Having Reverence For God

Psalm 111

Our Psalm reading for this week starts off with a call to praise.  That is something that all Christians should be doing all the time - praising the Lord, and many of the Psalms urge us to do that.  Here, in verse 1, we are told to praise God with “all of our heart”.  This brings to mind what Jesus told us in Matthew 22:37, to love God with all of our heart.  He wants us to  love Him and praise Him, with all of our heart and all of our being.

When we really love someone, don’t we have an interest in the things that they are involved in?  We want to know about their job, their hobbies, everything about them.  This should be the same for Christians when it comes to God.  We should seek out and learn everything we possibly can about Him, just like an ardent lover, and the best place to do this is in His Word (vs 2).  By reading and studying God’s Word we get to know Him better.  When we know God better we can worship Him more truly.

In verse 9 we read that God sent redemption to His people.  Redemption means to recover something or someone after having paid a ransom.  If someone pawns something, in order to get it back they have to pay a fee.  On a human level, years ago if someone was sold as a slave, in order to redeem that person a large fee was paid to the slave owner.  Usually it was a third party that paid the fee, but sometimes the individual was able to save enough to purchase his own redemption.  At the time of the Fall in Genesis 3, all of mankind was taken captive by Satan and sin.  The ransom price is blood, and our blood cannot suffice.  Jesus, the sinless Son of God, came to earth and gave His Blood as the ransom price.  His Blood redeemed us out of Satan’s hands and captivity.

Verse 5 contains one promise from God that I have been learning to cling to in the last several months - that He will provide food for those who fear Him.  My family’s financial situation has been very uncertain for a while, but I can trust my Heavenly Father to keep His Word, and He says here that He will give food to those who fear Him.  God will provide for our needs.

What does it mean, though, to “fear the Lord”?  We see in verse 10 that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  This verse is somewhat repeated in Proverbs 9:10.  When God repeats Himself it is a certainty that this is something that we should take careful note of.  The “fear of the Lord” is not like any human fear, like that of a scary movie, bugs, snakes, or even walking down a dark alley.  It is a having a holy reverence and awe for God.  It is an accurate knowledge of God’s power, and then having a respect for that power and His authority, acknowledging that He is God, He is the Creator, and we His creation.

Having this proper fear of God will lead to wisdom, which we should all want.  We cannot become truly wise by having having a lot of life experiences or extensive academic knowledge alone.  It comes from God and His Word.  The more that we study His Word, the more understanding we will gain, and the more of His wisdom we obtain.  The fear of the Lord will lead us to have a true and proper respect of His commands and principles, learning and then doing what pleases Him.  Let’s keep that proper fear of the Lord and gain His wisdom.