Reverence and Awe for Our Redeeming God

Meditations on Christ in the Psalms

January 11, 2023

Reverence and Awe for Our Redeeming God

Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true wisdom.

    All who obey his commandments will grow in wisdom.

Praise him forever!

Psalm 111:10

The psalmist began by advising us to ponder the works of God because he wants us to reflect on our worldview. As Christians, our worldview is shaped by our relationship with God. 

How does God want His children to relate to Him? Repeatedly in the Book of Psalms, the psalmists bid the people to come into the presence of God with joy: “My heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving” (Psalm 28:7b). Yet in Psalm 111, the psalmist writes, “Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true wisdom” (v. 10a). Does God expect us to be afraid of Him?

Interestingly, while the Bible contains the phrase, “Fear of the Lord,” dozens of times, it also contains an equal number of the phrase, “Do not be afraid.” God does not want His children to be afraid of Him; however, God does expect His children to respect His holiness. I think the writer of the book of Hebrews put it very well as I noted in my last meditation of 2022:

“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:28-29 NRSV).

Reverence and awe describe the essence of Psalm 111. The psalmist extols God, his redeemer, healer, provider, and conqueror who reigns forever. God’s virtues of glory, majesty, righteousness, graciousness, mercy, justice, goodness, trustworthiness, holiness, and worthy of awe are also extoled in this psalm.

We can have many different views of the world, based on where we are and what we are doing. We can have one persona when we are at home, another when we are at work, another when we are at play, and if we are religious, yet another when we worship.

My Takeaway: Pondering God from the perspective of Psalm 111 gives us an opportunity to consider that, as the children of God, we should have but one persona, whether we are at home, work, play or worship: reverence and awe for our redeeming God.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2023 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.