first, from verse 11, why God takes pleasure in “those who fear him and hope in his love.” Then we will turn to verse 10 and refine our answer by asking why God does not delight in “the strength of the horse and the legs of a man.”

Fear and Hope at the Same Time

Does it strike you as strange that we should be encouraged to fear and hope at the same time and in the same person? “The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.” Do you hope in the one you fear and fear the one you hope in? It’s usually the other way around: if we fear a person, we hope that someone else will come and help us. But here we are supposed to fear the one we hope in and hope in the one we fear. What does this mean?

I think it means that we should let the experience of hope penetrate and transform the experience of fear. In other words, the kind of fear that we should have toward God is whatever is left of fear when we have a sure hope in the midst of it.

Greenland Glacier

Suppose you were exploring an unknown glacier in the north of Greenland in the dead of winter. Just as you reach a sheer cliff with a spectacular view of miles and miles of jagged ice and mountains of snow, a terrible storm breaks in. The wind is so strong that the fear rises in your heart that it might blow you over the cliff. But in the midst of the storm you discover a cleft in the ice where you can hide. Here you feel secure. But, even though secure, the awesome might of the storm rages on, and you watch it with a kind of trembling pleasure as it surges out across the distant glaciers.

At first there was the fear that this terrible storm and awesome terrain might claim your life. But then you found a refuge and gained the hope that you would be safe. But not everything in the feeling called fear vanished from your heart. Only the life-threatening part. There remained the trembling, the awe, the wonder, the feeling that you would never want to tangle with such a storm or be the adversary of such a power.

And so it is with God. In the same Psalm we read, “He gives snow like wool; he scatters hoarfrost like ashes. He casts forth his ice like morsels; who can stand before his cold?” (vv. 16–17). The cold of God is a fearful thing—who can stand against it! And verses 4–5 point to the same power of God in nature: “He determines the number of the stars, he gives to all of them their names. Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.”

In other words, God’s greatness is greater than the universe of stars, and his power is behind the unendurable cold of arctic storms. Yet he cups his hand around us and says, “Take refuge in my love and let the terrors of my power become the awesome fireworks of your happy night-sky.” The fear of God is what is left of the storm when you have a safe place to watch right in the middle of it. And in that place of refuge we say, “This is amazing, this is terrible, this is incredible power; Oh, the thrill of being here in the center of the awful power of God, yet protected by God himself! Oh, what a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God without hope, without a Savior! Better to have a millstone tied around my neck and be thrown into the depths of the sea than to offend against this God! What a wonderful privilege to know the favor of this God in the midst of his power!”

And so we get an idea of how we feel both hope and fear at the same time. Hope turns fear into a trembling and peaceful wonder; and fear takes everything trivial out of hope and makes it earnest and profound. The terrors of God make the pleasures of his people intense. The fireside fellowship is all the sweeter when the storm is howling outside the cottage.

Now why does God delight in those who experience him in this way—in people who fear him and hope in his love?

Surely it is because our fear reflects the greatness of his power and our hope reflects the bounty of his grace. God delights in those responses which mirror his magnificence. This is just what we would have expected from a God who is all-sufficient in himself and has no need of us—a God who will never give up the glory of being the fountain of all joy, who will never surrender the honor of being the source of all safety, who will never abdicate the throne of sovereign grace. God has pleasure in those who hope in his love because that hope highlights the freedom of his grace. When I cry out, “God is my only hope, my rock, my refuge!” I am turning from myself and calling all attention to the boundless resources of God.

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FEAR OF GOD

Fearful Silence

Habakkuk 2:20 is sometimes used as a call to worship. It urges reverent silence before the Lord as He dwells in His holy temple.

However, the context shows that the silence which all the earth is to keep is a silence in light of God’s judgment, not merely the respectful silence of a worship service. The Lord has just pronounced five “woes” on Babylon (Hab. 2:6–19), indictments for which He will bring the nation down.

The only appropriate response to this warning is fearful silence (compare Hab. 3:2). Mighty Babylon is going to be judged. There is nothing for the rest of the world to say. A holy God is having the last word.

A High View of God

Recent years have seen an increase in teaching that emphasizes God’s love, forgiveness, and intimate presence with His people. These truths are important to hear in modern society, where many people feel lonely, isolated, guilty, and insignificant. But has the pendulum swung too far? Have some Christians perhaps become overly familiar in their view of the Lord, thinking of Him not just as the friend of sinners, but as their personal buddy? Has there been a loss of respect for God’s authority and holiness?

The ancient Israelites repeatedly treated God with disrespect during their wilderness journey to the Promised Land (Ps. 78:40–41). They forgot that just as His power was able to punish the pagan Egyptians for oppressing them, so it was ready to punish their own disobedience and rebellion (Ps. 78:42, 59–61).

