Who is the man who fears the Lord?

Psalm 25:12-14 (NASB)

Who is the man who fears the LORD?  He will instruct him in the way he should choose. His soul will abide in prosperity and his descendants will inherit the land. The secret of the LORD is for those who fear Him and He will make them know His covenant. 

Psalm 25 is worth your time studying and meditating about.  It gives me great hope, strength, and reassurance every time I study it.  Reading these four verses should increase your curiosity and desire to spend time with the entire chapter.  Psalm 25 is described as a prayer for protection, guidance, and pardon.

Who fears the Lord?  The word “fear” can be translated “reverence” so the more accurate question is “who reverences the Lord?”  If you have a sincere reverence (respect, adore, follow, be in awe of) for the Lord, He promises that He will guide you to make right decisions every step of your life.  I think about my life and while I have lived a wonderful life with a wonderful family and great career, I still wish that I had been a believer when I was in high school so that I might have been aware of a verse like this and had the Lord involved in my education and early career decisions.  Nevertheless, I do believe that once I gave my life to Christ, I have feared the Lord and because of this He has not allowed me ever to make a wrong major decision.  That’s how powerful this verse is for those who choose to believe it.

The person who reverences the Lord will find his/her soul abiding in prosperity and his/her children and grandchildren also being prosperous.  Prosperity might mean riches, but not necessarily materialistic riches.  Prosperity in the Bible simply means having all your basic needs met—health, food, shelter, protection, peace, happy living, and so forth.  The word for prosperity here means simply to live a good life.  It does not mean a quick way to get rich as some prosperity gospel preachers claim.  Such prosperity teaching appeals to the flesh and not to the spirit and it is false.

When you reverence the Lord, you will know His secret and His covenant.  What’s this about?  Oswald Chambers says that you can tell who truly is your friend by being able to tell him/her your secret joys.  Anyone can hear your secret sorrows but only those closest to you will hear your secret joys.  So it is with God.  He only provides His secret joys to those who are in an intimate relationship with Him.  Jesus said in Matthew 11:25 that God hides His will from those who think themselves wise and intelligent and reveals His will to those who trust in Him.  Jesus also told His followers that He spoke in parables so that those unwilling to believe in and follow Him would not understand the meaning of these stories (e.g. Matthew 13:10-13).

To know God’s covenant is to be His child, to be part of the body of Christ (the church) and to be in communion with Him (e.g. Matthew 26:26-28, John 1:12, Romans 8:16, Galatians 3:29, James 2:25).  You know His salvation, His forgiveness, His teachings, and His will. Thus, if and when you choose to fear, that is, to reverence and respect who God is, who Jesus is, who the Holy Spirit is, you will receive innumerable benefits, among them guidance for making right choices, living in prosperity, and being in a covenant relationship with the Lord.  Can you claim these promises today?  If so, you already know how blessed you are.  If not, you still have hope by choosing to commit the rest of your life to reverence the Lord.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction” -- Proverbs 1:7 

“Where there is fear of the Lord to keep the house, the enemy can find no way to enter”. –-

Francis of Assisi