A Lesson on the Fear of the LORD from Psalm 34:11-16

"Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. 
Who is the man who desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good?
Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit.
Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it.
The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry. 
The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth."  (Psalm 34:11-16)

In this Psalm, David notes the difference between those who fear the LORD and those who do not. Where the one is righteous, the other is evil.  One will see good in his days, the other will see evil in his days. One will be redeemed into eternal life, the other will be slayed by evil and given over to condemnation.  The truth of sowing and reaping is both a natural and supernatural law that is evident in God's dealing with the righteous and wicked.  Those who sow into good will reap good, and those who sow into evil will reap evil.  You may wonder why bad things happen to good people if this is true. I can't answer that now, but I would warn you not to see good and evil through human eyes. Try to understand that His knowledge of good and evil reach far beyond our limited understanding. We base our understanding of good and evil on what we believe to be naturally pleasing. To the unrefined mind, our understanding of good and evil has nothing to do with eternity or supernatural things. Our views are based on our senses.  Remember that Eve judged the fruit from the tree to be good, but in reality, it was bad to the core, and our fallen state is the result of her false judgment. In this fallen state, we are all subjected to tragedy as well as celebrations. That's a part of life, but there is a way for those who fear God that stands above the rest.

David's lesson on the fear of the LORD begins with a question about the man who "desires life and loves many days, that he may see good."  Why does David begin his lesson with a question? Because this is the man who should fear the LORD.  David is saying, "if you desire to be this man, you will choose to fear the LORD and heed what I am saying to you. If you desire otherwise, turn your eyes from Him, and He will set your face against you."

The man who would fear the LORD must "keep his tongue from evil, his lips from speaking deceit, depart from evil, do good, and seek and pursue peace." This lesson looks like a list of rules much like the law of Moses.  But what does this list have to do with fearing God?  Everything.  The fear of the LORD is a matter of viewing Him in your heart.  When you love Him in reverence and awe, the things that matter to His heart are important to yours. Then, you seek to learn to discern the things that God loves and the things that He hates, and you are able to view your actions how He views them.  He loves you. He loves us all as His creation, as a people He created for Himself. But he hates sin, evil, and wickedness.  No matter how much we love Him, we practice such things when we don't fear Him.  

When asked what are the greatest commandments, Jesus responds: "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 22:37-40).   One of the purposes of the Law was to teach people to walk in a holy fear of God. When you understand the place of man in light of who God is, it's not a difficult thing to fear Him, and the Law has been a constant reminder to Israel that God is unlike them and that He deserves reverence.  

Jesus says the second commandment is like the first. How can this be if one deals with God and the other deals with man? The answer is the very reason for Jesus' sacrifice.  God loves man.  That's the reason why we can't profess to love Him and not truly love our neighbor.  It's why David says to keep our tongue from evil and our lips from speaking deceit.  There is always a target for bad talk.  While it's okay to speak against a sin, it's not okay to speak evil against the person. God's heart is towards that person. If we honestly love God as we are commanded to do, evil speaking and deceit will be far from our lips. We would seek to do good and not evil to our neighbors, and we would pursue peace with them always.  Why? Because if we seek to slander and do evil to our neighbors, we have set ourselves against a person who God loves.  We have turned against God's heart for that person, and we are speaking death over someone who God desires to see live.  When we don't desire good for one another, we are making ourselves an enemy against God, because He desires good for us all. Our ability to receive this good is based on our righteousness in Christ which is linked to fearing God.  We cannot truly love Him without having a holy fear of Him. Both are necessary to walk out the love He desires.  The wrath of God is a fearful thing, and He will judge rightfully all things on the earth.  Evil will be dealt evil, and good will be dealt good. It's happening daily on the earth, and it will happen in eternity according to the law of sowing and reaping.  

Fear God: depart from evil, do good, and pursue peace.  The rest of the Psalm notes the promises to the righteous who fear the LORD. His eyes will ever be on them, to deliver them, to save them, and to redeem their souls.  It is a good thing to fear God as He is worthy of our reverence and respect.  It is also a blessed thing for He promises life and blessings to those who fear Him.