Psalms 27:1  “The LORD [is] my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD [is] the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”

 

Here is something curious, fear and afraid, same thing, right?   In English it is, yet in the Hebrew there are two different words. Only 7,500 words in Classical Hebrew and over a million words in English yet when you have two entirely different Hebrew words you plug the same English word in for both of them.  I tell you our English translators love that word fear.

 

We hear the word fear or afraid, we think immediately of just one thing, concern for our safety and wellbeing.   When we read that we are to fear God we immediately think that we must be concerned for our safety and wellbeing when we are around God.  How many people attend church every Sunday out of fear of what God might do to them if they don’t.  How many pay their tithe, even using their rent money or food money to make sure that tithe is paid out of fear of what God might do to them if they don’t.   How many even read their Bibles every day and pray out of fear that if they don’t something bad will happen to them.

 

I lay the fault right at the feet of the translators who love that English word fear.  You see in English you can really play around with that word fear.  There is a good fear like the fear of fire.  Fear protects us.  There is a fear for the wellbeing of a loved one. There is an emotional fear, like the fear of relationships that you might get hurt if you enter into one.   Of course the one we seem to focus on is the fear of bodily harm.  Translators tend to not bother with these little differences in nuances to the English word fear, they will just leave it up to the reader to decide what type of fear is being expressed.  If the person reads fearing God as being afraid that God might do something bad to him, well, hey it is not the translator’s fault, he just gave a viable English word for an ancient Hebrew word.  He will just leave the problem of a God in perfect love doing something bad to you up to the theologians or the poor pastor to try and explain his way out of it.

 

In this verse we have two different words used for fear.  The Lord is our light and salvation whom shall we fear – yara’ and the Lord is the strength of my life of whom shall I fear or be afraid – pachad.  The word yara’ is the word often used with the fear of the Lord.  This is not really a fear for one’s wellbeing.  Many translators often render it as standing in awe or respect.  I believe that would help to avoid confusion with the word pachad which is a fear for your own gizzard and never used in relationship to God.   In other words the Lord is my light and salvation of whom shall I show respect and honor to?

 

But still, yara’ does carry and element of fear to it.  We say it is showing reverence.  What does it mean to show reverence?  Does reverence carry a sense of fear?  Indeed it does.  The English word reverence means deep respect for someone or something. Think of someone you deeply respect that you know personally.  Maybe it is a friend, a spouse or even a parent, perhaps it your boss or a teacher or even a pastor. If you deeply respect someone, odds are you have absolutely no fear that that person would harm you in anyway. If you did fear harm from that person you would no longer deeply respect them. Now think of it in Psalms 27:1 The Lord is my light and salvation (if that is the case) who else would deserves my deepest respect?”

 

So where is that element of fear in yara’?  If a man loves his wife and deeply respects her and wishes to cherish her and honor, he is going to live in constant fear. No there is no fear for his own safety it is a fear that he may do something that would offend her, wound her heart or worse break her heart.  There have been men who have so loved their wives and women who have so loved their husbands that if they learned they had broken their heart, they would become almost suicidal.  They just can’t live with themselves over that knowledge that broke the heart of their beloved.

 

As I continue on my journey to the heart of God, the closer I get to His heart the more fearful I become.  Someone once said that I was just too serious.  Perhaps I am, I have broken the heart of God in the past and that knowledge has probably made me too serious.  So many times I fall into the arms of God weeping over the fear yara’ that I may have wounded His heart.  I cry out to Him to forgive, I swear I will never do it again.   So many nights I find myself reflecting on the times I have broken the heart of the God I love and I literally cry myself to sleep. Yet, he comes to me in a dream and holds me and weeps with me and shows me the nail prints in his hands and reminds me that it is all forgiven.   Then He takes another risk, he opens His heart up to me and says: “Come on, I’m going to trust you a little bit more, here’s one of my heart’s secrets.”  You see the secrets of the Lord are to those who yara’ fear Him Psalms 25:14 or fear breaking His heart.  A woman will not share her heart with her husband if she thinks he will break her heart.  But if she knows her husband would be broken and devastated if he did break her heart, she will share her heart with him so knowing her heart will bring comfort that he will not inadvertently break her heart.

 

So maybe I am too serious, maybe I need to lighten up, but you know what, there is too much at stake.  I live in constant fear I may once again break the heart of the God I love.  But, hey, a couple weeks ago I had dinner with an elderly couple and some friends all who loved God with all their hearts and when we talked about the God we loved, I wasn’t so serious, I was happy and joyful and excited to hear the testimony of people who have walked with God for almost a century.  When I am with God I can be myself, I can be happy and joyful, knowing I can just let loose and not fear wounding his heart.  But if I am engaged in something questionable, I may be a bit serious because I am just watching my step.  Why? Because I am afraid I might go to hell or something bad will happen to me? Hell, no (pay attention to comma, that was not the swear type hell), something bad happening to me?  Well, the worst thing that can happen to me is if I wound or break the heart of the God that I love.   That is yara’,

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