Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. Psalm 34:11-14
You may recognize this Scripture from the third sermon I preached on the fear of the LORD, May 30th. And you may wonder why we are revisiting verses we only recently considered. In a nutshell, you could call it "the rest of the story." Or you could simply attribute it to the preacher's tendency to feel as though he didn't say all that should have been said. Whatever the justification, the life-impacting message of these verses compels us to dig deeper.
And what is the life-impacting message of these verses? The importance of putting the fear of the LORD into practice. We can talk all day long about what it means to be a Christian, about the religious activities we are involved in, about the latest theological debates-but if we don't practice the fear of the LORD in our lives, we will miss out on God's blessings.
David refers to these blessings as "seeing good days." But his point is quite clear-there is a powerful connection between genuinely living out the fear of the LORD and experiencing blessings.
Now, as I took pains to clarify in my sermon, David is in no way insinuating that if you are good enough or have enough faith you won't ever see trials. For more on that topic, I refer you to the third sermon in this series (visit our website, select resources, then sermon downloads).
Nonetheless, there is a real connection between embracing the fear of the LORD and experiencing a blessed life. David lists three different areas in which we should put our fear of the LORD into practice: Speech, actions, and peace.
Regarding speech, David tells us, "keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies." In other words, we should not use our words to cut others down, put people in their place, or for coarse joking. All of these things are condemned in Scripture and are great examples of the evil we are to keep our tongues from. Added to this is truthfulness. Honesty, for the follower of Christ, is a given.
Regarding actions, David specifically tells us to "turn from evil and do good." Seems pretty basic, doesn't it? In a nutshell, David is telling us that we should live in accordance with biblical teaching. Obey God's Word! Although I put this in the category of actions, David is really challenging us to turn away (or repent) from evil whether in thoughts or in deeds. Certainly, Jesus' Sermon on the Mount teaching covers a number of the very evils we are to avoid, as well as the good things we are to do (Matthew 5:17-6:34). Ultimately, David is culling us to obedience to all of God's Word.
Finally, David calls us to put the fear of the LORD into practice by pursuing peace. Of course, this could come under the previous two categories of speech and actions. However, David intentionally sets peace apart. The word "peace" here is the well-known Hebrew word "shalom." What is indicated is more than just the lack of conflict. "The general meaning behind the root š-l-m is of completion and fulfillment-of entering into a state of wholeness and unity, a restored relationship" (Harris, R. L, Theological Wordbook of the OT, Moody Press). Our God is all about restored relationships between people and between man and God. It makes sense that those who fear the LORD would also be about this work. And this work of peace-restored relationships-must begin in our homes and in our churches.
For some, Christianity is something you do Sunday morning, on special holidays and at specific junctures of life (weddings, funerals, tragedies, etc.). In this way, many interpret the fear of the LORD to apply only to the "religious" spheres of life. In other words, in the "work-a-day" world, our Christian faith has little practical outworking.
David, however, expresses a very different point of view. From David's standpoint, all of life is tied to an authentic fear of the LORD revealing itself in what we say, how we act and what we live for. The fear of the LORD is not merely a religious expression or state, it is the reality that it is to dominate all that we are each and every day.
So, how about you? Do you love life? Do you want to see many good days? The key to "the good life" will not be found in money, success at work, accumulating more things or having more fun. The good life is found in daily living out the fear of the LORD by honoring God in all we do, say and think. To God alone be the glory.
In Christ, Pastor Dan