A Fool No More

 

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.” (Proverbs 1:7, NIV)

Throughout the book of Proverbs, Solomon wrote about fear. Fear, as Solomon used it, means to be in awe of and to revere. This awe and reverence occur because of who God is—omnipotent, omniscient, holy, omnipresent, faithful, good, majestic, etc. It also refers to God’s wisdom given to people and their obedience to Him based on what God tells them. Once a person becomes aware of God, that person can either reject Him or accept and obey Him.

Two ways exist to acknowledge the fear of the LORD: rejecting and accepting. (LORD is YAHWEH in Hebrew.) If a person rejects the LORD, then chaos and disharmony enter his heart and life and the world around him. When people acknowledge the LORD and fear Him, they accept Him as God and LORD. Order and calm occur. This order and calm shows by all creation working together with peace. Because God created all that exists, God’s knowledge is ultimate. His wisdom is the greatest. Accepting God as LORD means accepting God and His wisdom and knowledge. It also means living in harmony and peace with God within His ultimate plan of peace, calm, order, and harmony.

Fearing the LORD is the “beginning of knowledge,” Solomon wrote. Since God created all that exists to work at its best and in harmony with the rest of creation, seeking God’s wisdom and learning from Him causes us to gain the best knowledge. This knowledge from God, when obeyed, will cause the best outcome. Fear of the LORD—knowing Him and actively listening to Him—is from where we learn best. We humans can learn by seeking knowledge by reading, listening, watching, and doing. In each of these ways, God can teach us when we seek Him and His wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.

God wants us to seek Him, which we do when we revere Him and recognize He is sovereign. In our seeking, He will teach us as we listen to Him and then live out that new knowledge in our lives. Only God teaches the best lessons by which to live. Living in this way causes us to seek and revere God more, and may lead us to believe in Jesus, His Son. When we trust in Jesus as our Savior, He washes our sins from us, gives us eternal life, and gives us an eternal relationship with God.

Solomon contrasted the person who fears the LORD and receives knowledge and wisdom from Him. He called a fool the person who does not fear God. What fools did Solomon write about? Since he contrasted them with those who revere, learn from and live with wisdom from God, a fool is a person who does not do these things. The fool’s life causes chaos and discord in his life, the lives of people around him, and in his relationship with his Creator—the LORD God.

Solomon taught more about this fool. He said the fool despises wisdom and discipline. He looks down on the wisdom and discipline a wise person gets from God. The fool considers the LORD and His children are insignificant. Because he disconnects himself from God, the source of truth and good, he is amoral. The fool is selfish, disregarding others and harming creation. By doing that, he declares these people have no worth to him; he does not care about them. The fool disconnects himself from God and other people. He cares not for his social or legal standing in the community. The fool chooses not to live by the values and judgments of society, which mirror many of God’s values, ethics, and judgments. This fool possesses self-created wisdom.

Solomon compared the person seeking true wisdom from its source, God, with the person who does not. He called this person a fool. The seeker of God gains true wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. He cultivates discipline, benefiting humanity and nature. The person who seeks God helps keep calm, harmony, and order in his community and the world. He gains a closer relationship with God, then comes to believe in His Son, Jesus. This seeker of God gains his heart’s desire and eternal reward of living with and being in a close relationship with God. The fool becomes surrounded by discord and chaos. His wisdom and knowledge will often fail him and others because it comes from the mind of a fallible. The fool strays from God; intimacy with God eludes him.

What is the remedy for the fool about whom Solomon wrote? Solomon's recording at the beginning of this verse reads, "Fear the Lord." Yes, this fear can include fearing judgment for our sins, but it should not stay that way. For a fool to change, he must arrive at the point of revering God, seeking Him and His ways, and seeking change in his life. He must come to the point of confessing and repenting of his sin and believing in Jesus, the Son of God, as His Savior. When the fool seeks God for His life, he receives calm, peace, and harmony. The past fool will live in communion with his community while caring for them and God’s creation. The once foolish man will fear God, gain wisdom, knowledge, and understanding from its fount—God, and experience peace within himself and with others. He will be God's child, enjoying eternal closeness with God.

