Introduction – 2
Now turn to over the Psalms. Remember, all we’re trying to do is, by a qualitative selectivity, show in the Old Testament the centrality of the fear of God. Now, in the Psalms, there are dozens of references to the fear of God, and again, we select only several. In the second Psalm, we have the command issued in verse 11. In the light of God’s exaltation of His Son, God says (backing up to verse 10): “Be wise now therefore, O ye kings [I have made One My appointed King. Therefore, in the light of that, be wise]: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.” He says, “In the light of what I’ve done with reference to My Son and the pivotal place to which I’ve assigned Him, the only right response is service that is carried out in the context of Godly fear, “Serve the Lord with fear.” We’re warranted, then, in saying that if our view of Christ and His exaltation by the decree of the Father is not such as to bring us to a place of service in the climate of Godly fear, we have not rightly understood nor responded to the exaltation of the Son by the decree of the Father.
Then in Psalm 5:7: “But as for me, I will come into Thy house in the multitude of Thy mercy: and in Thy fear will I worship toward Thy holy temple.” Not only is all acceptable service carried out in the climate of Godly fear, but even as we approach God in the fullest consciousness of His mercy and His love, it is never a consciousness of mercy and love divorced from the climate of Godly fear. Notice how David ties these two together: “But as for me, I will come into Thy house in the multitude of Thy mercy….” He says, “I will come fully conscious that God’s love is like the ocean.”
A few weeks ago, we stood beside the Cardiganshire Bay in Aberystwyth, Wales, and we thought of that illustration that was conveyed to us by a missionary who, when having talked with one of the natives that had gone to the coast of Africa for the first time and seen the great cities and all the rest, was asked upon his return, “What impressed you most?” Instead of talking about buildings and automobiles and locomotives, he said, “The sea.” Why the sea? He said, “Because it’s like the mighty love of God: ever stretching out before me but ever coming towards me.” That’s something of what David said. Seeing the love and mercy of God like a sea stretching out before him as far as the eye could see, yet ever breaking toward him as the waves break upon the shore. He says, “But as for me, I will come into Thy house in the multitude of Thy mercy: and in Thy fear will I worship toward Thy holy temple.” Therefore, no worship, no matter how deep may be the consciousness of divine love, is acceptable unless it is worship in the climate of Godly fear.
Then turn over to Psalm 67, one of those Gospel Psalms which has as its vision the proclamation of the message of saving mercy to the ends of the earth; the Psalmist pleading that God’s mercy will be to him and to God’s covenant people to the end (v. 2) “that Thy way may be known upon earth, Thy saving health among all nations.” And what will be the result of God’s saving message going out to the nations? Verse 7: “God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him.” In other words, the whole end for which the Gospel goes out through God’s covenant people is to teach the nations the fear of God. That’s a pretty central issue, isn’t it? If God’s blessing upon His people that they in turn may bring blessing to others is expressed in terms of purpose in these very words, “God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him,” then this is no peripheral issue when it stands so central in the thinking of the Psalmist.
You have a parallel passage in Psalm 72 where this same extension of the Gospel is seen under the figure of the reign of the righteous King. And, of course, that righteous King is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. The type of that reign in righteousness, of course, was Solomon; the fulfillment in our Lord Jesus Christ. And what will be the result of the Lord Jesus administering that kingship in power by virtue of His exaltation to the right hand of the Father? Verse 5: “They shall fear Thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations.” The result of Christ’s kingship exercised over the hearts of men is to bring men into the fear of God.
Now turn over to Psalm 103. And here in this Psalm, there are several references to the fear of God. And basically what they have in common is this: they teach us that an indispensable characteristic of the people of God is that they fear Him so much so that when you wanted to describe the people of God, you could do so by using as a synonym “those who fear God.” Notice how the Psalmist does it in verse 11, 13, and 17. Verse 11: “For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him.” This idea that God’s redemptive love is just some kind of a general gushy benevolence that is focused upon all men is not the teaching of holy Scripture. Here the Psalmist says that His mercy is upon them that fear Him. His peculiar love is upon His people. And who are His people? Those who fear Him. No fear of Him, no mercy.
Down again in verse 13: “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear Him.” He uses as a synonym for “His children” “them that fear Him.” No fear of Him, no right to claim that I’m under the canopy of redemptive love (v. 11); no right to claim that I’m one of His children (v. 13). In the whole thinking of Hebrew parallelism, you have this often in the Psalms and in other poetic writings. This is used interchangeably with the concept of child. “The LORD pitieth them that fear Him.” Verse 17: “But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him….” So then the Psalmist conceives of the people of God as those who are in every instance marked by this characteristic of the fear of God.
And then Proverbs 1:7. As this book of Proverbs is going to come to us giving wise counsel with a manifold purpose (you read about it in verses 2-6), Solomon then says at the very beginning of his discourse, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning [chief part] of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Learning, then, the fear of God is not only the ABC from which we move on to DEFGHIJKLMN–from little words to big words as you kids will do once you learn the alphabet. And you would say, “learning my ABCs was the beginning of learning how to spell.”
But it is the chief part, just as the use of the alphabet is something that is not left but becomes the chief part of all your learning so that when a man is studying the most complicated book on far out physics, he’s dealing with the same numbers he learned in kindergarten and first grade and with the same letters he learned. Now, there could be arrangements of them that we look and scratch our heads and say it looks like a cat ran through there with ink on its paws (all the equations and the rest). But he’s working with the same numbers 1-10 and letters A-Z. So then, the fear of the Lord is the chief part of knowledge. Not only the beginning, but that which permeates all accumulation of heavenly knowledge is the fear of God. Lose that, and God says you’re not learning true wisdom. So it’s a pretty important thing, isn’t it?
Then we turn to the book of Ecclesiastes. And we listen to this man who surveyed all the possible avenues down which a man may go to find the meaning of life; to find satisfaction in life, some of those paths that some of you are contemplating. And right now they seem pretty sweet paths as they did in the beginning to this man until he went down to the end of every one of those paths and saw that it was nothing but vanity and vexation. Then he comes to this conclusion in chapter 12 and verse 13: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter [here’s the true meaning of life]: fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” What is the summary of the totality of man’s duty? How is the true meaning of life to be found? Fear God and keep His commandments.
Well then, we move on into the Prophets. And it was difficult to be selective here. And I thought perhaps one of the best things to do would be to take the prophecy in the book of Isaiah, chapter 11. Here we have a beautiful prophecy of Messiah who should come out of the stock of Jesse. Verses 1-3a:
“And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: and the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; and shall make Him of quick understanding [His delight shall be] in the fear of the LORD.”
Here is an explicit statement that when the Spirit would come upon Messiah as He came upon in the waters of Jordan, He would come upon Him not only as the Spirit of might and power by which He raised the dead, unstopped the deafened ears, and loosened the dumb tongue, but that Spirit should be upon Him as the Spirit of the fear of the Lord. And the one aspect of that Spirit’s ministry which is enlarged upon in verse 3 is that very concept, “His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.” So then, the dominant aspect of Messiah’s own character is that He should walk and live and move and delight in the fear of the Lord.