Joy and Fear of God

Doesn’t it sound like an oxymoron to have joy and fear at the same time regarding God? But this is exactly what the Bible tells us in Psalm 47:1-2.

Clap your hands, all peoples!
Shout to God with loud songs of joy!
For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared,
a great king over all the earth.

People who don’t know the Lord through Jesus can’t understand what it means to fear the Lord and have joy in it. The big reason is that they can only conceive of a fear of the Lord that means punishment. They think that God is up there just waiting to catch someone doing something wrong and thump them for it or send them to hell when they die.

Since that is so odious for them, they reject any idea of God. They think that by denying God, they don’t have to worry about a future judgment.

But look back at the Psalm. God wants everyone to be joyful and glad in their fear of Him. How can that be? Now, his fear isn’t the fear of punishment, but it is what should be a natural, a natural fear of being in the presence of someone who is so powerful and different from us that we can’t comprehend Him.

To help you about this, imagine meeting some alien from outer space with technology so superior to ours that we are overwhelmed. We don’t know if this alien is good or bad. Even when we learn he is extremely good, we would still be in awe of him.

But this we know, that in Christ Jesus, God has demonstrated His love for us. When we trust in Jesus, the fear of punishment is replaced by His love. But the Lord is still powerful and beyond our comprehension so that reverent fear will always be with us, and it is good. It leads us to worship Him as described in the Psalm.

If you don’t know the Lord through Jesus you will never know His awesome love and this wonderful fear, watch my video on the Gospel on YouTube or read on this Gospel link.

No Fear

I just heard a great message about fear today. When we don’t fear the Lord, then we will fear all sorts of other things. When we forget who God is, fears can tear us apart. But here is what Psalm 46:1-3 says:

God is our refuge and strength,

an ever-present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way

and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

though its waters roar and foam

and the mountains quake with their surging.

 

There is so much to be afraid of in this sin-broken world. But when God is our refuge and strength we don’t have to fear. The Psalmist pointed us to the worst that can happen to us and that is physical calamity and disaster. We may be maimed, killed, and lose everything of worldly value. But if we have Jesus Christ we have everything.

When people are crazy and run amuck saying and doing terrible things, we don’t need to fear. Psalm 118:6 says:

The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid.

What can man do to me?

Paul said in Rom 8:31, “What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?” If you don’t know Jesus Christ as your Lord, God, and Savior, then you have all the reasons in the world to fear. If you don’t know him, watch my video on the Gospel on YouTube or read on this Gospel link