God should be foremost in our thoughts. Seeking God will affect our actions, words, and attitude. Taking from Solomon’s thoughts:

1.      Choose to make God and His ways your primary thoughts and let those affect your words, actions, and thoughts.

2.      Gain knowledge of and from God. Grow in His wisdom, a gift He gives to those who follow Him.

3.      Give these gifts back to Him as a service offering.

Your obedience to God is your offering back to Him from His good gifts of salvation, wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these (good) things will be added unto you. (Matthew 6:33, BSB)

Intense Compassion

 

Just as a father loves his children, so the Lord loves those who fear and worship Him with awe-filled respect and deepest reverence.

— Psalms 103:13

 

The psalmist wrote, “Like a human father loves and is compassionate to his children, so the Lord has complete and extreme compassion  for the people who revere and respect Him.”

 

Notice the verb used by the psalmist in both parts of the simile. Yet, the intensity of compassion/love is different. The psalmist also said how much compassion God has for His people. 

 

Whereas a mortal father can only love and be compassionate up to the amount of what a mortal is capable of, Almighty and perfect God can give the ultimate amount of compassion and love. God is limitless just as is His attributes. God is so grand that He’s undefinable in human words. 

 

The amount of compassion God has for His people is beyond human comprehension, so the psalmist included in the original Hebrew writing the Pi’el form of compassion. Pi’el expresses intensive action. The father has compassion for his children, but that compassion is limited. God has compassion towards His people that is limitless. People cannot comprehend it. The psalmist’s best way to describe God’s compassion was by saying it was intensive; God’s compassion towards His people is complete, is perfect—nothing is lacking in it.

 

Can any of us say our compassion/love for others, our family, and our children is complete—perfect, lacks nothing? We can only give what our limited, fallible hearts can give. God’s heart toward His people is limitless; it’s bound only by His infinite, undefinable being.

 

Notice also, God’s compassion is aimed toward specific people in this simile. The father’s compassion is aimed at his children. God’s compassion is felt and given to “His people.” The verse actually says He aims His compassion toward “those who fear/revere Him.” Who are the people who revere God? To know that, we need to understand what “fear/revere” means with regard to God. 

 

Revere means to be in such great awe and respect of someone that you worship that person. Each of us has at one time in our lives looked up to people. For some, that person was a family member, for others it was someone famous—an actor, musician, scientist, explorer, doctor, preacher, politician, etc. The list could go on. Who did you admire so much that you wanted to be like him/her? Did you go so far in your awe and admiration of that person that you idolized him/her? That is worship of a person. Take that understanding farther and apply those feelings of awe and respect to God. Intensify those feelings you felt for another person so that they transition from admiration of a fallible and limited human to reverence of infallible and limitless God. That intensification involves more than just your head, heart, and body. It includes your spirit. Revering God requires your whole being. It’s the willing and intentional giving of your whole being back to the One you recognize as the Almighty—the One who creates, lives, sustains, saves, protects, leads, is, has always been, and will always be existent. Revering God is more than mental assent of His existence. It’s more than emotional acknowledgment of His stirring your being. Revering God is more than bending on knees before Him or placing an offering in the offering plate. Revering is all these and spiritually confessing God is the one and only Lord, Master, and Savior of your life by giving yourself wholly to Him as the ultimate offering and sacrifice you can give to the Ultimate One. What more can we give than our whole being? Oswald Chambers calls this giving our “utmost for His highest.” 

 

God gives His complete/perfect and intensive compassion to the people who revere Him. He has complete/perfect and intensive compassion for and toward those people who willingly and wholly give themselves—hearts, minds, bodies, and spirits—to Him out of love and awe and reverence as the ultimate offering that they can give .

 

The psalmist’s simile could make you smile now that you realize the two sides of it are unequal. God’s love and compassion does not match that of a father’s compassion for His child. God’s love and compassion are incomparable to anything earthly. The psalmist had nothing with which to compare it than to the greatest compassion a human can feel, that of the care and love of one’s own child. In this, he became similar to God. The father co-created his child with God. God created all people. The father can understand the intensity of feeling for his child like that of God’s for His creation—people. 