By contrast, the Psalms call us to maintain a high view of God:

•     The Lord executes justice, which includes deposing those who exalt themselves (Ps. 75:2–10).

•     He is awesome and deserves to be feared (Ps. 76:4–12).

•     He is worthy of our reflection as we consider His many acts throughout the history of the Israelites (Ps. 77:11–20).

•     He will judge those who do not serve Him (Ps. 78:32–55).

•     He is like none other. We are to learn about Him in order to fear His name (Ps. 86:8–11).

Reflect for a moment on your own perceptions of God. Have you become overly familiar toward Him? If so, consider how you might become more realistic in your understanding—perhaps by meditating on the psalms cited above. As the writer to the Hebrews reminds us, we need to serve God with reverence and holy fear (Heb. 12:28–29).

Fear of God?

The Hebrew midwives had a healthy fear of God (Ex. 1:21), a fear that enabled them to risk Pharaoh’s wrath. They are a good example of what Christ told His disciples years later about not being afraid of those who kill the body, but rather to fear “Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell” (Luke 12:4–5). That fear of the Lord gave them courage, direction, and motivation to make tough choices and live with godly behavior.

Today, when there is so much emphasis on God’s love, grace, and mercy, is it possible that we have forgotten that God is to be feared? He takes our sin very seriously; therefore we need to take His holiness very seriously. We need not cringe in horror, as though God were a tyrant who delights in punishing us. But neither should we wink at sin as though He were a kindly grandfather who laughs at a little mischief. As both the Egyptians and the children of Israel found out, “our God is a consuming fire” (Deut. 4:24).

God Remains Forever

The Book of Lamentations ends with a powerful bit of wisdom by affirming that the Lord remains forever (Lam. 5:19). This truth stands in dramatic contrast to the stark, sobering scene of Mount Zion (Jerusalem), silent and deserted except for a few wild animals that wander through its ruins (Lam. 5:18). The city is no more. But God remains.

So it is throughout Scripture. God always has the final word. For example, the flood carries away a wicked generation, but God remains (Gen. 7:21–23). Job despairs of life, but ultimately sees that God remains (Job 42:5–6). An entire generation of rebellious Israelites dies off in the wilderness, but God remains (Ps. 90:2). Successive empires rise and fall—Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Alexandrian, Roman—but God remains (Dan. 4:34–35; 7:13–14). Even the world itself is destroyed and remade, but God remains (Rev. 21:5–6; 22:13).

This is a fundamental truth that lends perspective to the events of our lives and of history. Families, businesses, cities, nations—everything in this world comes and goes. But God remains forever. Therefore, as Solomon concluded, “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all” (Eccl. 12:13).

Wisdom and the Unbeliever

In its purest sense, “wisdom” means knowing God and respecting His Law (Ps. 111:10; Prov. 1:7). But that doesn’t mean that unbelievers can never acquire or demonstrate real wisdom. If even the simplest animals (Prov. 30:25–28) can display wisdom, then surely any human, even one who does not know God, can have wisdom of a sort, and benefit from it. In fact, many aspects of wisdom are as available to the unbeliever as they are to the believer.

For example, anyone can have the prudence to plan ahead, as the ants do by storing food in the summer (Prov. 30:25; compare Prov. 6:6–8; 10:5; 24:27). Anyone can defend himself from danger, as the rock badgers do by living in rocky crags (Prov. 30:26; compare Prov. 22:3). Any group of people can decide to work together to achieve their goals, the way the locusts do (Prov. 30:27; compare Prov. 13:20). And anyone can work hard and skillfully, as the spider does in weaving its web (Prov. 30:28; compare Prov. 22:29).

So wisdom is available to all. However, there is a danger associated with wisdom in the hands of unbelievers. It is possible for the immediate rewards of living according to wisdom to crowd out thoughts about God. As a result, people may reject Christ’s call, the way the rich young ruler did, because they love the benefits of wisdom, such as riches, more than God (Luke 18:18–23). Then, like the man who multiplied his barns but had no fear of the Lord, unbelievers may one day hear God say to them, “Fool! This night your soul will be required of you” (Luke 12:16–21).

Wisdom has practical benefits for everyone, but it is not enough to just enjoy the end of wisdom. The beginning of wisdom—the fear of the Lord (Prov. 1:7)—matters even more.

For more on this topic, see FEAR, “Redefining Fear,” page 154.

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[1]The NASB Topical Index. 1998 (electronic ed.). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.

[2]Piper, J. (2000). The pleasures of God : Meditations on God's delight in being God. Includes study guide: p. 343-372. (Rev. and expanded) (197). Sisters, Or.: Multnomah Publishers.

[3]Thomas Nelson Publishers. (2001). What does the Bible say about-- : The ultimate A to Z resource fully illustrated. Nelson's A to Z series (154). Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson.