"No Fear?"

Why Is It So Popular To Have "No Fear"?

I started out planning on this message to be about the love that we have for our children and what the Bible tells us about this, but God took me to a passage as I did my search that takes me in another direction. It points the attention back to me and what I need to do in order that God may pour out His righteousness and his prosperity on my children! Funny how our search sometimes leaves us staring our conscience in the eye and hearing the message that our Lord intended.

While growing up in a southern home and attending church every time there was a service, I heard the words "Children love your parents" almost every week of my life. I believe that most of us would have naturally loved our parents regardless of hearing this but I think that the parents felt it helped keep us in a proper mindset. If we consciously loved them all of the time, then we would fear and respect them all of the time! Makes sense, doesn't it? If you love anything and are constantly aware of your love for it, you will treat that thing or person with utmost care and honor.

When I read today's passage I naturally wanted to dig deeper into the Hebrew to get a better understanding of what this could mean if we read the literal translation. It was very enlightening and brought much more meaning into the message of this passage for me. I pray that it will do the same for you!

First of all, let's read the entire passage,

Psalms 103:13-17 Like as a father pities his children, so the LORD pities them that fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children; To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.

A father pities his children and in the same way the LORD pities the people that fear him. The literal Hebrew for the word that is used, "Pities", is "to have compassion upon, love". The next word I would like to look at is "fear". The literal Hebrew for this word is "fearing; morally reverent". So to fear the LORD is to show him reverence as He is perfect and to realize that we are loved by Him all at the same time! Isn't that much like a normal father and child relationship? To fear your father because he made the laws and enforced them, yet in your adoration for him and your realization that he loved you enough to even give his life for your safety, you treated him with the utmost reverence. We see many parents who have given their lives for the freedom of their families and their country as we drive past the military graveyards.

I remember when I was in college, living in Chattanooga, TN, walking to town past the military graveyards and seeing the hundreds and maybe thousands of tombstones in row after row. I often wondered why so many people had to die and I remember thinking about how many families were left without a dad or a mom as a result of the wars. I felt a reverence for that plot of land that could not be put into words. I went to the military funeral of a friend of mine who died as a result of the Gulf War and the reverence was evident on every face there. There was sadness but there was clearly much more reverence expressed for a man who had loved his family enough to have given his life for them in defence of his country. That is the kind of love and compassion that I have for my children as well. I would give my life without a second thought to save one of their lives. Yes, even for only ONE of their lives. Do you see where I am going with this? That is the love that our LORD is described as having in this passage!

The passage goes on to talk about how our LORD knows us and that we are made of simple perishable dust. Then the fact that we are like a flower that is gone with the wind after a certain amount of time and it s impossible to see where the flower was in the field once it is gone. But when it comes to the mercy of the LORD (self Existent-One; Jehovah) the literal Hebrew translates to mean that this mercy (meaning kindness, piety, beauty: -favour, good deed, (loving-) kindness, pity) extends from the past until the future. I want you to see the actual translation for the word used in the King James, "everlasting".

H5769
עלם עולם
The Hebrew word is ‛ôlâm ‛ôlâm
It is pronounced o-lawm', o-lawm'
From H5956; properly concealed, that is, the vanishing point; generally time out of mind (past or future), that is, (practically) eternity; frequentative adverbially (especially with prepositional prefix) always: - always (-s), ancient (time), any more, continuance, eternal, (for, [n-]) ever (-lasting, -more, of old), lasting, long (time), (of) old (time), perpetual, at any time, (beginning of the) world (+ without end).

Seeing this for yourself, you can see that the mercy of our LORD is not really measurable at all! It is beyond our minds imagination to grasp the brevity of the love and compassion our Creator has for His children "that fear him" in moral reverence as we talked about earlier. What does it say that our LORD bestows on those who do fear Him?

Look at the last part of verse seventeen,

Psalms 103:17 But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children;

"Righteousness"
The Hebrew word is tsedâqâh
It is pronounced tsed-aw-kaw'
From H6663; rightness (abstractly), subjectively (rectitude), objectively (justice), morally (virtue) or figuratively (prosperity): - justice, moderately, right (-eous) (act, -ly, -ness).

Rightness, rectitude, justice, virtue, prosperity, right.

Are these words that we consider to be positive and describe the very thing that we all wish for in our life and the world today?

This passage says that the rightness of the LORD will be to the children's children! The Hebrew word is "ben" and literally means "a son, grandson,subject,nation,quality or condition". The children and grandchildren will be blessed all because of the fact that we "fearfully revered our LORD.

In closing we need to look at the signs of fearing the Lord. Once we know the signs, we can tell if we are actually living in such a way that that will bring the rightness and prosperity of our LORD on our children and their children. Isn't that what we work for all of our lives? To bless our families with a life of peace and to prosper? Let's read the last verse together,

Psalms 103:18 To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.

This verse basically describes the way that a person will live when he is consciously fearing and revering the LORD . These are the signs my friend! Plain and simple, yet we may find them rubbing us the wrong way when we think about keeping a set of commandments.

There was a time in my life when I would have bowed my back and said that I didn't need any more rules in my life. I didn't want anyone else trying to point me in any direction! I had become a rebel that could make it just fine on my own. The church had not impressed me with the smiling faces and plastic steeples. The public sector had not impressed me with their "get rich" ideology. The state had not impressed me with their systems that were designed to keep the needy poor and the politicians wealthy. I had gotten to the point where I only believed in myself and in this I grew to fear no one! Like the popular sticker you see on the cars everywhere, I shouted out in my defiance, "No Fear!".

What I had missed all along was that I was not suppose to put my trust and my reverence in all of those people! I had been looking for someone morally right, someone who would love and show mercy without end! There are even songs that talk about "love without end". There came a day in my life when I began to see how the LORD was the only one who could fill this need in my life. Through a small country church in Canton, Georgia I came to see that the people were different there and that their children had the rightness and prosperity of God in their lives! They loved the LORD too! I wanted this for my life! I began on a journey at this time to find the way to have what this church family had. It was the beginning of a very long process which would lead to many changes in my life. I can tell you this today, my friends, "It is by the love and mercy of my LORD, who I have come to fear and revere, that I desire to keep His covenant and remember His commandments"!

Desire to remember His commandments is the sign of our reverent conscious fear for our LORD! This is what we must desire if we want to see the rightness and prosperity of God in the lives of our children and grandchildren and great grandchildren!