No Fear
No Fear
He will not fear bad news; his heart is confident, trusting in the Lord. His heart is assured; he will not fear. In the end he will look in triumph on his foes. (Ps. 112:7–8)
Happy Man
Psalm 112 starts off with a bang (and an important biblical truth): “Hallelujah! Happy is the man who fears the Lord, taking great delight in His commands” (Ps. 112:1). Almost the whole psalm is a celebration of that fact. Usually we don’t associate fear with happiness. And certainly a lot of people are afraid of God and are not the least bit happy. The difference, of course, is whether you know God as your loving heavenly Father who inspires reverential awe (what the Bible means by the “fear” of God), or whether you see God as your judge who’s out to get you. The former delights in God’s commands and benefits from obeying them, while the latter despises them and suffers the consequences (see Ps. 112:10).
Who? Me?
According to verse 7, this happy fellow is not afraid of bad news. Rather, he’s “confident, trusting in the Lord.” He knows that whatever difficulties come his way, he will triumph in the end. So he doesn’t bother fearing anything or anyone but God. He simply does what is good and reaps the blessings of obedience. “Light shines in the darkness for the upright. . . . Good will come to a man who lends generously and conducts his business fairly” (Ps. 112:4–5). How about you? Has your fear of God dissolved all your other fears?
Bottom Line
Fight fear with fear—the fear of God. Then you’ll be happy and free and a blessing to others.