Psalms 111:10 - "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding"
I recently heard a preacher point out that we are so busy seeking new revelation, we tend to miss the opportunity to apply what we already know!
The beauty of this memory verse from the book of Psalms is it gives us a road map for exactly how to get wisdom and understanding.
Notice there are two key components:
1. The fear of the Lord
2. Following His precepts
We'll start with the fear of the Lord.
This phrase has always given me some pause.
I have heard some people explain it as the awesomeness of God. While that is surely part of it, I suspect that left there it is a definition that is too convenient and comfortable.
Rather, there should be a facet of fear with regard to God. That may not sound right, but allow me to explain.
Our God is a loving God, one quite different from any other God of any other religion. As such, it seems like He should be quite removed from causing any fear. But if we read the Bible regularly, we see that God does cause fear, especially in those who are His enemies.
And there is a clue...
Men ARE His enemies. They have been since the birth of original sin in the Garden of Eden.
Of course, those who accept Jesus as their Savior are reconciled back to God. The lucid response is one of gratitude that expresses itself as a life lived imitating Jesus in thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors.
In the meantime, our loving God showers us with His grace and offers His mercy for every offense we confess. He must because we tend to offend our holy God routinely. We regularly worship other things more than God. We worship our work, our stuff, our achievement, our relationships, and on and on.
Now consider this - our hearts don't beat a single time without His will being done.
While this could be frightening, its real purpose is not to scare us. Rather, it is to motivate us to see God for who He actually is. We are reminded to put ourselves in proper posture next to God... to put His will above our own.
And that is how fear of the Lord becomes the beginning of wisdom!
The second part of this verse - to follow His precepts to gain understanding - reminds us that God provides a way for us to think and to live.
God designed people and the world to work in certain ways. We can try to fight that and craft our own ways, but it doesn't really help. It's like trying to put water in the gas tank... our cars weren't designed to run on water... period!
As we trust in His ways and actually follow them (i.e., skip the things we know we shouldn't be doing each week), we experience His blessings.
Watch how He'll bless us in unexpected ways when we choose His ways over our own prideful tendencies.
Apply This:
1. Review this memory verse several times this week
2. Consider your own perception of God - can you achieve a healthy level of fear of the Lord?
3. Walk in righteous ways each day motivated by the reward of wisdom and understanding in all you do
