In Psalm 2: 10-11, “Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.”

I know we are supposed to “fear” God, and my mom said that this was another way of saying respect. But in this verse it seems like God literally wants people to be afraid. I don't usually tremble out of respect. But if we are under God's wing and his protection then we have nothing to fear whatsoever, least of all from God himself because he would never cause us harm. So does this mean that non-believers should literally tremble at the might of God, but once we are saved we can stop that? If so, what exactly does fearing God mean?

hi CrunchyG!  Thank you for your question.  I would try to answer it as much as i can.

There's a lot of verses in the Bible that talks about fear the Lord with trembling.  Yes, God wants people to have fear of Him for reasons that the Bible says, don’t fear the person who can destroy your body but the fear the One who has the capacity to place your soul and body to eternal suffering.  We know that God is loving but He is also just.  He would not let any person enter His heavenly Kingdom without understanding His nature of being the One who is righteous, holy and pure.  He want us His children to be like Him in every way and we could only reach that Christlikeness through the help of His power working in us and  applying the fear of the Lord in our life that will yield the fruit of living the right way.

If we don’t deliberately change our ways according to God’s standard we are doomed for destruction. 

I don’t want to be in eternal punishment therefore I will do my best to develop the fear of God even to the point of trembling when tempted to sin.  Trembling is a very good description of seriously fearing someone.  You don't have to physically tremble but that is what you feel when you have fear of the Lord.  Terrible feeling if we are not following God according to His ways.

The context of understanding God’s wing of protection is about the daily struggles we Christians faced.  “Even if you walk in the valley of the shadow of death fear no evil for the Lord is with thee.  His rod and staff will comfort thee”, you can find this verse in Psalm 23.  God in His love for His people wants the best for us and He would never fail us or cause us to suffer. 

Once you receive Jesus as your Lord and Saviour that is only the time that you would understand about the fear of God as you dig deep in His word. 

The fear of God is to regard Him with reverence and awe, to honor God for His greatness, holiness and purity.  Psalm 33:8-9 says, “Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the people of the world revere Him.  For He spoke and it came to be; he commanded and it stood firm.”   I Peter 1:15-16 “As God who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy”

The fear of God causes believers to put their complete trust on God and rely on the power that He has.  Psalm 115:11 says, “You who fear Him, trust in the Lord—He is your help and shield”

The fear of God is to recognize that God hates sin and He will punish those who incline themselves to it (sin).  I Samuel 12:15 “But if you do not obey the Lord, and if you rebel against His commands, His hand will be against you….” 

Hebrews 10:31 “ It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God”

We Christians don’t stop fearing God.  It is His command and it is the whole duty of man—to fear God and keep His commandments—Ecclesiastes 12:13.  We are saved for eternal punishment but while on earth we need to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.  Do our best to stay on the right track with God.

In your question about unbelievers, they will not understand the fear of God unless they surrender their lives to Jesus.  Probably some of them have it but still I cannot consider it as the whole idea of fearing God. I'm inclined in the position of saying that they don't have the fear of God totally.

There are so many rewards and advantage of us having fear of God.  Continue to read your Bible and you will see for yourself the abundance of God’s reward to His people that fear Him.

This has been a long answer to your question but I pray that I have satisfied your inquiry.  Thank you!

Post edited 3:16 pm – May 21, 2009 by Michael Sean
Post edited 3:21 pm – May 21, 2009 by Michael Sean
Post edited 3:26 pm – May 21, 2009 by Michael Sean
Post edited 3:31 pm – May 21, 2009 by Michael Sean
Post edited 3:34 pm – May 21, 2009 by Michael Sean

CrunchyG said:

In Psalm 2: 10-11, “Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.”

I know we are supposed to “fear” God, and my mom said that this was another way of saying respect. But in this verse it seems like God literally wants people to be afraid. I don't usually tremble out of respect. But if we are under God's wing and his protection then we have nothing to fear whatsoever, least of all from God himself because he would never cause us harm. So does this mean that non-believers should literally tremble at the might of God, but once we are saved we can stop that? If so, what exactly does fearing God mean?

Hey CrunchyG!

After reading the verse, your point of view/questions about the verse, and Psalm 2, there are a few things i want us to look at, examine, and explain together.

Psalm chapter 2 begins with the author showing us how kings and rulers come together to “try” to go against the Lord and His Anointed One (verses 1-3). Off the bat we know that this sounds foolish and we see how these kings and rulers go against God as if God is outnumbered … as if His throne can be conquered and taken away … as if God is just like any ordinary being, king or ruler … (again foolish).

On verse 4 we read about God's take on their actions, He laughs and scoffs at them.

