4 Minute Read

Prepare Your Heart

To the best of your ability, get rid of all distractions. Take a few minutes to breathe deeply and quiet yourself in the Lord’s presence. Then, ask the Lord to speak to you in this time. Let Him know that you will listen and make whatever adjustments He will reveal to you.

Read God’s Word

Psalm 33-35
Romans 6:1-7:6

A Verse for Today

Slowly and reflectively read the following verse(s) and listen to what God will say to you through His written Word. Consider writing down any insights He reveals to you.

Psalm 33:8-9 (CSB): “Let the whole earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spoke, and it came into being; he commanded, and it came into existence.”

Reflecting on God’s Word

Psalm 33:8-9 gives us two ways that we are to relate to God and a very good reason for doing so.

First, we are told to “fear the Lord.” When I heard this phrase as a young child, I assumed it meant that I was to be afraid of Him. But that didn’t make sense because why should I be afraid of the One who loved me so much He sent His Son to die on the cross to pay my sin debt and make me His child?

As I grew older and did some studying, I came to realize that the fear of the Lord did include fear but it was a mixture of other things as well. I came to understand it as a fear of Someone so powerful, immense, and able to punish disobedience, but the fear also included awe and even joy at being in His presence.

The closest thing I have come to experiencing what I believe the “fear of the Lord” is like was when I walked along a trail at the Grand Canyon. I looked at the immensity of the place and realized that people died there each year, and yet I experienced such a joy and wonder at the same time. Here’s a video I took as I experienced that feeling.

Next, the Psalmist calls us to “stand in awe of him.” In my understanding of the fear of the Lord, it includes awe. So, the Psalmist may have been saying that for emphasis. He was calling upon his readers to stand in amazement with mouths wide open at how powerful, immense, and wonderful our God is.

If the Psalmist had stopped there, he would have been calling us to act in a certain way toward God without giving us something to think about that resulted in those behaviors. Fortunately, the Psalmist did not stop there.

Psalm 33:8-9 (CSB): “Let the whole earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spoke, and it came into being; he commanded, and it came into existence.” (emphasis mine)

The Psalmist called us to think about our God and His work of creation. We cannot even fathom the physics involved by a God who spoke and created all things out of nothing (theologians call this “ex nihilo”). And all of those “somethings” were so organized that the created order at the end of Genesis 2 was absolutely perfect. And God did it all by simply speaking.

How long has it been since you have looked at a clear night sky and tried to grasp how immense outer space is, and then stood in awe of your God who spoke it all into existence? How long has it been since you have looked at the intricacies of a beautiful flow or a buzzy bee at work and praised your Creator as you stood in awe of Him?

There is something inside of us that finds delight in praising our God, not merely with our words, but with a heart that is filled with “the fear of the Lord” and “awe of Him.” Find time today to slow down, observe God’s creation, and then enjoy praising Him.

Spend Time in Prayer

  • Ask God to help you to observe and enjoy some aspect of His Creation today.
  • Ask God to enable you to be moved to praise as you think of how He created everything by the word of His power.
  • Ask God to help you cultivate a biblical experience of “the fear of the Lord.”

Going Deeper

If you want to dig a little deeper into what “the fear of the Lord” means, consider reading the following GotQuestions article:

“What does it mean to have the fear of God?”

Sharing

If this post has been helpful to you or if you think it could help others, please consider tapping one of the social media buttons below to share it on your favorite platform.

____________________

Matt Ellis is the pastor of White Hall Baptist Church in Richmond, Kentucky (whitehallbaptistchurch.org)