Psalm 33 describes how “the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.” (v5, all ESV) His creation is described (v6-9). His sovereign rule over nations is affirmed (v10-12). His active omniscience is acknowledged (v13-15). As the Psalm nears its conclusion, we see an unusual pair of emotions in God’s children: fear and hope. “Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His steadfast love.” (v18) Normally hope and fear take turns in our heart, but in this brief passage, these seemingly opposing passions are both in the heart of a believer. How can this be? Similarly, in Psalm 147, “The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.” (v11) What kind of fear and hope co-exist in the Lord’s people?
Hope and fear are both great motivators, but we normally think of them as enemies, not companions. Fear focuses on now. Hope looks to the future. Fear comes from a threat of danger, harm, and pain. Hope expects a good, pleasant, and joyous future. At the extreme, fear becomes a phobia leading to dizziness, nausea, rapid heartbeat, breathlessness, and full-blown panic attacks. Common phobias are spiders, snakes, heights, crowds, and death. For some people, even when they think about or see pictures of the object of their greatest fear they are filled with alarm and terror. Is this the fear God wants His children to experience as we pursue godly wisdom, knowledge, and obedience? Not entirely, but maybe more so than we want to accept. When someone experiences a phobia-driven panic attack, nothing else matters. Their entire, undivided attention is on the object of their fear to the exclusion of everything else. Similarly, God commands undivided loyalty, worship, obedience, and love with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. Scripture compares spiritual unfaithfulness to adultery; a very serious sin with serious consequences. When we love the world’s desires, pursue our prideful hopes, or hide our faith because of worldly rejection, we have reason to fear God because of our double-mindedness. These seemingly minor daily decisions have eternal consequences in God’s eyes.
Perhaps the most surprising attribute of God is His jealousy. In the Ten Commandments, God describes Himself in this way, “I the Lord your God am a jealous God.” (Exodus 20) In Nahum 1, there can be no doubt that God is to be feared by His enemies. “The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.” For the unbeliever, the fear of God is the fear of the judgment of God, which punishes any sin and ultimately leads to death and eternal separation from Him to a dark and graceless existence. For the believer, the fear of God is also real, but something very different. Through faith in Jesus Christ, former enemies of God become His sons and daughters. The goodness of God, the kindness of Jesus, and the mercy of the Holy Spirit lead to our being “justified by his grace [so] we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3) The believer's fear of God is reverence, awe, and love for the One who “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1) This fear of God focuses the believer’s hope on a glorious future regardless of difficulty of our current circumstances or the worldly threat we face. We should embrace both the godly hope and fear while we “wait for the Lord, our help and our shield, for our hearts are glad in Him.” (Psalm 33:20-21)