Psalm 130:3-4 If you, Lord, kept a record of sins,
Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness,
so that we can, with reverence, serve you.
This is actually a very important passage for understanding the Old Testament. We generally don’t have a very good grasp of what is meant when it says, “fear the Lord.” (This latest edition of the NIV tries to straighten that out, using “reverence,” which isn’t a bad idea.) This isn’t terror, exactly, but rather a deep respect, an awareness of power and authority that cannot be resisted. Today, sadly enough, terror is a very familiar term, but we don’t respect terrorists. Rather, we try to counter and/or eliminate them. God is very different, and this passage tells us a key to that. You wouldn’t be afraid of someone because they could or would forgive you. However, God’s forgiveness is given as a foundation for the fear of the Lord. Jesus put it in terms of love, saying that an immoral woman loved much because she had been forgiven much. (Luke 7:44-47) Sadly, we too often divorce love from respect, so we don’t understand all the implications. We all have much we need to learn about love, fear, and respect, not to mention knowing the Lord!
Once again, I feel I have an advantage over many people because of the home in which I was raised. I knew my parents loved each other, and I knew they respected each other. I certainly knew that they loved the Lord, and respected Him. My early love for the Lord, proclaimed when I was five, didn’t have enough respect/fear in it, and I fell into spiritual pride, but I had at least a magnificent example in my parents of a right attitude toward Him. When the Lord showed me the state of my heart, just for an instant, when I was 24, I collapsed to my knees, crying out, “My Lord and my God!” I was learning the fear of the Lord! He has been incredibly gracious toward me in the years since then and I have grown, though probably not as fast as I should have. I am currently intensely aware of His grace, as well as of His infinite power. That power without that grace would be terrifying indeed! I am to be an agent of His grace and a channel of His power, so that His will may be done in and through me for His glory. That is why I exist, and that is more than enough reason to live joyfully for Him.
Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for getting us home safely from Osaka yesterday. Thank You for the beautiful way You used us in the Cockayne Syndrome gathering, and for the way those families have indeed become family to us. Thank You for the things You spoke through me. I pray that Your words would linger in their hearts, prompting a hunger for the Christ they saw in Cathy and me. There are several I feel are moving in that direction. May they not draw back, but rejoice to receive Your grace and love, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!