 

That intensity of heart, mind, and body to do anything necessary to care for his child is similar to God’s care for people. God loves us so intensely that He did and does everything to care for us. He gives of all He is and of what He has at His disposal that is necessary to care for the hearts, minds, bodies, and spirits of people. Notice the difference. A human father cannot affect the spirit of his child. Only God can call to, convict, save, and renew a child’s spirit. When that child, no matter the age, whether 2-102, confesses absolute faith in Jesus, God’s Son, and confesses his/her sins, that child becomes part of the group of people “who fear Him,” as the psalmist said in Psalm 103:13. That person becomes a child of God. Along with being forgiven and having eternal life with God, that person will be made complete gradually over time so that the father or mother of a child will gradually show the level of compassion God aims towards His people.

 

This simile has unequal sides, but it’s purpose helps us understand the intensity and completeness of God’s compassion. It should lead us to ask ourselves questions. Foremost of these questions is, do you revere God and are you counted as one on whom God aims His intensive and complete compassion? In other words, are you a child of God, one of His people? Secondly, how’s your compassion for your child? God’s compassion was compared to that of a father’s by the psalmist. Really, though, our compassion should be compared to God’s. God’s compassion is the standard and goal. Our intensity of compassion should increase as our offering of our heart, mind, body, and spirit increases. Is your offering to God increasing? Or, did you only give a sacrifice and offering at the point you were saved? 

 

This simile will always be unequal. Yet, as we give more of our being to God each day and as we receive more from Him each day, our compassion will become more complete. God will perfect us more each day we seek Him and grow closer to Him. What of yourself have you offered to God today?

Resounding through Millennia

“I will praise the Lord and may everyone on earth bless His holy name forever and ever.” Psalm 145:21 [NLT]

Psalm 145 is a praise psalm by David. In this, if we just look at it peripherally, most of us will only see David praising God. Yet, if we dive into this psalm upon which people wrote hymns and contemporary songs, we will find David had several reasons for writing this psalm. Yes, most of all, he wrote it to sing praises to God. But Davidic psalms usually explain why he cried out or sang to the LORD. This psalm is no exception in that regard. There are two more things David did in this psalm. He commanded people to praise God, and he explained to every person who read, heard, or sang this psalm who the LORD God is and why we should praise and exalt Him..

David began this this psalm and ended it twenty-one verses later with the purpose of this psalm. He said, “I will exalt You, my God and King, and praise Your name forever and ever. I will praise You every day; yes, I will praise You forever.” [NLT] He meant, “God, I will lift up Your name with my heart, mouth, and spirit. I will magnify You and not me.” David then said twice for emphasis that he would praise God now, every day, and forever. He knew Who is greater than him and he knew of his salvation. God anointed David for an eternity with Him. David’s hope, love, thanks, and awe reverberated throughout this psalm and his being.

David didn’t end this psalm with this basic statement of praise. He continued by explaining why he would always exalt and praise God. David said twice in verse three, “God is great.” Though no exclamation points note David’s declaration, we can understand he was very excited in his praise and exaltation because he commanded people of the next generations to tell about God and proclaim Him, too (vs. 4). David wanted a resounding, rolling proclamation of praise and exaltation to occur over the centuries and millennia by all people.

David then explained what he did with his understanding of God. He said in verse five he meditated on who God is and what He had done. He then declared he would proclaim about these and God’s goodness. David taught everyone who read, heard, or sang this song, we should exalt and praise God with our hearts and lips and then carry it into our every day lives with meditation and proclamation. By meditating, we keep God, His covenant with us, and our resultant obedience to Him forefront in our minds and hearts.

Understand this next part; this is important. David said he exalted, praised, meditated on, and proclaimed God so everyone will share the story of His wonderful goodness and sing with joy about His righteousness (vs. 7). He understood each person is a sinner and separated from God, but God loves all of us and wants us to know about Him so we can come to know Him personally and accept the salvation He offers. David was evangelistic in this psalm. When a person is in a personal relationship with God, that person, too, will want to exalt, praise, meditate on, and proclaim God and His greatness and goodness.

After this point, in verses eight to seventeen, David taught later hearers, readers, and singers about God-who He is and what He has done and will do. Interspersed between each set of statements about God, he told the response of people upon learning about each aspect and act of God.

