“LORD, you have probed me, you know me: you know when I sit and stand; you understand my thoughts from afar. My travels and my rest you mark; with all my ways you are familiar. Even before a word is on my tongue, LORD, you know it all. Behind and before you encircle me and rest your hand upon me. Such knowledge is beyond me, far too lofty for me to reach.” Psalm 139:1-6
There are two kinds of people those that fear God, and those that do not. The Greek word for fear is to give flight, and reverence for God’s authority and power. Those who fear God believe that he has the power and the will to judge and punish evil because He is moral, holy, and good.
God has the ability to be everywhere and see everything; there is no escape from the all-seeing eye of God. “Even before a word is on my tongue, LORD, you know it all.” Not even time escapes God’s ability to see a thing, God knows our thoughts before they happen. It is a foolish man who does not have a healthy fear of God.
A healthy fear of God is fear that goes beyond the superficial acknowledgement that God knows all things, but acts upon it by turning to God in faith, and from sin in repentance. Jesus Christ expressed the sacrificial love of God so that the Christian is free from a fear of God’s wrath, and instead is adopted into God’s family. “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father” Romans 8:15.
The Christian is the most fortunate person on earth, who experiences freedom in the highest sense of the word. He is free to love God out of appreciation, enjoy life without worry, and know that God who sees everything sees the sufferings of Christ on his behalf, so that he can be free from the guilt and punishment of sin. Such a faith turns to God in obedience!
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