Truly Fear God

11 Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
12 What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good?
13 Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.
14 Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.
Psalms 34:11-14

This psalmist continues with his invitation to surrender to Christ. Remember, the beginning of this psalm was a personal testimony from the writer, and he desires that his listener submit his life to the One and Only Lord of all.

“Come, O children, listen to me” “I will teach you the fear of the LORD.”

Note the incredible invitation from the psalmist. He is convinced in his heart and mind that he knows the Way, the Truth and the Life. He is sure that there is no other way to salvation. He has concluded and resolved in his heart that the Lord his God is God and there is no other!

This type of confidence in faith results in a natural invitation. You have confidence that the Lord will deliver, therefore, you will share of His goodness. You are sure that He will not let anyone down, therefore, you will be an Ambassador for His grace and mercy. It is so similar to promoting the things we love in this world… We will have so much confidence in a restaurant that we will promote it to others, yet we will not invite the world around us to follow Jesus.

“I will teach you the fear of the LORD.”

This is the beginning of faith. We MUST fear God. Fear is not just something you learn 20 years after you are saved… it is a necessity to Justification. Fear is an understanding of WHO God is. If you don’t truly fear God, then you will not totally surrender yourself to His Lordship. Now, that is not to say that we don’t grow in our understanding of fear as we develop spiritually… we most certainly will do this. But your faith in salvation, your faith in Justification, is not a blind faith. You are made alive by God to see your sin in comparison to a His Holiness. And in this comparison, you begin to realize the fear of the Lord.

We. Don’t. Fear. God. The. Way. He. Ought. To. Be. Feared.

That is just the reality of our life. We are so distracted by our phones that we can’t look up to see a Holy God. We are so enamored with the ways of this world that we neglect our time that we should be spending with God. Our culture and society has so invaded the Christian life that we have totally lost track of what it means to “Put on Christ.”

We just don’t fear God. We would rather work than fear God. We would rather watch Netflix than fear God. We would rather sleep than fear God. The reality is that we don’t have a real fear of the Lord.

Christian, you need to fear God. You need to take Him seriously. You need to take His Word seriously. You need to surrender ALL of your life to Him.

“What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good?”

This is oh so similar to the type of questions in Psalm 15. The reality is that NO MAN desires God. No man would give up this world to follow after Christ. As a matter of fact, we have done the opposite. We have turned away from God. We are enemies with God. We would rather have a temporary life right now, than have eternity with God. That is the reality of our situation.

Think of the gathering of believers… but not as a “religion,” but instead consider the gathering as a glimpse of eternity. … Now, if we TRULY loved and feared God, then there would be NOTHING that would stop us from gathering with a people, which would give to us just a GLIMPSE of what eternity is going to be like. Instead, we dread going to the gathering… We think we have to sacrifice our life in order to make it to the gathering… We put everything else as a priority OVER the gathering of the Saints. THE REALITY IS THAT WE DO NOT FEAR GOD!

Did you know that the gathering of believers is a GIFT from God? To neglect this gift is to spit in the face of God. Do you not care about what God has given to you?? No… you don’t. You want what you want and you want it now. You don’t fear God.

“Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.”

I think this sentence is a direct answer to the question proposed before it. Basically the psalmist is saying this, “Don’t lie to yourself and convince yourself that you actually fear God the way He ought to be feared!” And we do this! We think of ourselves as good enough. We think of ourselves as righteous enough. We think that if we have said the prayer and walked to the altar, then we are good enough people. And this psalmist tells us not to lie to ourselves.

Take a hard look at your life and consider whether or not you actually fear God. Does your life reflect the fear of the Lord?

“Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.”

The call to repentance! And this is something that you should consider today. Don’t keep lying to yourself and telling yourself that the way you are living your life is ok… If you are prioritizing work over God, then you are living in sin. And you are NOT right with God. And what would be worse is if you do not feel guilty for this…..

There is only ONE WAY to finding peace in this life. There is only ONE WAY to finding hope in this life. There is only ONE WAY to finding joy in this life. And it is NOT through money or work or food or entertainment or alcohol or drugs or Netflix or people or any of that… The ONLY WAY that you will actually receive peace is by God’s Grace through Faith in Jesus Christ.

I am totally convinced that there is a LARGE MAJORITY of “American Christians” who will be saying “Lord, Lord” on Judgement Day. And I am totally convinced that there are people who are in our families who THINK they are saved, but their life directly reflects this world.

Men, if we do not step up and become the Ambassador that we are called to be, then the soul of that family member is in jeopardy of being eternally damned.

Men, we need to wake up and realize the reality of this dire situation. We need to take this very seriously. Eternity hangs in the balance… and YOU are to be the Herald to proclaim that truth.


This Psalm is your wake up call. This is your reality check. Now go to work.