Psalm 145:19

Psalm 145:19

The fear of the Lord

This verse elaborates on its predecessor. Three things are mentioned that God does for those who fear Him. By the way, and we’ve mentioned this before, to “fear God” does not mean that we shake with terror at the mere mention of His name! It means that we are in awe of Him, that we offer Him the respect that He deserves, that we have a proper understanding of our own place and abilities compared to Him. To those who honour and exalt Him, the Lord fulfils their desires, hears their cries and saves them. I’m sure that we all understand that if our desires are to win the lottery, sail around the world and live a life of effortless ease then the Lord will probably not come up trumps! On the other hand, if our desires are to serve and obey Him, to make Him known and to live for others, then He may well give us far more than we ever dreamt of! 

Fear of God is more than just a set of values or ideals, it is love and service and faithfulness in action, it is to represent Him amongst pagan people. Inevitably, life lived that way in our world will be hard, self-sacrificing and costly, thus, when we call to Him, He will hear. God’s primary motive amongst men is to save them, to save us. To save us from ourselves and from sin, to save us from the clutches of the world and its constant demands, and to save us from the devil and all our enemies. Sometimes He does this through remarkable means and we live to proclaim His glory and majesty, sometimes He snatches His people from the fire and takes them to a safer place, way beyond this world. Whichever way we look at it, the Lord always has our best interests at heart. And that’s the point, if a voice whispers in our ear telling us to stop all this crazy faith stuff, to just get out there and enjoy life and make our own way, to indulge ourselves and grab everything we can that exalts us as human beings, then, of course, that is our choice. The Lord wants us to remember however, that His interest in us far exceeds life on earth, it stretches way into eternity and into worlds that we cannot even imagine. That’s our choice and it can only be made by faith. Hallelujah!

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