Let's Take a Closer Look // Dark Night - Bright Light, Part 7

When you’re travelling through dark days in life – it’s pretty normal to be afraid. But something that King David discovered in his many dark days, is that a right fear – the fear of the Lord, has some real pluses.

When we're travelling through one of those dark patches in life, you know those difficult times we all go through, we're liable to experience fear and that fear can be debilitating. But on the other hand, there's a good side to fear, it's an inbuilt protection mechanism.

Last week on the program we spent some time with King David in one of the many psalms that he wrote, Psalm 34 and we're continuing on with that this week because this man David is telling us what he learned about God during all those dark and dangerous and fearful times he had throughout his life.

And without giving it all away, David discovers that the fear of God has some real benefits. Sounds kind of weird doesn't it? Christians talk about the "fear of the Lord" all the time but what does it really mean in those dark and fearful times and how can it possibly help me? They're good questions so stick with me over the next few minutes as we discover what David learned the hard way.

We're going to be taking a bit of a closer look at this, this part of Psalm 34 because that's how we learn what God’s teaching us through David’s wisdom. I'm going to pick it up, just 3 verses, beginning at verse 9. It says:

Fear the Lord you His holy ones for those who fear Him have no want. The lions may grow weak and hungry but those who seek the Lord will lack no good thing. Come children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

I love this because it's a place where God gives us solutions to our problems. You see it's not good enough for Him to just wrap us over the knuckles with a ruler when we've done the wrong thing. We need to know how not to repeat the mistake and that’s what this piece of wisdom is all about. Let’s just look at verse 9 again, David writes:

Fear the Lord you His holy ones for those who fear Him will have no want.

See, this fear of the Lord has two parts. The most obvious meaning is to be afraid but it also means to reverence and honour God. I want to talk about those today because they're important. You know it's really easy to imagine that somehow God is just our buddy, like any other friend and to be sure, He is our friend.

But God is also an awesome God and ultimately He will see justice done. There will be a day of judgement, there will be a day when we have to make an account before Him for all that we've done and all that we've said. Jesus made that really clear in Matthew chapter 10: 28 we can read what He said. He said this:

Do not be afraid of people who can kill you your body but can't kill your soul. Rather be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Let's never lose sight of that, there are consequences to rebelling against God. And if we just wantonly go on stealing or lying or grumbling or hating or undermining or whatever it is and think to ourselves, "Well that’s okay, God’s my buddy." Then let me make this clear; we are completely missing the point. Yes Jesus died for your sins and mine, absolutely and when I get something wrong I go to God and I admit it and I say, "Lord, I just got this wrong. I'm sorry, I don't want to go there again, please forgive me." And He does because of what Jesus did for me on the cross, He paid that price.

But this attitude is one that comes, to tell you truthfully, out of the fear of the Lord. A casual attitude towards God, that thinks we can keep on sinning, is not on. He won't honour that, why? Well because if you believe in Jesus, His plan for you is to be holy, in other words clean and pure and set apart exclusively for His use. Listen again to verse 9 of Psalm 34:

Fear the Lord you His holy ones for those who fear Him will have no want.

See, we are not our own; you put your faith in Jesus you are bought at a price and God has this awesome plan to use you just as He pleases and the devil knows that. That's why when times are tough, when we're travelling through a dark place the devil wants to smear us with his darkness. Here's the deception; things are difficult right now therefore I have to bend the rules to set things right.

Money's tight, well I have to lie on my tax return, I have to steal to provide for myself. The boss is giving me a hard time, well I have to go stab him in the back to get things right. A husband or wife isn't everything they should be, I have to start looking somewhere else to find someone who is everything they should be. The devil will play that rubbish over and over and over again until we swallow it hook, line and sinker.

Gods answer is exactly the opposite:

Fear the Lord you His holy ones for those who fear Him will have no want. The lions may grow weak and hungry but those who seek the Lord will lack no good thing.

God’s way is to say, "Don't go out there and reject me and provide for yourself." God’s way is to provide for us. Not all our wants but all our needs. Fear the Lord, fear His judgement and honour Him and reverence Him with what we think, what we say and what we do and God will make sure that we have what we need. That's a step of faith, it's so much easier to think I can just go out there and do it for myself.

What a huge opposite God’s way is to our natural inclination. You know what He wants to hear us say? Yes, times are tough, yes, money is tight but I will fill out my tax return honestly. I won't claim expenses for my company that are really personal rather than company expenses. I don't care how tough things get financially I am going to fear the Lord because I am bought for a price and I am holy and I am set apart for Him and His word says that in those dark times, if I fear Him I will have no want. When I seek Him with all my heart I will lack no good thing.

Do you see how different God’s way is, the way of faith, the way of putting our trust in Him. See how different that is from the world’s way which is look after number one, do whatever it takes and remember David is teaching us this stuff having been on the run from King Saul who wanted to kill him for years, sleeping in dark caves fearing for his life. This is what he learned in this dark place and that’s why he's telling us this stuff. Verse 11:

Come my children, listen to me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

The fear of the Lord, living that out is what we choose to do when it's so tempting in those dark places to be smeared by the devil’s darkness. The fear of the Lord is standing in the middle of this earth afraid but deciding to trust in God’s provision.

Fear the Lord you His holy ones for those who fear Him have no want. The lions may well grow weak and hungry but those who seek the Lord will lack no good thing.