Well, let us turn to the psalm
that we just read, the 112th psalm, and I want simply to direct
your attention for a little while to what we read here in the opening
verse. Psalm 112, and the first verse,
Praise ye the Lord, literally, of course, the Hebrew word hallelujah. Praise ye the Lord, Blessed is
the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his
commandments. The last few weeks on Lord's
Day mornings we've been considering those Beatitudes in the Sermon
on the Mount, the opening verses in Matthew chapter 5, and here
we have a Beatitude. After that opening
statement, that great anthem of praise to the Lord God, we
read, Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, and delighteth
greatly in his commandments. And in many ways, surely this
is one of the most significant of all the Beatitudes that we
find anywhere in the Word of God. We read of the blessings
of godly fear, and we read much of that godly fear not only here
in the book of Psalms but it's a theme that is taken up many
times by King Solomon in the book of Proverbs. What a blessing
it is if we know anything of that godly fear. And so I just
want to take up that theme as it were for a little while tonight
before we turn again in prayer to the Lord God the blessings
of godly fear those who have that godly fear we see here are
such as are partakers of the promise of God the two stand
together godly fear and the receiving of the promises of God Observe
what it says. It doesn't simply speak of the
man that feareth. In fact, the character that's
being spoken of here in this psalm is one who doesn't know
fear in that sense. In verse 7 again, in verse 8,
we're told he shall not be afraid. We shall not be afraid. You'll
see that that clause is repeated. It's in verse 7 and we have it
again in verse 8. Here is a man who is fearless
in so many ways and yet he knows the fear of the Lord. He knows
godly fear. We think of the words of the
Lord Jesus when we turn to the Gospels and there in Luke's Gospel,
in Luke chapter 12 and the verses 4 and 5. The Lord utters these
words, I say unto you, my friends, be not afraid of them that kill
the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But
I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear. Fear him which after he
hath killed hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto you,
fear him. whom is the Lord speaking? well
of course he's speaking of the Lord God himself and even the Lord Jesus Christ
God manifest in the flesh as the keys of hell and of death
we are to fear him it's not just those who are fearful then that
are being spoken of in the words of the text but it's those who
have godly fear in their hearts they know something of God some
understanding of his greatness and his glory that he is that
one who is the holy one and the righteous and the just one and
this fear it's not a tormenting fear we know that James rebukes
some doesn't he He likened really to the demons. When he says, Thou believest
there is one God, Thou doest well. The devils also believe
and tremble. The demons, they tremble. They
tremble before the Lord Jesus Christ. There was that remarkable
demonic activity throughout the Gospels. Why so? Here is the
great miracle in the fullness of the time, the miracle of the
incarnation, the coming of the eternal Son
of God, the miracle of the virgin birth, and so God is present
as man here upon the earth not surprisingly then there is much
activity by Satan and his demons and the Lord is casting the demons
out we read it so many times in the Gospels and what do they
say let us alone what have we to do with the I know thee who
thou art Jesus of Nazareth the Holy One
of God art thou come to destroy us Oh, how the demons out there
are afraid. Well, that's not the fear that
we have here. This blessed man that's being spoken of is the
man that feareth the Lord with a filial fear. Not a tormenting
fear, but the fear that belongs to a son. We're told, aren't
we, in another psalm, like as the father pities his children,
so the Lord pities them that fear him. he knoweth our frame,
he remembereth that we are dust." There is that fear then, it's
a healthy fear, it's a good fear that they have. And it is that
that is given to us in the covenant of grace, in the new covenant.
When Jeremiah speaks of that covenant, that covenant that
is revealed to us by Him who is the mediator of the New Covenant,
the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And what does the prophet say,
Jeremiah 32 and verse 39? I will give them one heart, he
says, and one way that they may fear me forever for the good
of them and of their children after them. And I will make a
never-lasting covenant with them. and I will not turn away from
them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that
they shall not depart from me." All that to fear Him forever
it says. And that is the fear that He
puts into the hearts of all His people. And of course Sadly,
today, in so many so-called Christian circles, we see so little of
that fear of God, but rather an unholy familiarity with God,
almost a chumminess in the way in which people will address
the Lord God in their prayers. It is a blessing of the Covenant.
