The fear of the Lord is not something that comes naturally. The fear of the Lord is something that must be learned. And indeed it must be learned because it is the essence of true religion. I used the word essence in last week's sermon. It is that which makes something what it is. It is the real nature of a thing. And the fear of the Lord is the real nature of the religion, the way of life, of God.
It is in us to instinctively fear when we are little children. I think that we fear being left alone. We fear falling. We fear sudden noises. We fear the dark. We fear lightning and thunderstorms. There are a lot of things that we fear almost instinctively because our first reaction is always to protect the self. There is a great deal that comes naturally and I am not saying that all of those fears are wrong or negligible. I am only saying that kind of fear, in contrast to the fear of God, is that which causes us to move to preserve our lives and that is fine, but the fear of God does not come so naturally. It is something that has to be begun and it is something that we have to learn and grow in. It is not in man to instinctively fear God in the biblical sense.
Why did the psalmist (as we just read in Psalm 119:79 and also in Psalm 34:11) want those who feared God to turn to him? Because he wanted those who did fear God to learn to fear Him even more! Wise living, godly living does not remove fear entirely, but consists of fearing the right things. Adam and Eve feared the wrong things.
The fear of the Lord is not something that comes naturally. The fear of the Lord is something that must be learned. And indeed it must be learned because it is the essence of true religion. I used the word essence in last week's sermon. It is that which makes something what it is. It is the real nature of a thing. And the fear of the Lord is the real nature of the religion, the way of life, of God.
Why did the psalmist (as we just read in Psalm 119:79 and also in Psalm 34:11) want those who feared God to turn to him? Because he wanted those who feared God to learn to fear Him even more! Wise living, godly living does not remove fear entirely, but consists of fearing the right things. Adam and Eve feared the wrong things.