Verse 5 takes a turn and that we see God's response. God responded by REBUKING THEM IN HIS ANGER and TERRIFIES THEM IN HIS WRATH SAYING, ” I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill.” (v.6) We know that God's anger is caused by their foolish act, by belittling Him. With this, we also know that God's anger is a righteous anger. We also see that on v. 5 God terrifies them in His wrath by speaking and not automatically destroying them (which we know He can do if He wants to but He didn't). Now what did God say?

The next verses following (verses 7- 9) tell us what God proclaimed in addition to what He said in verse 6 about His King on Zion. God proclaimed what will happen when His King rules. We also get a hint that this King is God's Son! Jesus is the King of kings and God's Anointed One! God will make the nations His inheritance, the ends of the earth His possession … He will rule with an iron scepter and dash them to pieces like pottery. Now if I am one of the mortal kings or rulers, whose authority was appropriated by God(an immortal and who I am trying to fight and take down), this ought to make me think twice about plotting agaist God. My point is God responded  by rebuking them in his anger (righteous anger) and terrifies them by saying or speaking what God through Jesus, the King of kings, has planned and has in store in the future, and not by automatically eliminating or destroying them. This shows that God is patient with them giving them a heads up, a warning, or a statement of sure victory in Jesus against their foolish plans that can never prevail with all their human abilities combined … this is backed up by verse 10 (God told them to be wise and and be warned). 

Now that we have explained verses 1-10, let's now look at verse 11 (your verse and questions).

Let us look at verse 11 in context and in regards to the first 10 verses we just talked about. God tells these kings and rulers to, “serve the Lord with fear.” God didn't just say fear the Lord. He said SERVE THE LORD WITH FEAR! Not to fear God and be scared of Him for no apparent reason. God told them to serve the Lord with fear (knowing God already told them the outcome of their evil and useless plans / what will happen to those who will go against God's authority).

Let us define fear. There are two kinds of fear that comes to mind. Positive fear is reverence and respect that we believers show to God. Negative fear is being scared, worried, feelin threatened because of something unknown, something evil, or something dangerous. In verse 10 and 11, God tells them to be wise, be warned, and to serve with the right kind of fear! God wants them to rethink things over and make peace with Him (God initiated this by sending Jesus because of His love and patience to all of us and our wicked ways). Everyone has or experiences some kind of fear, can be the postive or the negative kind of fear. But God wants us to have the right kind of fear, the fear of Him. This fear isn't so much about being horrified / terrified because of a threat or danger on the way (although i should be if I don't have Christ).  It is about knowing who God is, what He did, what He can do, and will do and responding right and wisely to God's word or statement of love, grace, mercy and victory through the King of kings, Jesus Christ.

As for me, I fear and revere (respect) God because I know who Jesus is … that He holds the keys to Hades, that He is the Son of God who will win in the end, He purchased and saved me from God's impending wrath and the eternal death and seperation, and the list goes on and on. This ought to cause everyone to fear God, regardless of whether one is a ruler or a king.

Now in verse 11 God says, “rejoice with trembling.” In the dictionary, tremble also means to “shake involuntarily with quick, short movements as from fear or excitement.” This just encourages me to rejoice in God with trembling due to excitement and we should because we have all the reasons in Jesus to do so. Some of us probably hasn't come to the point of trembling when rejoicing in God, but i bet that's a great experience! One will either rejoice with the right kind of trembling or will just tremble for the fear that it is too late to repent or get right with God.

The last verse (12) says these rulers and kings will be destroyed in their way (foolish, wicked, and childish). This is absolute, their plans are worthless and useless. God encourages them to not let His Son's wrath flare up. The last part of the verse says, “Blessed are ALL who take refuge in him[God].” The point is God gives these rulers and kings, and all of us, the chance(s) to take refuge in Him and to side with Him. He already made a way so that we can be on His side, to be saved from His judgement (impending wrath as His justice for His people and against His enemies) and eternal death and seperation (where God's love and presence can no longer be found).

So let us be wise and side with God. Let us have the right kind of fear and trembling, serving God with reverence and rejoicing with excitement because of what God has done through Jesus in our lives.

I pray that this helps! I encourage you to keep seeking, asking, studying, and believing God for His word. His word is sure. His word will either be good news or bad news depending on how one responds. Ask the Holy Spirit to lead and guide you through the verses and the passages, He will reveal and illuminate God's word to you. He just did to me as I read this chapter.

- Michael Sean, An Audience of One

Post edited 3:27 pm – May 21, 2009 by Michael Sean
Post edited 3:27 pm – May 21, 2009 by Michael Sean
Post edited 3:32 pm – May 21, 2009 by Michael Sean

haha i know! thanks blood brother and kingdom brother for the welcome!

i edited the post to make it clearer.

jeez dude nice post / essay! I learned a lot from that one too