·       Vs. 8-9 – The LORD is merciful, compassionate, slow to anger, loves faithfully, is good to everyone, and showers compassion on all His creation.

o   Vs. 10-12 – All creation will thank the LORD and His faithful followers will praise Him. They will speak of His glorious kingdom, give examples of His power, tell of his mighty deeds, and about the majesty and glory of His reign.

·       Vs. 13a – David ended this section by explaining God’s kingdom is eternal and He will rule/reign forever, through the lives of anyone who ever lived and would ever live.

Ø  Vs. 13b-14 – The Lord keeps His promises, is gracious in all He does, and helps the fallen, weak, and weary.

o   Vs. 15a – Every person who looks to God in hope will receive all they need.

Ø  Vs. 15b-16 – God will provide for all needs of those who hope in Him. He will satisfy their need for food and drink.

v Vs. 17 – God is righteous in everything He does.

o   We can trust in Him taking care of us, loving us, being kind, and being faithful.

§  Vs. 18 – Because of God’s righteousness and kindness, He is close to those who call on Him in truth, those who are genuine in their desire to know Him.

§  Vs. 19 – Because of God’s righteousness and kindness, He grants the desires (about what one speaks to Him) of those who fear Him. He hears their cries for help and rescues them.

§  Vs. 20 - Because of God’s righteousness and kindness, the Lord protects those who love Him, and destroys the wicked.

In this psalm, David stated why God is great and why he praises Him. He said he wanted everyone to realize what God’s actions and attributes are. David said in Psalm 145 God is:

                        Majestic         Glorious                    Splendid                    Merciful            

                        Righteous       Compassionate         Slow to anger            Faithfully loving

                        Powerful        Faithful                      Gracious                    Good 

                        Provider         Kind                           Fearful/Awesome   

                        Did awe-inspiring deeds                Did mighty deeds    Helps the fallen                                                  Has an everlasting kingdom          Rules over all generations

                        Lifts the weary                     Is close to those who call on Him in truth

                        Answers the prayers of those who fear/revere Him

For these, David said in verse one he would exalt God and praise His name forever. Because of who God is and what He’s done, is doing, and would do, he wanted everyone to know about Him in truth and to have a personal relationship with Him. To emphasize David’s stance and commitment, he restated in verse twenty-one what he said in verse one, “I will praise the LORD.” He added his own desire, his prayer to God and plea to all who heard, read, or sang this psalm, that everyone on earth over all millennia would desire to praise God, too, because they know Him in truth through having a personal relationship with Him.

What may have seemed only a song in your mind when you read Psalm 145, hopefully has more meaning. It does for me. What is your response to this psalm? Do you desire to praise and exalt God, and proclaim Him to other people so they can come to know your faithful, loving, almighty God? We sing praises to God to recall who He is and what He’s done, to teach others how and why to praise God, and to proclaim about God and His greatness and goodness to non-Christians so they can have a relationship with Him, too.

Have you praised and exalted God today?

Have you led and/or taught others how to praise God?

Have you used your praise of God to tell someone who doesn’t know Him personally about Him so they would desire to be in a relationship with Him?

Each of these come from love in our heart – love of God and love of other people.

What will you do now?

Lord, You are great and I am not. I may have fooled myself to think I had everything under control, but really, it’s all Your doing. Lord, forgive me for walking in my strength with my plans. Help me to always take the time to praise You. By doing this, I remember what You have done and are doing in my life. By doing this, my voice will resound with praise of who You are and Your goodness, then others will hear, remember to praise You, and/or come to know You personally for themselves. Lord, whatever I have You have given me. Whatever I’ve done, You’ve taught me and made it possible. Lord, You are great, loving, faithful, and righteous; I bow to You and Your plans. Help me remember to take time to come to You, meditate on You, Your word, and Your actions, and to praise You. Stay first place in my life. Amen.

Rejoice with Fear and Trembling

Habakkuk fills chapter 3 with the awe of God. He shows his fear of God’s power, evidenced through His wrath, and God’s mercy. Habakkuk does this through a prayer. Through the chapter, he gives a historical account about who God is, what He’s done, and what He will do. Verse two of this chapter is the thematic statement; while verses 18-19 are the ultimate expression of Habakkuk’s praise and worship of God for who He is. Through all the things God did in the past, Habakkuk could say the Lord is his strength.

