Psalm 36: Fearing God
I would like to talk about the first verse in this chapter:
36:1 An oracle within my heart concerning the transgression of the wicked: There is no fear (pachad) of God before his eyes
Questions: People have questions about this topic: is this an outdated concept? Was the Old Testament God angry and violent and the New Testament God gentle and kind and patient? There is some debate about this, whether we should actually be afraid of God or just respect him.
I came across an article online, where the author has a quote form a book called “Rejoice and Tremble: The Surprising Good News of the Fear of the Lord” by Michael Reeves.
“With society having lost God as the proper object of healthy fear, our culture is necessarily becoming ever more neurotic, ever more anxious about the unknown–indeed, ever more anxious about anything and everything. Without a kind and fatherly God’s providential care, we are left utterly uncertain about the shifting sands of both morality and reality. In ousting God from our culture, other concerns–from personal health to the health of the planet–have assumed a divine ultimacy in our minds..And thus we feel helplessly fragile. No longer anchored, society fills with free-floating anxieties.”
So, here are some old Testament verses about fear of the Lord:
“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear (yārē') the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Deut 10:12, 6:13
In Joshua 24 When Joshua said choose this day whom you will serve, he also said fear (yārē') the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth.
My flesh trembles for fear (pachad) of You, And I am fearful of (yārē') of Your judgments. (Psalm 119)
The fear (yir'â) of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9) and a fountain of life (Proverbs 14)
Let not your heart envy sinners: but fear (yir'â) the LORD all the day long. (Proverbs 23)
By humility and the fear (yir'â) of the Lord Are riches and honor and life (Proverbs 22:4)
Psalm 27:1 The LORD is my light and my salvation;Whom shall I fear (yārē')? The LORD is the strength of my life;Of whom shall I be afraid (pāḥaḏ)
So as to the debates over whether or not we should fear God or just respect Him, this is evidenced by not only the sometimes NIV (that I grew up with) but also other more recent Bible translations sometimes translating “fearing” the Lord as “respecting, “reverencing” “honoring” or “worshiping” the Lord.
For example, When Jonah says in Jonah 1:9
“I am a Hebrew and I fear (Hebrew: yārē', Greek: Sebo) the Lord, the God of Heaven”
About half of English translations say fear, but the other half say “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord.”
Same for Deut 6:13 where it says 2 things: “fear (yārē') the Lord your God, and serve Him”, here are some translations of that verse: (note, not only the translations of “fear” but also “serve”)
KJV and many others: fear the Lord your God and serve Him
dread thy Lord God (Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God/Thou shalt revere the Lord thy God), and thou shalt serve him (Wycliffe Bible, 1382)
respect and obey the Lord your God. (Easy English Bible)
Worship and obey the Lord your God (Contemporary English Version) (fear?)
Respect the Lord your God. You must worship him (New Century Version) (serve?)
Fear the Lord your God, worship him (Christian Standard Bible, New American Standard Bible)
Honor the Lord your God, worship only him (Good News Translation) (fear? serve?)
It’s very confusing how worship is replacing both the words for fear and serve, it makes my head hurt! You can see a full list of translations of any verse at biblegateway.com and click on “see all English translations of this verse” or biblehub.com and click on “parallel” at the top and then “additional translations” at the bottom for even more.
Overall, replacing the command to fear with other words doesn’t sit well with me. I think fear can encompass many feelings all at the same time (dread, honor, respect, etc), as the words in Hebrew often can and do have more than one meaning and can mean more than one thing at the same time, but I think that “fearing the Lord” is an important concept, and it shouldn’t be “messed with” or altered.
Same for Acts 10:35 whenever Peter says God accepts men from every nation who fear (Greek: phobeo) him and practice righteousness. Some versions say God accepts those who “worship” him, some say God accepts those who “respect him”.
Overall, that’s why it’s good to look at more than one translation. I have learned SO MUCH from this!
For those who would say that fear just means respect and that it’s ok to translate fear as respect. What does Jesus say about it?
Jesus says in Matthew 10 and Luke 12:
Do not be afraid (phobeo) of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear (phobeo) : Fear (phobeo) Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear (phobeo) Him!
God is the only one who has that power. We are to fear God more than the most powerful man on earth.
Paul also says in Romans 11, to us believing Gentiles, referring to us as branches that have been grafted in to the olive tree, not to be haughty, but to fear (phobeo), because if we don’t continue in God’s goodness (some versions say kindness) we too will be cut off.
Here’s some other interesting New Testament verses on fearing God:
In Acts 9, the churches had peace and were edified, walking in the fear of the Lord AND in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.So here there is both fear AND comfort at the same time.
The women who found the empty tomb of Jesus and saw the angel there, ran from the tomb with fear (phobos) AND great joy to tell the disciples. (Matthew 28) So here there is both fear AND joy at the same time.
In Luke 5 and Luke 7, when Jesus heals the paralyzed man and raises the dead man in the city of Nain in both cases it says the people were “filled with fear AND glorified God”. So here there is both fear AND giving glory to God for these miracles and healing, that’s joyous and happy.
Here’s another quote from that book I referenced earlier.
“I want you to rejoice in this strange paradox that the gospel both frees us from fear and gives us fear. It frees us from our crippling fears, giving us instead a most delightful, happy, and wonderful fear. If we rejoice and tremble daily before God, fearing Him above all else, all the other fears begin to seem just a little less terrible.”
(I’m still going to be afraid of spiders though and wasps, as irrational as it may be!)
Conclusion:
Should we fear the Lord? Yes. Fearing the Lord has many benefits and a definite purpose in our lives. Describing myself as "God-fearing" is now important to me.
(what came out to be the top 5 in our list in class? (from fearof.net, a great list) ? Obviously, the first one should be God!)
So bringing together Psalm 10, God being our Rock and Psalm 36 from our other study, Fearing the Lord and not fearing other things,
Isaiah 44:8 Do not fear (pâchad), nor be afraid (rāhâ);...Is there a God besides Me? Indeed there is no other Rock;’
And here is a final quote from that book:
“Our world is still scary and many of us will continue to carry our anxieties. But as we daily bring them to Him, over time, He will help us put them in their proper place. For when we fear God we have nothing else left to fear.”
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