When fear doesn't mean being afraid
Notes
Transcript
What are you afraid of?
What are you afraid of?
If you watched the 1986 movie “The Fly”, starring Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis, you will recall the tagline phrase "Be afraid, be very afraid".
Search Google with that phrase and you'll get about 370 million results.
I expect what we are going through right now with COVID-19 might cause us to be afraid. But fear has a habit of becoming quite irrational don’t you think?
I mean, like much of life, it’s always relative to our circumstances and past experience, but here are just a few examples of how fear can become irrational. An American Law Firm in 2014 took teh time to do some research - possibly for insurance purposes, but here’s what they found:
For instance, are you afraid to fly?
You have a 0.00001 percent chance of dying in an airplane crash.
On the other hand, the car insurance industry estimates that the average driver will be involved in three or four car crashes in their lifetime and the odds of dying in a car crash are one to two percent.
What about heights? Apparently, it's the second most reported fear.
Your chance of being injured by falling, jumping, or being pushed from a high place is 1 in 65,092.
The chance of having your identity stolen on the other hand is 1 in 200.
I think those odds have probably become worse since 2014.
Do you fear being killed by a bolt of lightning?
The odds of that happening are 1 in 2.3 million.
You're much more likely to be struck by a meteorite would you believe—those lifetime odds are about 1 in 700,000.
How about dogs? Well they're bark really is worse than their bite:
Your chance of suffering a dog bite is 1 in 137,694.
On the other hand, your chance of being injured while mowing the lawn is 1 in 3,623.
How about sharks?
You're much more likely to be killed by your spouse (1 in 135,000) than a shark (1 in 300 million).
The word fear often conjures up a negative and frightening image in our minds. Perhaps, as we listened to Psalm 111 everything that preceded Psalm 111:10 has been overtaken by that phrase The fear of the Lord. But what does the psalmist actually mean here and how might the fear of the Lord be properly understood?
10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.
Let’s have a quick look at the Psalm as we tease that out together this morning.
The first thing we need to say is we need to be clear about the kind of writing we are looking at. We don’t have time to have a detailed look at the Psalms, so you’re going to have to trust me when I say that Psalm 111 is one of a pair and needs to be read with Psalm 112.
But not only that, Psalm 111 is a song of praise. As a pair, these Psalms lead into Psalms 113 to 118 which were a set used in major festivals, particularly the Passover - infact, it’s not too far a stretch to see that when teh gospels refer to Jesus and his disciples singing before they went out to the Mount of Olives after the Last Supper, it may well have been Psalms 113 to 118 that formed part of their celebration. The Psalms were not only used in teh Jewish faith - they had a purpose, speaking as they did of the acts of God in delivering His people.
So if we look at Psalm 111, as we consider the call to Praise the Lord and Fear the Lord - it’s important that we understand on what basis we do that.
Communal
Communal
1 Praise the Lord. I will extol the Lord with all my heart in the council of the upright and in the assembly.
The Psalmist is driven to give thanks to God in a public way - the praise he speaks of here, is not timid or private. He wants to encourage others to join him and he is going to set out the reasons why.
Contextual
Contextual
The context in which the Psalmist praises God is God Himself. Who He is, what He has done and what He will yet do.
He starts with the works of the Lord, or deeds. Some think there is an emphasis here more on his majestic works in creation - the heavens and the earth.
Psalm 111: 2
2 Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them.
But the psalmist soon moves to the works of God seen in the way he has rescued His people - His works are remembered, not only as historical facts, but works that reflect on the very nature of God.
3 Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever.
His works are wonderful - full of wonder, because of what was required to free His people from Egypt - he showed His power to rescue through the deliverance of His people from tyranny yes, but also as they made their way across the natural landscape and wandered in the wilderness.
4 He has caused his wonders to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and compassionate.
Notice how intwined with reference to God’s works are His characteristics of grace, compassion and His faithfulness to the covenant He made with a people he called to be His own.
5 He provides food for those who fear him; he remembers his covenant forever.
And not only does the Psalmist link God’s works with His character - he also suggests a harmony between what God does and what God says in verse 7. We can trust what God says based on the way He has acted over time.
