Feared in the assembly

God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, And to be held in reverence by all those around Him. - Psalm 89v7

This is one of those things that I just think we need to be reminded of on a regular basis. There is nothing fancy or deep here – just something that is good to think about every so often.

'God is greatly for be feared in the assembly and held in reverence by those around Him.'

This fear of God can of course be misinterpreted. We can take the fear of God and make God seem distant, far, and unapproachable. We can take Him to be like the 'old man on the mountain' image that we all have seen. That kind of image means that we walk in fear that we might take the wrong step or do the wrong thing and that He might smack us down for doing it.

We can also go the other extreme and forget all about His holiness. We can totally neglect the fear of the Lord as we take him for granted and treat him like our good buddy. When we start treating Him like just one of the mates we still miss the point.

I think that may be one of the reasons that we are often reminded that God is our heavenly Father. A proper parent is never aloof, far, distant, and stand-offish. A true parent is always there and loving and caring and sacrificing for the needs and concerns of their children.

And yet, in a proper relationship a parent is never going to be just one of the mates. It is, or should be, a different kind of closeness. A parent is one that we should hold in respect and even honour. A parent is one that we should always be able to depend on.

I think this is a good picture of the intimate fear of God that we must learn to achieve. God is our heavenly Father. He is holy and just and high and deserves our total reverence. We can never take Him lightly or take Him for granted.

But He is also our Heavenly Father. We can crawl up onto His lap and tell Him of all our woes and hurts and pains and we can be assured that He will hold us close and comfort us.

Yes, He is the Holy One who is the be feared and revenced, but as our Father we can be assured that because He is our Father He will make everything right.

Praise God that He is both holy and our Father. He is indeed our Holy Father.