Psalm 111 Living in the Fear of the LORD

Dennis Mock
Sunday, October 4, 2009

Fear is one of the strongest human emotions. We tend to shy away from things or people
we fear. Actually, we need a heavy dose of a different kind of fear. Fear of the Lord casts
out all other fears. We may have many phobias: fear of failure, fear of loss, etc. All of
these give way to the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord draws us to Himself. Ps.
147:11 – God delights in those who fear him. A.W. Tozer, “No one can know the grace of
the Lord unless they first know the fear of the Lord”. The theme of the “Fear of the
LORD” runs clearly throughout the whole of scripture. Today in our modern church we do
not talk about it much at all. God is our “buddy”. We have not outgrown, however, our
need for fear of the LORD. It is not to be terrified or frightened and wanting to run away.
It is to be so in awe that we cannot help but fall down in worship and reverence.

Read Psalm 111 & Psalm 112:1, 7-8

– An exhaustive concordance will find hundreds of ref. in the OT and many in the NT
for “Fear of the LORD”.

Characteristics of those who live in the Fear of the LORD:

1. An appreciation for the awesome reality of who God is and what He has
done.
a. Notice what Ps. 111 says about God:
i. Great in His Works (v. 2)
1. We should consider them!
2. They are great in power (v. 6)
3. The ultimate expression of His power was in raising His Son from
the dead.
ii.He possesses unending righteousness. ()
iii.He provides for those who fear Him. (5)
iv.He perfectly remembers His covenant (9)
v.He puts forth trustworthy enduring precepts (7)
vi.He provides redemption for His people (9)
1. He redeems us from the presence, power, and penalty for sin.
b. We will spend several weeks in Ps. 119 looking at God’s precepts –
commandments that describe right conduct.
c. One unique contribution in Ps. 111 is 5 couplets descriptive of God:
i. (3) Glorious and majestic
ii.(4) Gracious and compassionate
iii.(7) Faithful and just
iv.(8) Faithfulness and uprightness
v.(9) Holy and awesome (is His name)
d. What is the appropriate response of God’s people (111:10; 112:1)
i. It is not raw fear or phobia.
1. ILL: We went to Six Flags yesterday. I rode the Georgia Cyclone
with my 6-year-old granddaughter. She was traumatized. She
never rode another ride all day long. That is not the fear we are
talking about!
ii.We are instead drawn to God and our experience with Him pulls us
back again and again.
 iii.“We hold Him in reverential awe and hold Him with trembling
adoration.”
iv.It is respect for Him that spills over into every area of life.
v.Acts 1:39 shows us the church living in the fear of the LORD.
vi.The fear of the Lord brings us to the beginning of wisdom and
knowledge about God.
1. It will bring us to the truth and lead us to understanding and then
wisdom.
2. Wisdom is knowledge understood and skillfully applied to life.
e. Three passages in the NT: Acts 9:31; 2 Cor. 7:1; 1 Peter 1:13-21
i. We should perfect holiness out of the fear of the LORD.
ii.This is not a concept that was just for the OT or just for the NT church!
2. Being awed by His holiness.
a. Not simply appreciating Him but actual awe!
b. Holiness is God’s foundational characteristic. He is utterly and completely
other.
c. We are called to be holy as He is.
d. We should be scared to death to sin! He dwells in unapproachable light and
cannot look on sin He is so holy! How can we take sin lightly?
e. Think of the most holy person you have ever known. Someone who
understood this concept. If you know someone like this you are impacted by
the holiness of God by being in their presence.
f. When we worship and pray we are coming into His presence. We are always
in the presence of the Holy Spirit.
g. We need to regain the sense of being fearful of offending a holy God.
3. Have an aversion to sin.
a. Proverbs 3:7 – If we fear the Lord we will shun sin and hate evil.
b. We know we are truly drawing near to Him when we are as appalled at sin as
He is.
c. God is holy and pure and there is nothing in Him to which sin can appeal. Our
problem is that we have habits, ways of thinking, etc. to which sin can still
appeal. The fear of the Lord will help us to continue to blush at sin and be
appalled by it.
4. Humbly acknowledging His sovereignty thereby submitting to Him.
a. We are willing to trust Him with everything in our lives.
b. Job had to reach the point where he simply had to trust himself to God. He
rediscovered His fear of the Lord.
c. If we are still living in the fear of physical death then we are not truly living in
the Fear of the LORD.
5. Attributing praise to His holy name and to His righteous deeds.
a. (v. 1) – I will extol the Lord with all my heart…
b. Not half-heartedly but without reservation.
c. APP: Is there anything that holds you back from worshipping God with all you
have?
i. Embarrassment
ii.Pride.
iii.Fear of the LORD will mortify these!
6. Adhering to His Word.
a. (7, 10) All His precepts are trustworthy.
b. We must take His word seriously and share it with others.
c. We believe it to have authenticity and integrity.
 d. Scripture tells us to proclaim His name because there is no other name
under heaven by which men are saved.
e. This morning I did not intend to beat you over the head with God’s Word but
to recall you to a fresh sense of what it means to fear the LORD. We must
learn again to express such reverential awe that we actually tremble in His
presence. If we don’t our view of God is too small!
7. Accepting His goodness and grace extended to us in Christ.
a. God has given us everything we need for life and godliness through Christ
Jesus.
b. We are in Him and share in His life and goodness.
c. We must fear the LORD before we can fully accept and appreciate His grace.

I want to reinforce from an emotional standpoint this concept of fearing the LORD.
– Exodus 20:18-20 – The people of Israel got a glimpse of God’s glory and power
and were in fear.
○ When we get a glimpse like this will we sing, fall down in worship, say
anything at all?
○ God tells them through Moses that He has given them this fear to help keep
them from sinning.
– Hebrews 12:14, 21-25, 28-29 – We should worship God acceptably with
reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire.
We need to learn all over again what it means to live in the Fear of our God!