The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
—Psalm 27:1
We all know what it’s like to be gripped by fear. And fear works with its close buddy, worry. The two often work together. You can get caught up playing that what-if game, tying your stomach in knots.
In fact, modern medical research has proved that worry can actually break down your resistance to disease. More than that, it actually diseases the nervous system, specifically that of the digestive organs and the heart. Excessive worry can even shorten your life.
We all know what it is like to be afraid of something, but far too often we are afraid of the wrong things in life. At the same time, we are not afraid of the right things in life—or maybe I should say the right One in life. We don’t fear God. Yet the Bible tells us the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
To fear God doesn’t mean cowering in terror before Him. Rather, the fear of God has been properly defined as a wholesome dread of displeasing Him. If I have sinned, it is not the fear of what God will do to me. Rather, it’s the fear of what I have done to Him. That is what it is to fear the Lord.
The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else. On the other hand, if you don’t fear God, you fear everything else.
David said, “The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1 NKJV). Only the person who can say, “The Lord is the strength of my life” can then say, “of whom shall I be afraid?”
Are you gripped by fear and worry right now? Then let the Lord be the strength of your life.
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
—Psalm 27:1