MONDAY, April 20th, 2009

Psalm 34

1 I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
 2 My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.
3 O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.
 4 I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
 5 They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.
 6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
 7 The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.
8 O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
 9 O fear the LORD, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him.
 10 The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.
 11 Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

There is quite a bit in this passage about fear... there are two kinds of fear that are mentioned in this chapter... the first is a fear that we commonly think of, the idea of not trusting or "being scared". This passage reminds us that If we turn to God He will free us from all of our fears!! That is amazing! What kind of fears do we commonly have that God can free us from?

Here are a few: Fear of failure, fear of what people think about us, fear about the future, fear of the consequences of our sin, fear of loneliness, fear of rejection, fear of anything!! God can free you from that fear!!

Now there is another kind of fear, and that fear is respect! We are to have a humble respect or reverence for our God. We are to fear God in a way that it reminds us to obey Him and to live for Him...

Here is a pretty decent illustration: What I was a child, I obeyed my parents, not because I wanted to obey them, but because I was scared of what they would do to me if I did not obey them... I would get spanked!! :)

But as I got older I obeyed them and it was not because I was afraid that they would spank me, but instead it was because I was afraid of hurting them, or disrespecting them...

That gives the same idea of what God is talking about here:

If we love and respect God like we should then we will obey Him because we do not want to hurt Him!

Pretty great stuff Huh~!
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4 comments:

Godservant said...

I guess that is a good way to put it, the fear you have for your parents is the same you have for God. Well I still just obey my mom because I just don't want her to yell at me. I HATE when people yell at me.

Anyway, I dont want my mom to feel bad either. I guess you could say I'm in the transition state of going from obeying because afraid, to obeying because of hurting them. Something is that I don't feel like obeying God because I'm afraid of what the punishment is. I obey God because I love Him, and I know its the right thing to do, and because I don't want Satan to have a good beachhead to accusing me when he confronts God.

-Michael

April 20, 2009 at 3:30 PM
FoOtBaLl XtReMiSt (cary) said...

this passage tells us to fear god.. that is its main focus. it tells us that we should strive to do what we know is right and what we know would please god.

April 20, 2009 at 5:20 PM
AngelWings said...

When we have God in our lives, we will no longer fear the little things in our lives that aren't important. He will bless us eith the confidence we need and strengthen our hearts if we just believe in him. I know I had lack of confidence when I was younger-I would always fear over little things. Verse 4 "I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears," is saying that when we call upon the Lord for help and give him our trusts, he will deliver us from any fear that we may have. The second kind of fear is like what Pastor Lee described it as. We should respect our parents so we wouldn't be dishonest and disrespectful towards them, just like we need to respect the Lord. If we respect God and give him all our trusts/love that he deserves, he will truly bless us and deliver us from fear.
Duteronomy 4:29 "But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with thy soul." this verse kind of related to this passage, I thought.
~Victoria

April 20, 2009 at 6:52 PM
♥Music♫GivesMeLife♥ said...

I like this passage. It definitely applies in my life. When I was younger, I too obeyed because I was AFRAID I would get in trouble. I was a goody-two-shoes, ask anyone who knew me even just last year. As I get older, though, I'm becoming more outgoing. I don't CARE what people think all the time, I just try my best, do my best job, work hard to get the right things done, etc. What I cannot STAND is when people are disappointed in me! It used to bother me CONSTANTLY, but now I don't really care, as long as I'm trying my best at what I'm doing. So that is how we should be with everything. Just try your best, don't be afraid of what other people think, if you're going to get in trouble, whatever. Obey your parents and the Lord because you know it's the right thing to do, not because you are afraid of what will happen to you if you don't.
:)

April 21, 2009 at 6:47 PM

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