Fear is Wise

Today's passage is only 10 words long, but the truth that it conveys turns our world upside down:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom
Psalm 111:10a

Let's think about what this says. If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, then that implies that apart from Him, wisdom doesn't exist. To illustrate the point, we can turn this verse to the negative and say, "You won't have wisdom unless you fear the Lord". That's a strong and slightly unsettling statement! Why is it unsettling?

It's unsettling because our definition of wisdom isn't what the psalmist is talking about. When we think of wisdom, we think of wordly things. In finances, we think of saving for retirement or buying life insurance. For safety, we think of living in the right neighborhood or wearing our seatbelt. In decision-making, we think of exploring different contingencies and seeking the advice of others. None of these things are necessarily bad, but they're not wisdom in the truest sense of the word. For the rest of this e-mail, we'll call this definition wordly wisdom.

The psalmist isn't talking about wordly wisdom. We certainly see God-denying people practice wordly wisdom, so this wisdom can't be what begins with the fear of God. So what is the psalmist talking about?

They're talking about real wisdom that goes beyond this world. Worldly wisdom thinks about a few years down the road. Real wisdom thinks about eternity. Worldly wisdom thinks about material things. Real wisdom thinks about spiritual things. Worldly wisdom hopes in this life. Real wisdom hopes in the next.

See, if God has given us the gift of worshiping Him forever through faith in the death and resurrection of Christ, it would only be wise to seek Him out! Fearing the invisible Lord (not only in the sense of being afraid, but honoring, cherishing, loving and revering Him) may seem foolish to the world, but because He is real, it's the beginning of wisdom. We need to live our lives not for the sake of retirement or safety or good decision making, but for the sake of eternity. Wordly wisdom is far too short-sighted. Be wise and fear the Lord!