What's all this about fear?

                                                 

Several times in our psalm, David says we must fear the Lord. Now, I know that there were times that David feared Saul, and there were times that he feared the Philistines. There were even times that he feared for his life from his own countrymen. So this makes sense:

I sought the Lord, and he answered me;
    he delivered me from all my fears. (v. 4)

David was seeking salvation from the Lord. And God delivered him from his fears. What an awesome testimony!

But some people really get hung up on verses like these:

Fear the Lord, you his holy people,

    for those who fear him lack nothing.

Come, my children, listen to me;
    I will teach you the fear of the Lord. (verses 9, 11)

Looks like fearing God is intertwined with God's salvation. But that is hard for some people to get their heads around!

I just bet that if we had a room full of believers, and we said that as Christians we must fear God, we would have some who would vigorously disagree! Their line of reasoning would be that God is compassionate; He is merciful; He is loving. In fact, in I John, we read that perfect love casts out the fear of punishment:

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. (I John 4:18-19)

What gives? Seems like we have a puzzle here!

Well, I know that we have mentioned this before, but I thought a deeper dive might help us all . . . there are many more actual words in the English language than there are in Hebrew. The current Oxford dictionary has almost 200,000 words in it. However, the Hebrew language only has about 50,000 words, the scholars say. 

Since there are so few (comparatively speaking), the words in the Hebrew language can have MANY meanings! They will often share a common thread, but in our language, they will be different. Sometimes just a small difference, like the shades of a color. Sometimes the difference will seem significant.

Before I go any further, let me make something clear: I AM  NOT saying that any translations are wrong. "Fear" is a perfectly valid translation of the Hebrew word in question. It is translated correctly many times in the Word as "fear," however it doesn't ONLY mean fear. Does that make sense? 

Here is a list of the meanings:

        fear

        stand in awe

        reverence

        be fearful, be astonished

        inspire reverence and awe

It has a lot to do with the context; it has to do with the words around it -- let's consult with someone who speaks the language, ok?

Who fears God will refrain from doing the things that would be displeasing to Him, the things that would make himself unworthy of God’s regard. Fear of God does not make men shrink from Him as one would from a tyrant or a wild beast; it draws them nearer to Him and fills them with reverential awe. That fear which is merely self-regarding is unworthy of a child of God. (Jewish Encyclopedia, 1906)

The word we listed up there as "reverence" is from the root word, revere. Here is what the dictionary tells us about revere: "respect tinged with awe."  Okay, so this is making more sense here; we are not supposed to dread being around our parents, but we are to respect them. The Hebrew nation did not tremble with fear around Moses or Joshua, but they venerated them, treated them with respect. We should respect, show that we revere, venerate, want to be more like our Father God. 

Here's another point we can make: you can actually fear something and not respect it. My sister is scared of spiders. She is fearful of them. But she doesn't respect them! And there are people who are afraid of God, but don't really respect Him.  So, that reverential awe that the Jewish Encyclopedia noted makes a great deal of sense in many of these verses. A profound amount of respect that borders on (or includes) awe or amazement. (Wait a minute! That sounds like a really good definition for the beginning of wisdom, doesn't it?) Sorry, got distracted there.

Back to our word study . . . in the New Testament, we see a similar situation. The Greek word that is usually translated "fear" is "phobos." You can see right away that it is the root of the word "phobia." But phobos seems to have the same usage and meaning as the Hebrew word. It can mean fear, alarm, reverence, and respect. I don't really believe that Peter meant for wives to be scared of their husbands' walking in the room, but that he WAS encouraging them to be respectful of their God-given authority in the home. (I Peter 3:1-2) Later in the same chapter he exhorts his readers to tell others about our hope of salvation with gentleness and respect - not fright! 

Like the Hebrew word, the Greek one often does mean "fear." But not always. So I think that in our psalm, David is taking the time to say we should fear God, in the sense of bowing in reverent awe before Him. Look back at verse nine and give it some thought with this knowledge. Take a moment to comment and let me know your thoughts - I would like to hear!

David tells us how to live in reverence to the Lord; he says it's to live in obedience to Him. There's an emphasis in the psalm on being righteous. 

Turn from evil and do good;
    seek peace and pursue it.

 The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
    and his ears are attentive to their cry; (vs. 14-15)

Contrast that with verses sixteen and twenty-one . . . 

but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil,
    to blot out their name from the earth...

Evil will slay the wicked; the foes of the righteous will be condemned.

It looks to me like we have a choice here: either God's eyes are towards us favorably because we obey Him, or His face is against us because we disobey Him. And the root of obeying the Lord is when we fear Him (there it is again!). Proverbs 8:13 reinforces things:

To fear the Lord is to hate evil; (Proverbs 8:13a)

 If we fear Him, we are filled with respect and reverence, with awe as we consider Him . . . this leads us to want to seek Him and to obey Him. That leads us to enjoying God and experiencing that blessed life we are studying this week.