“Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.”
(Psalm 34:11)
One of the best ways to understand how to properly fear God is to consider how a wise son fears a good and honorable father. A son who respectfully fears his father wants to obey him because he knows that a good father has his best interest at heart. He has a deep desire to please his father because he seeks his father’s favor and good will. At the same time the son has a healthy fear of disregarding, disrespecting, disobeying, or displeasing his father because he knows his father keeps his word and will correct him if he behaves in a way that requires discipline.
For these reasons, as a child of God we should be thrilled when we mature to the point where we properly fear our Heavenly Father (Prov. 9:10). Nehemiah 1:11 says, “O Lord, let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who delight to fear Your name.” Do you fear the Lord? Do you delight to fear Him? A healthy fear of God pulls you toward Him. It causes you to seek Him. It moves you to joyfully obey and follow Him because you desire His favor and blessing.
Learning to fear the Lord means you possess a sense of awe and respect for His majesty. Instead of approaching His throne with a cavalier attitude, you come before Him in a spirit of humility and holy reverence for who He is. A proper fear moves you to adore God… to worship, honor, and revere Him in thought, in word, and in deed. “You who fear the LORD, praise Him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify Him, and stand in awe of Him, all you offspring of Israel!” (Psa. 22:23).
Fear and praise go hand in hand. “Ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name; bring an offering and come into His courts! Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness; tremble before Him, all the earth!” (Psa. 96:8). “Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come, and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.” (Rev. 14:7). Until you learn to fear the Lord you cannot worship Him, and it follows that if you do not worship Him, you do not fear Him.
Nature teaches us to fear God for His might, His power, and His judgments. “I am afraid of Your judgments,” David says (Psa. 119:120). When God threatened a universal flood, Noah was moved with fear (Heb. 11:7). And when God announced that hail would fall in Egypt and kill every man and beast in the field, the text says, “He that feared the word of the Lord…made his servants and cattle flee into the houses,” (Exod. 9:20). “All the wicked of the earth You discard like dross, therefore I love Your testimonies. My flesh trembles for fear of You, and I am afraid of Your judgments,” (Psa. 119:119).
We also learn to fear God for His mercy, as a good wife fears a loving husband who honors her. Though He has power to do so, Job 37:23-24 says, “God will not afflict. Men do therefore fear Him.” Not only do we fear Him for His justice and severity, we fear Him for His goodness. “They shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days,” the Prophet says (Hos. 3:5). “Let us now fear the Lord our God, that gives rain, both the former and the latter, in His season…” (Jer. 5:24). We should fear Him who is so abundantly merciful to us.
A healthy fear of God causes us to obey Him. “Serve the Lord with fear,” the psalmist says. “Fear the Lord, and serve Him,” Samuel says (1 Sam. 12:24). The service of God does not consist in merely wearing the badge of Christianity, but in the works of obedience to our heavenly Lord and master. William Price said, “The fear of God and the discarding of sin must go together.” “Stand in awe, and sin not,” David says. “Fear the Lord, and depart from evil,” Solomon warns. Have you learned to fear the Lord (Psa. 34:11)? Then walk in that fear all your days in order to rightly adore God and His Christ.
- Lord, teach me to fear You in order that I might hold on to You and not run from You. Help me trust You and trust the Lord Christ with godly fear.
- I desire to have a godly fear… not the fear of an imprisoned slave but the fear of an obedient child of God.
- You tell me, “Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell,” (Matt. 10:28). What can any creature do to me, or against me, that You cannot do? What can any man do against or for me that You do not permit, and that You cannot interrupt, or revoke? The combined, collective strength of all of creation cannot come near to matching Your power and strength. Remind me of this truth, Lord, when I lose focus of the One I am to fear, and the only One I am to fear.
- Help me have a godly fear always – one without intermission or interruption. “That ye might fear the Lord your God forever,” (Josh. 4:24). There are different things I do Lord, that are only done sometimes. But the fear of the Lord is never out of season. Cultivate a godly fear in me and make me constant in it that I might adore You rightly.
Further References for Psalm 34:11
Ps. 32:8, 66:16, 111:10; 2 Tim. 3:15; Prov. 1:7, 3:1
