What does it mean to Fear God?

Recently, while reading through the Epistles of Paul, I came across this verse: 

Col. 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 

This was exactly what I wanted! For the Word of Christ to dwell in me richly. It goes on to say that we should teach and admonish one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. I was instantly drawn to go back to Psalms and begin studying them again. 

The word “Psalms” defined is - ”a sacred song or hymn, in particular any of those contained in the Biblical Book of Psalms, and used for worship in both Christian and Jewish religions. 

I really want to make the best use of my time on earth, so I begin my day listening to a chapter of Psalms on repeat while I get myself ready for work. This really gets my mind focused on Truth, God's Holiness, and gets my day off to a great start. Throughout the day at least one of the verses I have read continues to run through my mind. Then at the end of my day, before I go to sleep, I take the time to really study the chapter I listened to. Going through each Scripture slowly, looking up definitions along the way using the computer program or iPhone app e-Sword, and trying to really understand its context and purpose. What I discovered is this common theme running through Psalms, a clear picture of God's unfathomable wisdom, power, and attributes, along with many commands to “Fear” Him. As we see here in; 

Psa. 34:9 O fear the LORD, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him. 

I thought it would be a good idea to really unpack this topic so that we can see the type of fear it is speaking of, and apply it correctly in our life. For most, the very word fear has nothing comforting about it. It usually causes people to create a scenario that includes danger, panic, or anxiety. From what I know of my Heavenly Father, The Author of Love, I found this idea of “fearing” Him to be perplexing. Especially when I read a passage like this one: 

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. 

Is it just me or does it appear that the Bible is contradicting itself? This is when a Strongs or Youngs concordance or E-sword will come in handy. Let's check out the verse from Psalms 34 and see the Hebrew word given in this verse for “fear”. The word is: 

Yare - (yah-raw) “morally to revere, reverence”.

So what this verse is getting at, is that we should have a deep respect and appreciation of God and an attitude of awe for His might and power. This now makes a lot of sense. When we have God in His rightful place as Lord of our lives, we will have no issue giving Him the respect and reverence due. 

So let's now move forward to the verse in 1 John to see what type of fear it is referring to. In both uses in the verse, the Greek work “Phobos” is being used. 

Phobos - (pho-bos) “to be put into fear, alarm or fright, exceeding terror.”

Quite a different meaning than the Hebrew use.

So what we can conclude here is that when we are told to Fear God, it is referencing deep, utter respect and awe, but when we are told not to fear or do not be afraid, it is referring to finding our peace and hope in God. When our focus and understanding of the Lord is in line with His Word, then we will witness first hand the absence of fear that only He provides and the level of proper fear that only He deserves. 

The word fear is used 400 times in the Bible, below is a chart of the words used for fear and their meanings. (*remember the Old Testament is in Hebrew, so the words will have an H prior to them in the Concordance or e-Sword, and the New Testament is written in Greek.)  

I hope this helped clarify what it means to fear the Lord and highly encourage you all to dive into the Psalms. There are so many wonderful treasures to be found there. And for deeper studies, try looking up the words as you are studying a passage to insure you understand the true meaning. 

Blessings,
Kacy