Thank God for that. And of course, even here in the
text, we have the Covenant name. It's the man that feareth the
Lord, Jehovah. That name is derived from what
the Lord says of himself, the great I am that I am, the God
of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And these God-fearers, what do
they learn? They learn something of that
great redemption and that salvation that God brings to His people
in the covenant of grace. The language that we have at
the end of the previous 111th Psalm. Verse 9, we're told, He
sent redemption unto His people. He hath commanded His covenant
forever. Holy and reverent is His name.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. All these are the
people who are made wise to salvation. They know that great redemption
that Christ has come to accomplish by his obedience to the death
of the cross, great redeeming work when he offers himself as
a ransom and pays that penalty that the Holy Lord of God requires
in order to the salvation of sinners. He can by no means clear
the guilty, the holy, the righteous, the just one. Sin must be punished,
and it's punished in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. For
they are those who are made wise to salvation. And God is the
one who teaches them. And it's written in the In the
prophets they shall be all taught of God, says Christ. Everyone
therefore that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh
unto me. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of knowledge. Oh, they know something, these
people, who have this fear of God in their hearts. They know
salvation. Christ prays for them. There in that 17th chapter of
John, the great high priestly prayer, its life eternally says
to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast
sent. We can have no knowledge at all
of God apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God
at any time. The only begotten Son who is
in the bosom of the Father he hath declared. oh what a blessing it is and
this fear we see something connected with trust where there is this
fear there will be that trusting in the Lord Psalm 115 and verse
11 ye that fear the Lord trust in the Lord those who have this
fear your fear They are a trusting people. They are people who are
living the life of faith. Again in Psalm 40 we read, Blessed
is the man that maketh the Lord his trust. Another one of these
Beatitudes there. Or the blessed man. He's that
man who is trusting. He's living the life of faith. He has the fear of God in his
heart. How significant are the words
that we have there in that 40th Psalm. Quite a remarkable Psalm
in so many ways. Because ultimately we have to
recognize that Psalm 40 is a Messianic Psalm. How does this man, who's
being spoken of, trust in the Lord? Well, the opening words. He says, I waited patiently for
the Lord, and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought
me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and
set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. Here is
the manifestation then of his trust. He waits patiently. Or as Imogen says, in waiting,
I waited. Or he was one who would wait
upon the Lord his God. And not wait in some inactive,
passive way. But that waiting that is involved
with so much earnest desire and longings and yearnings in the
depths of his soul He's that man then who, as he waits, so
he is also trusting in the Lord. Verse 4, Blessed is that man
that maketh the Lord his trust. And then, of course, he goes
on, doesn't he, to say later that verse 5, Sacrifice, rather
verse 6, sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire, mine ears
hast thou opened, burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not
required? Then said I, Lo, I come in the volume of the book, it
is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy
Lord is within my heart." Now, that's why we say it's messianic
because those verses there in the 40th Psalm are taken up by
the Apostle in Hebrews chapter 10 and they're applied directly
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is that man that's being
spoken of then in Psalm 40. And Christ is that man who has
the fear of God in his heart. Remember how we read of him again,
there in chapter 5 of Hebrews, who in the days of his flesh,
when he had offered up prayer and supplication with strong
crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death,
and was hurt in that he feared. Though he were a son, yet learned
the obedience by the things that he suffered. He was hurt in that
he feared. He had the fear of God in his
heart. That real piety, that waiting
upon God in prayers. He was a real man, the Lord Jesus.
He lived the life of faith as a man. He had that fear of God
then, in his heart. And he trusted, he trusted in
his God here upon the earth. All this fear then, it belongs
to those who were trusting in Christ, who know Christ. And
as it was true in the experience of the Lord Jesus, so in their
souls. Another psalm says, He will fulfill the desire of them
that fear Him. He will also hear their cry and
save them. That's the assurance that they
have. They have the promise of God because they have that fear
of God in their hearts. But not only are they such as
are embraced by the promise of God, They also are such as have
a delight in the commandments of God. That's what it says,
isn't it, in the verse? Blessed is the man that feareth
the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his commandments. It's not just the promises. The
promises that we have before us in the gospel of the grace
of God, it's the holy precepts. It's God's commandments. all
that commandment which is holy and just and good. They delight
in it. They are not those then who are
partial, who will take the promises but despise the precepts. We see the Lord's servant Malachi
there in his book as God's mouthpiece. He rebukes the priests and what
does he say? You have not kept my ways, but
have been partial in the law. Partiality in the law. Instead of embracing the totality,
but taking this and declining that, embracing this, rejecting
that. Nowhere to embrace God's words
altogether, every commandment. This fear of God is a blessed
thing to possess. It's a restraint. It's very much
a restraint to sinning. That's what we're told repeatedly
in the book of Proverbs. By the fear of the Lord, says
Solomon, men depart from evil. If we're fearing God, we'll shun
the ways of the wicked one. And we have that exhortation
in the third chapter of Proverbs, Proverbs 3 and verse 7, Fear
the Lord, says the wise man, and depart from evil. It is a
restraint upon sinning, this fear of God. But as it's a restraint
to sin, so it's a constraint to do the thing that is right
and pleasing in God's sight. Let us hear the conclusion of
the whole matter. Fear God, and keep his commandments,
for that is the whole duty of man. Those words that we have
at the end of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes 12 and verse 3. The conclusion of the whole matter,
fear God, and keep his commandments. We think of the language of the
Shorter Catechism. The first question, what is The
chief end of man, man's chief end is to glorify God and to
enjoy Him forever. All the Lord has made man for
Himself. And only in God can man really
find that that will satisfy his soul. This is the love of God
that we keep His commandments. and His commandments are not
grievous. We are to love then the precepts
as well as to be those who would love the promises of God. What
we have here in the text you see is a man whose devotion to
God is his delight. He worships God, praises the
Lord. But as devotion is his delight,
so holiness is the happiness of this man. He feels God and
he delights. He greatly delights, it says,
in the commandments of God. The fear of God is that that's
in his heart. And again, the language of the
Book of Proverbs Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day
long. This is to be the mark of those who are the Lord's people.
