UNBLOCKING THE WELL OF THE LIVING WORD

READ PSALM 111-115

SUGGESTED PATTERN READ PSALM 112 AGAIN with spouse or household.

SPEND A FEW MINUTES GOING THROUGH 4 STEPS OF LECTIO DIVINA (1), ON  PSALM 112:1,2.

“Praise the Lord. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who finds great delight in his commands. His children will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed.”

HEARING THE WORD  Try different ways of slow reading..   try reading aloud looking at different versions.. Early monks learned the text or portions of it by heart.. others carefully copied it down

RECEIVING THE WORD, read slowly enough so that you can pick up when and where a sentence or phrase speaks to you …then simply stop… and repeat it to yourself carefully and often enough to let its meaning sink in.

PRAYING WITH THE WORD Open up a conversation with God with the phrase or sentence you are reading  and let his word begin to build a relationship between you  and Him

WONDERING AT THE WORD Once we begin to hear the word of God and incline our hearts to it we are ultimately attending to Him rather than to it…. Be ready to enjoy…  rather than to understand.

Share together with your spouse or household what the Lord has been saying. Finally one person reads out loud the devotional below and then pray for one another.  

This Lent we have been looking for Jesus in the Psalms. What was a central characteristic of Jesus? Isaiah 11:3 prophetically describes the Messiah who was to come.. “His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.” Here in the beginning of Psalm 112, we find a virtually identically phrase  “Blessed is the man who fears the Lord who finds great delight in his commands”. The whole of this Psalm 112 is a description of the “fear of the Lord” When Tom Wright says we need to inhabit the psalms and not just read them, I think one of the reasons we should, ‘live in the psalms,’ is that we will grow in, and find delight in, “The fear of the Lord”. I counted today, 51 times that the fear of the Lord is referenced in the Psalms. Below are 25 of the psalms where the “Fear of the Lord” is mentioned. (1)  Question: If you really want to become like Christ, what might be the first step? Answer: Grow in the fear of the Lord, as it  is the beginning of wisdom. Growing in Christian character, in the fear of the Lord is a strong theme of the Christian classic, “The Imitation of Christ” by Thomas a Kempis, which is perhaps after the bible the most widely read book in the world. It was written in approx. 1418-1427. Thomas A Kempis  said, “man has a natural desire for knowledge but what is the good of knowledge without the fear of God.” (2)

In her book Intimate Friendship with God, (3) Joy Dawson says, ‘If there was a pile of cow manure on the carpet in your church in the front of your pulpit, what would you do? You’d want to get it out of the church quickly! Why? Because it stinks! If I said that I had a secret sin, a love for cow manure, and I needed prayer otherwise I might be tempted to get in it, you might think I was crazy! ‘But this is exactly what it is like when people ask for prayer regarding their sins. They don’t hate their sin for what it is. They need the fear of the Lord, which is the hatred of evil.( Proverbs 8:13) When we see sin the way God sees sin we see it as a sugar-coated cow pat!’ Friendship with the Lord is for those that fear him. Intimacy with God without obedience is like prostitution. Jesus clearly said, ‘If you love me you will obey what I command.’(John 14:15) But what is obedience? It is doing what we are told, when we are told and with the right attitude. When we know what it is right to do and we don’t do it, it is sin.(4) Partial obedience is NOT obedience. How do we stay close to the Lord, in a consumer society that is so indulgent, hedonistic and narcissistic? How we do we stay on the narrow path and keep close to the Lord? We keep close to Him, to the degree that we fear God and obey him and repent of our sin. The level of our repentance of sin will depend upon the extent to which we see sin as God sees it and hate it as He hates it.(5)

As we take time to study the character of God in the Bible, the more He will reveal Himself to us. The deeper the understanding that we have of His justice, knowledge, wisdom, faithfulness and love, the easier it will be for us to obey Him.(6) We also have the fear of God upon us, to the degree we are free from idolatry. An idol is that thing we go to for comfort before we go to God. In a consumer society it is so easy for us to make our own will into an idol, as we satisfy our desires and way. Anything that takes priority in our lives over the Lord Jesus Christ in our thinking, in our time, in our affection, in our loyalty, and in our obedience, can become an idol. Even our own ministry responsibilities can become a focus of our attention, and the centre of our priorities, along with our possessions, our money, our food, our sexual gratification.(7)

A strong call to obedience in ‘the fear of the Lord’ is the theme of the Prologue to Benedict’s Rule. He references Psalm 34 in the Prologue (8) ‘Come to me, my children and listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.’ (Psalm 34:11) Humility, the central monastic virtue, begins in “the fear of the Lord.”’ The fear of the Lord was stressed by Benedict, because he recognised that without the fear of the Lord individuals would become proud because of their own works, and begin to love their own will rather than God’s. (10) Humility, which is the central monastic virtue, begins in ‘the fear of the Lord’, which simply means acknowledging the divine omnipresence and acting accordingly.’(11)

Prayer

Lord as I seek your presence and begin to “acknowledge your omnipresence.. and act accordingly ,” help me to “delight in the fear of the Lord” and to obey your commands.