What had God done and what will He do according to history and this prophet? First, Habakkuk reminded the Judeans of God’s presence in their history. God was with their forefather, Abraham, and He chose them as His people. Habakkuk said this in verse 3 when he said God comes from Teman and from Mount Paran. Abraham came through Teman and the Israelites, in their exodus wandering, camped or visited at Paran several times.

Habakkuk continued to remind the Judeans who God is by His presence in nature. He said God’s splendor covers the heavens, and the earth is full of His praise. Even His created world will proclaim and praise Him.

Next Habakkuk reminded the Judeans of what God had done. This reminded them of His presence in power. God brought pestilence and plague to the Egyptians. He startled the nations and made them tremble. Before the watching nations, God shattered mountains on which cities relied for defense. The people of Cush and Midian knew God and trembled. Even other nations realized who God is, and that He is eternal.

Habakkuk then used rhetorical questions to make his point. Was God angry against the rivers or sea? Was He concerned about the salvation of the waters or of people? This made sense to the listener. This prayer of Habakkuk’s was for them to attune to and return to God.

Habakkuk said the power of God’s love would bring them salvation and/or chastisement. God tried to give salvation to His people, but then, as the loving Father, He had to resort to chastisement. The bows of other nations God would use to correct them. Habakkuk paused and let the people think about this.

God’s kindness leads us to repentance and salvation (Romans 2:4).

With verses 9-11, Habakkuk returned to God’s influence on nature. Before he wrote about God’s power in nature. This time Habakkuk personified nature as writhing in fear and raising its voice and hands in proclaiming God. Even the sun and moon acknowledged God’s majesty. Their light dimmed when God’s great splendor shone. God’s glorious light outshone the stars and moon, so they were unseen.

With verses 12-15, Habakkuk showed God’s power in chastisement would be fearful, but it would cause salvation. He showed God’s power over all things for His purposes. God was indignant because the Judeans (and all Israelites), though God showed His love and care for them, showed by their lives how little God meant to them. He was angry because of their disobedience. Habakkuk said God marched through the earth and trampled the nations. God would destroy all the people counted on to give them what they needed or wanted. Still, God did not do this because of His anger. He based His anger upon His love for all the people of Israel. God would march and trample because of His love for them to save the people. He was angry at the Israelites and the people who caused them pain and destroyed them. God would chastise the Judeans and their subjugators. He would kill their subjugator’s leader with his own spear. Though the Judeans’ enemy would exult in Judah’s destruction, God would go far and wide to chastise them with His might, knowledge, and anger. He would cross lands and seas to accomplish it.

Habakkuk recognized God’s power, influence, salvation, love, and continual presence. He feared with awe His God and he trembled with fear at God’s prophecy of Judah’s destruction. Habakkuk’s fear was so great he shivered with it and his bones melted.

With Habakkuk’s final three verses, he proclaimed his certainty in God’s word and His love. He praised God because he recognized that though Judah’s enemies would loot and destroy them, God was their salvation. God would not permanently remove His hand from His chosen people. Habakkuk rejoiced triumphantly because God is mighty. God was his strength. He believed God would lead him and make him steady even during rocky or shaky, fearful times.

Though God takes us through difficult times, we can trust Him. We can proclaim God when we experience trials because we realize He is our salvation. His salvation comes from His love for us as does His chastisement. Everything God does is because of His love for us. Recognize God’s greatness, His power, influence, love, and continual presence, just as Habakkuk did.

Join Habakkuk and the great cloud of witnesses exulting and rejoicing in the Lord, the God of our salvation!

“Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say, rejoice!” Psalm 4:4

Though my days are dark, oh Lord, I will remember Your splendorous light and the rays of power coming from Your hands. I will not be afraid. I will wait upon and exult in You now knowing You are in control and this time is for my growth because of Your love. You, God, will provide the way of escape, and I will be able to endure through this trial with Your strength and guidance, too. Amen.

“No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”

1 Corinthians 10:13 [NASB]

Rejoice with fear and trembling; God will break through for you!