They have that true fear of God, that feel your fear. Or they
stand in awe before God. They recognize something of the
greatness of God, the otherness of God. The promises of theirs, but also
the precepts are a delight to them. And then, ultimately, this
fear of the Lord is expressed in praises. They praise God. Praise ye the Lord. As I said at the beginning, it's
simply the Hebrew word Alleluia. And we have it several times
here in this part of the Psalter. the beginning of Psalm 111, praise
ye the Lord. The beginning of the 113th Psalm,
praise ye the Lord. And then again at the end of
that Psalm, praise ye the Lord. These three Psalms, you see,
very much center and concentrate on that idea of praises, praises
to the Lord God. And what is it to praise God? Well, we can only praise God
if we really have some true appreciation of who He is, His greatness,
His worthiness of our praises. We worship Him. Again, look at
the language in the 33rd Psalm, and there at verse 8. It says, let all the earth fear
the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe before
him. And of course what we have here
is that parallelism, that striking characteristic really
of Hebrew poetry, the same truth as it were repeated. In the first
clause it's the earth, fearing the Lord. In the second clause
it's the inhabitants of the world, standing in awe. To fear God
then is to recognize that He is awful. The old-fashioned meaning
of that word awful fills us with fear. When we come before this
great God, how the angels worship Him. the site that the Prophet
beholds there in Isaiah chapter 6 when he sees the throne of
God and the Seraphim, the burning ones, these bright sinless angels,
how they cannot bear the sight, they cover their feet, they have
six wings, with two of them covering their feet, it's holy ground,
and with two of them covering their faces, they cannot look
upon the Lord God. Job says he charges his angels
with fathers. All the angels, though they be
sinless, they cannot look upon that sight. They are covering
their faces, and with two wings they are flying. They do all
His commandments. They are obedient creatures.
But they are in awe, there in the presence of the Holy One
of Israel. His angels He charged with folly,
it says. Yea, the heavens are not clean
in His sight. Oh, what a God is this that we
come to worship Him. And we're to worship Him, we're
to praise Him, we're to praise Him for all His works, all that
He does. Look at the language again in
the previous Psalm, Psalm 111. And there at verse 2, the works
of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure
therein. His work is honorable and glorious,
and His righteousness endureth forever. He hath made His wonderful
works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and full
of compassion, and are not we the recipients of His works?
How His providence watches over us, how He preserves us, holds
us in his hand, keeps us safe from danger, seen and unseen,
opens his hand, supplies all our needs. How patient, how long
suffering he is with us when we provoke him by our sins. And that accursed unbelief that
seems to bedevil us all our days. And yet, God's wonderful works,
his kind providences, and the riches of His grace in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Oh, He is to be praised. That's
a remarkable statement, isn't it, in the 119th Psalm and verse
68. Thou art good, says the psalmist,
and thou doest good. That's the God that we come to
worship. He's a good God. Thou art good
and thou doest good. Didn't the Lord Jesus Christ
himself go about doing good? And that's God manifest in the
flesh. They praise him then here for
his wonderful works. But we see also in the book of
the Revelation how he is to be praised in all the sovereignty
of his works. That's what they praise God for
there even in heaven itself. Revelation 19, in verse 5, John
says, A voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God,
all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great.
And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, and
as the voice of many waters, and as the And as the voice of
mighty thundering, saying, Alleluia! For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. All they say there in heaven,
Alleluia! And what is it that they're praising
God for? Because He's omnipotent. He's the all-powerful One. He's
the Sovereign God who rules over heaven and earth. or that we
might know then something of the portion of this blessed man,
this man who has in his heart a godly fear. They that fear
the Lord, we are told, will be glad. Oh, there's gladness in
the hearts of those who have that fear of the Lord. Praise
ye the Lord. Blessed is the man that feareth
the Lord, and delighteth greatly in His commandments. Might such
then be our portion. The Lord bless His word to us. Before we turn to prayer again,
presently I'll ask Cliff if he'd lead us in prayer, but we'll
firstly sing God's praise in the hymn 255, the tune is Saxby
409. Happy the men that fear the Lord's,
They from the paths of sin depart, Rejoice and tremble at His word,
And hide it deep within their hearts. 255, Tune 409.