What is the Fear of the Lord?

If I were to simply ask, “What is fear?” most of us would not have an issue answering that question. Fear is that emotion I feel when I’m scared of danger, or a problem bearing down on me. It could be a real danger: perhaps a snake has slithered across my foot; or it could be a perceived danger: perhaps the snake is a harmless black racer and is very unlikely to even bite me. So, a swamp filled with mosquitoes biting me is a fear of real danger. A sign telling me there are a lot of mosquitoes who may bite me is a perceived danger (thanks Congaree National Forest for the warning!).

Further, if I were to ask who is the Lord, few Christians would stumble to find the answer. The Lord is God, the One and Only. The Lord is the Almighty Creator, the incarnate Savior, the Comforting Spirit: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in One Godhead. He is the Lord.

But, if we put both fear and the Lord into a phrase and ask its definition, many do stumble. What is the fear of the Lord? As I have briefly researched, the modern consensus seems to be a brief or prolonged journey that arrives at similar conclusions. Fear of the Lord is not fear, but something like awe, respect, worship, and love. Now, because of Jesus, praise the Lord, I do think we worship God with reverence and awe, and I do think we love God because He first loved us in Jesus Christ. But, if “the fear of the Lord” should be translated “the awe of the Lord” or “the love of the Lord,” then Bible translators have done a consistently lousy job translating the words into fear.

On the basis of linguistics, biblical theology, and logic, I’m going to argue that the fear of the Lord means fearing the Lord as in a settled emotional trembling at His Person and Presence. This fear, because of Jesus, need not remain the only emotion we habitually experience. Instead, when we come to God by faith in Jesus, and are adopted into God’s family, we combine fear and love. We fear-love God. It’s what Augustine will call a filial fear. We do not graduate from or leave fear behind, discarding any fear we experience in God’s holy presence, but we couple that fear with hope and love in Jesus. The by-product of this fear-love is habitual right-walking with God, right-worship of God, and enduring happiness.

Born in Zion

One of the Sons of Korah sang a song now recorded for its powerful and shocking refrain, "Glorious things are said of you, city of God: 'I will record Rahab and Babylon among those who acknowledge me - Philistia too, and Tyre, along with Cush - and will say, "This one was born in Zion,"'" (Ps 87:3-4).

Here is a beautiful and remarkable prophecy of God's future adoption of children from all nations, including those historically opposed to God and God's people like Babylon, Philistia and Cush (Egypt). Imagine the shock of an Israelite hearing God say He would rewrite the birth certificate of a Babylonian as if he were "born in Zion," the city of God. The redone birth certificate symbolizes the new life in Jesus Christ through faith for the forgiveness of sins. Paul explained it this way, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!" (2 Cor 5:17). The shock of "anyone" in Paul's day was that the previously accepted barriers of foreign pagans had been broken down and torn in two by the shed blood of Christ. Anyone - Jewish, Samaritan, Greek, Roman, or Barbarian - could receive forgiveness for their sin through faith in Christ Jesus, and have their eternal birth certificates signed that they were born again in the City of God. Knowing that at the time my ancestors were on a far away island to the west, among the "barbarians", I praise God that His grace extended over mountains and across cultures. It is by His Sovereign Grace that I know my heavenly birth certificate says by my name, "This one was born in Zion."