References

(1) 25 Psalms where “Fear of the Lord is referenced”

1  Psalm 2:11 Serve the Lord with fear.
2  Psalm 19:9  The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever.

3  Psalm 25:14 The Lord confides in those who fear him

4  Psalm 27:1 The Lord is my light and my salvation -whom shall I fear?

5 Psalm 34:11 Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

6 Psalm 40:3 Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him.

7 Psalm 46:2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.

8 Psalm 46:2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.

9 Psalm 52:6 The righteous will see and fear.

10 Psalm 60:4 But for those who fear you, you have raised a banner
    to be unfurled against the bow.

11 Psalm 61:5  For you, God, have heard my vows; you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.

12 Psalm 66:16 Come and hear, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me.

13 Psalm 76:8,9 the land feared and was quiet—when you, God, rose up to judge.

14 Psalm 85:9 Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land.

15 Psalm 90:11 If only we knew the power of your anger! Your wrath is as great as the fear that is your due.

16 Psalm 91:5 You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day.

17 Psalm 96:4 For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods.

18 Psalm 103:13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.

19 Psalm 111:1 Praise the Lord. Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who find great delight in his commands.

20 Psalm 119:79 May those who fear you turn to me, those who understand your statutes.

21 Psalm 128:4 Yes, this will be the blessing for the man who fears the Lord.

22 Psalm 131:20 house of Levi, praise the Lord; you who fear him, praise the Lord.

23 Psalm 139:14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

24 Psalm 145:19 He fulfills the desires of those who fear him;  he hears their cry and saves them.

25 Psalm 147:11 the Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.

(2) A Kempis, T The Imitation of Christ, 38.

(3) Dawson, J. Intimate Friendship with God. Chosen Books, 54.

(4) Dawson, J. Intimate Friendship with God. Chosen Books, 57.

(5) Dawson, J. Intimate Friendship with God. Chosen Books, 23.

(6) Dawson, J. Intimate Friendship with God. Chosen Books, 116.

(7) Dawson, J. Intimate Friendship with God. Chosen Books, 117.

(8) Benedict. The Rule. Chapter 1

(9) Gumbel, N. Day 74 , The Bible with Nicky and Pippa Gumbel, You have the favour of God,

(10) Benedict. The Rule. Chapter 7: 22, 24.

(11) Stewart, C. Prayer and Community. Orbis Books: 28.

ALSO

In Intimate Friendship with God, Joy Dawson, page 39 she says that there are a number of blessings for those who fear the Lord

 “Fruitfulness (Exodus 1:17); it deters us from sinning (Exodus 20:20); blessings on us and our children (Deuteronomy 5:29); prolonged days (Proverbs 9:10–11); preservation of life (Proverbs 19:23); success (Ecclesiastes 8:12); deliverance (2 Kings 17:39); respect earned (Nehemiah 5:9); given authority (Nehemiah 5:2); taught of the Lord (Psalm 25:12); friendship with God (Psalm 25:14); revelation of truth (Psalm 25:14); abundant goodness (Psalm 31:19); God’s attention assured (Psalm 33:18); angelic protection and deliverance (Psalm 34:7); provision for all needs (Psalm 34:9); given a heritage (Psalm 61:5); God’s steadfast love (Psalm 103:11); God’s compassion (Psalm 103:13); provision of food (Psalm 111:5); wisdom (Psalm 111:10); blessings from God (Psalm 112:1); increased blessings upon us and our children (Psalm 115:13); special blessings related to family life (Psalm 128); protection (Psalm 115:11); companionship of others who fear God (Psalm 119:63); fulfilled desires (Psalm 145:19); God takes pleasure in us (Psalm 147:11); healing and refreshment (Proverbs 3:7–8); confidence in God (Proverbs 14:26); ability to avoid evil (Proverbs 16:6); satisfaction (Proverbs 19:23); riches, honour and life (Proverbs 22:4); honour for women (Proverbs 31:30); advancement(Ecclesiastes 7:18); steadfastness (Jeremiah 32:40); names recorded in God’s book of remembrance (Malachi 3:16); God’s mercy (Luke 1:50); acceptable to God (Acts 10:35).”