Psalm 33:8
Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him.
Verses 6 & 7 have reminded us of God's mighty power in
creation. As we reflect on the immensity of the galaxy, and the power of the oceans, it is right that we feel small. The sheer scale of creation reminds each of us that we're not actually the centre of the universe. But we can't stop there. The purpose of creation is to declare God's glory. It exists not simply to make us feel small but to remind us that God is great. Nature may be awe-inspiring, but it's not nature itself we should be awed by, but God.
And so the right response, as we gaze at the stars, or contemplate the sea, is to revere the Lord. To fear God. If we are trusting in Jesus, that fear is not the terror of an unforgiven sinner facing judgement. Rather, it is the reverence due to a holy God who has - extraordinarily - chosen to make us his children, at the cost of his only son.
Do you ever think that, because we get to call God 'Dad', we
don't really need to revere him? I often think that way, but I'm realising that I shouldn't. As we look at the cross, don't we see that God is MORE awesome than we realised, not less? More holy, more loving, more righteous. We who are his children get to know him far better than the non-Christian who has never
opened a Bible. Wouldn't we expect that growing knowledge to make us more in awe of him, rather than less? In fact, Proverbs tells us that 'the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge'. Refusing to rightly fear him is foolishness.
So let's pray today that we would grow in our reverence for God, and live as those who rightly fear and honour him.
