This psalm hinges on this first condition.
Blessed are all who fear the Lord,
who walk in obedience to him.
What it means to “fear” the Lord was one of my questions when I was first seeking to understand a life with God. Fear often carries with it a negative connotation in culture.
America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand. - Harry Truman
Never let your fear decide your future. - Unknown
These messages encourage us away from fear. They pit us against anything that would cause fear. They reveal our desire for safety and comfort. But is God safe? He doesn’t promise comfort.
As we’ve walked through the Old Testament, we don’t see a safe God. He is demanding and often full of wrath. This sounds alarms in us when reading it. But we see from those that come into His presence such as Isaiah or Moses, they do not turn away, they are drawn in. There is an immediate response of awe and allegiance, a transformation of desires. His presence is not comfortable and not safe but it is awesome and trustworthy.
CS Lewis paints one of the clearest pictures of this healthy “fear” through our imagination in story:
“Aslan is a lion – the Lion, the great lion” …
“Is he – quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”
“That you will, dearie, and no mistake” said Mrs Beaver; “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”
“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.
“Safe?” said Mr Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
Blessed are all who fear the Lord,
who walk in obedience to him.
Through this understanding of Him, we are asked to respond with allegiance, to obey, and to walk in His ways.
I don’t see the blessings that follow in this psalm as a prescription for what we are guaranteed to receive or earn through this obedience, but as one writer’s description of a blessed life. We can walk in obedience and still experience heartache and loss.
“Paul was shipwrecked, stoned, whipped and beaten. His life was not the life of blessing as described in Psalm 128 and yet at the end of his life, he was able to say:
For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”
May we long for his appearing today and to experience the awe of his presence in the little things so that we may have a healthy fear of the Lord and a response to walk in His ways.
-- Emilee O'Neil