Chapter 4 :
Contentment
Fear of loneliness and suffering
Part Three
Why would a loving God delight in our fear of Him?
This thing of fearing the Lord has been criticised by many because it is misunderstood. Ps 147:11 above says that ‘The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His steadfast love’ – but how can we place the words ‘pleasure,’ ‘fear,’ ‘hope,’ and ‘love,’ all in the same sentence? It seems a contradiction.
I think lets start from the end and work forward. God is perfect love, as we discussed in Chap 3. 1 John 4 tells us that ‘perfect love casts out fear,’ so this may not make more sense. But I think the answer is this: what KIND of fear is 1 John 4 talking about? He’s talking about the kind of fear that we’re discussing with regards to loneliness. Perfect love casts out the fear that we are HOPELESS.
Remember, Ps 147:11 says those ‘who HOPE in the STEADFAST LOVE of the Lord.’ In other words, the perfect love of God (and that is God) casts out our FEARS of hopelessness (of always being lonely) because He gives us HOPE and a STEADFAST LOVE that cannot be shaken or taken away from us – not even by death!
Our FEAR of the Lord is linked to our HOPE in the Lord. We fear Him because He is Almighty and ‘it is the Lord who gives and it is the Lord who takes away’ (Job 1:21) but we HOPE in Him because we know He is full of love and He is GOOD. He does not exercise His great authority and power over us unjustly. He does not do it because He delights in our pain and sorrow (Lam 3) He only uses His power in love for us, destroying our enemies with His awesome wrath and disciplining us for our joy and good.