7 The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy.
Conclusive
Conclusive
I couldn’t easily come up with a third word beginning with C - but hopefully conclusive serves its purpose, because when I reflect on the Psalmist’s call to praise God, to praise the Lord, I can’t help seeing that there is purpose in his praise - it points to something in a definitive way. There is an empotional connection with God that causes Here we find no hint of being caught up in some sort of spiritual ether.
The Psalmist’s praise is grounded on the creative, sustaining and rescuing nature of God, whose ways and words can be trusted.
Praise for God may start as we ponder on His Majesty and Glory, but the psalmist won’t leave us there - he pulls us down to earth with a reminder of how God deals with His people in the mess and distress of life here on earth - these may be past events that the Psalmist recalls, but they continue.
God continues to provide for His people - daily bread to sustain us, yes, but in Jesus we also have evidence of an enduring promise of delivery... of rescue.
Our Exodus if you like, is from the sin that so easily entangles us, the promise of a place that will not be subject to the effects of sin and death, and as we wait, the trustworthy and unfailing Word of God seen in the teachings of Jesus and the unfolding plan of God in His word the bible. Scriptures that are living and active, words that equip and provide us with all that we need to live for the one who calls us to Himself.
So when the Psalmist calls us to fear the Lord, he does so in the sense that we can recognise, acknowledge and honour God on the basis of who He has revealed Himself to be as our Creator, Rescuer and Provider.
Our fear of the Lord is not about being afraid of Him, but giving Him what he’s due - our trust and dependence, a life that is lived in obedience because of who God is.
Our relationship with God is one of reverence - a deep respect and honour that spills over into praise as we delight in Him, giving thanks because of the gratitude we have for what He has done and is doing for us His people and a trust in not only His ability to work for us but that His word is faithful and true and can be relied on - notice the Psalmist is keen for us to see the eternal nature of these truths.
8 They are steadfast for ever and ever, done in faithfulness and uprightness.
9 He provided redemption for his people; he ordained his covenant forever— holy and awesome is his name.
Reflecting on verse 10, one commentator suggests that the key to what life is about is coming to a place where we can agree that ‘from him, to him and through him are all things’ and that His precepts - his Words have been given so that we might know what that means for us day by day.
Now some of you may be listening in and finding this all just a bit disconnected from reality. You don’t feel like praising God sometimes, it’s hard to reconcile all that the psalmist speaks of when life is so busy and confusing, complex and messy.
But I wonder if there is something in this reference to wisdom in verse 10? And might that have something to do with our ability or motivation to praise the Lord?
It is probably safe to say that most people are not much interested in wisdom. They are either pre-occupied with their own success and enjoyment, or they are just trying to make it through.
Might there be a connection between how we see God, His deeds and His enduring Word with a life of praise no matter what our circumtsances?
The Apostle Paul writing most probably from prison in Rome seeks to encourage his readers to see his sufferings from a different perspective to that which we might naturally interpret times of suffering or distress.
He writes:
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father,
15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.
16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,
19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
American Pastor Tim Keller tells how in 1970 a Sunday school teacher changed his life with a simple illustration.
The teacher said, "Let's assume the distance between the earth and the sun (92 million miles) was reduced to the thickness of this sheet of paper. If that is the case, then the distance between the earth and the nearest star would be a stack of papers 70 feet high. And the diameter of the galaxy would be a stack of papers 310 miles high."
Then Keller's teacher added,
"The galaxy is just a speck of dust in the universe, yet Jesus holds the universe together by the word of his power."
Finally, the teacher asked her students, "Now, is this the kind of person you ask into your life to be your assistant?"
Another word used for fear here in verse 10, is Reverence.
Again, perhaps not a word used much today.
But as we reflect on our relationship with God, I wonder whether ‘reverence’ is the starting point or first principle in our lives.
Perhaps that is where we are going wrong?
Rather than bowing before God, acknowleging Him, beginning our reflections on life and its purpose from this perspective; we turn our backs on God and pursue our own wisdom.
I think that the Psalmist would say that true wisdom begins with acknowledging, or reverently bowing before, God as God.
A wisdom that progresses and deepens by getting to know God well, on His terms; which includes not only our coming to know who He is, but also learning that His thoughts and ways are infinitely above and beyond ours.
Perhaps then our praise as individuals and as a gathered community will find its proper context in which to flourish, be heartfelt and impervious to the stresses and strains of life in our modern world.
The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else.
- Oswald Chambers