“BLESSINGS + THE FEAR OF THE LORD”

1 Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments! 

Psalm 112:1

At some point, we try and make sense of life and find our life's purpose. However, we seem to forget that it's not that hard to find. The Bible tells us exactly why we live.

Let’s continue our study on this beautiful psalm.

This week’s passage gives us four ways in which a God-fearing man responds to God’s practical blessings. Yesterday, we discussed the first. Now, let’s take a look at the second.

A God-fearing man obeys God. 

The writer continues and says a God-fearing man is blessed, using the Hebrew word “eser” (esher), which means “blessed, happy, contented, or enlarged.” From the writer’s viewpoint, blessedness is a deep-seated joy and contentment in God. The Hebrew word is actually a plural, which shows us that a blessed person has many blessings or significant blessings. Jesus used this word to describe the inner quality of a man who is wholly committed to God (The Beatitudes, Sermon on the Mount).

So, the psalmist praises God, then declares that fearing Him results in blessedness. But I think the word “fear” needs further study.

The writer talks about three kinds of fear: bad news (verse 7), the enemy (verse 8), and fear of the Lord (verse 1). The idea is that fearing God takes away every other fear. The original Hebrew word is “yare,” “to fear, revere, be afraid.” It describes the fear one feels when in a scary situation, the respect of a servant to his master, and the awe in the presence of someone great. 

A person who fears the Lord is someone who has a continual awareness of His presence and knowledge of everything we think, say, and do. The Bible presents God as the all-knowing God (Hebrews 4:13). In other words, when we know that God sees everything, we should be careful in the way we think, speak, and act. Such fear is expected of every person. In fact, the Bible tells us that fearing God is our main responsibility as human beings.

13 “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” 

Ecclesiastes 12:13

Let’s take it from Solomon himself. Despite being the most powerful and wise man in his lifetime, he acknowledged God’s superiority and the worthiness of man’s love and worship. While so many of us work our fingers to the bones, trying to make a name for ourselves or have material abundance, we should not forget that we exist to know God and serve Him.

My friend, for whom do you wake up each morning and do the things you do? 

Pursue the Savior today!