For couple of months, now, I have been thinking about things that have shaped my life and things that continue to transform me, daily. I have been thinking about my upbringing by my parents – the things that they did and taught has truly impacted my life and right now I can see the fruits of their labour, prayer, dedication, love and discipline.
I remember this very clearly and vividly; every morning we (my brother and I) use to go to our parent’s bedroom and sit by the foot of their bed. My parents would be drinking their morning tea and reading their Bible and praying. There, by the foot of their bed, they taught us many things but primarily both of them taught us strongly about “Fear-Of-The-LORD”.
My father, through proverbs, taught us that Fear-Of-The-LORD is the beginning of all knowledge and all wisdom.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Proverbs 9:10
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
Proverbs 15:33
The fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor.
…then you will understand the fear of the Lord
and find the knowledge of God.
And, my mother, through the Psalms, taught us how to practically live out the Fear-Of-The-LORD.
Psalm 34
Come, O children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
What man is there who desires life
and loves many days, that he may see good?
Keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from speaking deceit.
Turn away from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.
Psalm 22:23
You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of
See the rest of the Psalms by clicking here.
Fear-Of-The-LORD is not something that we are afraid of, scared of or hide from. It is not something that we our self can do. We can not make it happen on our own. It comes from God, by the Grace of God, by His Holy Spirit, through faith that He has allotted to us; Because, because of our righteousness, who is in heaven and is always constant and never changes, we are righteous. Because of his steadfast love and abundant mercy. Because, in all, it brings glory and honour to Him and we can enjoy Him forever.
(While I am writing this I can see my mother humming the song, a loose translation from Nepali, “Be quite and be still and know that I am your God”)
On the foot of my parents bed, in prayer and cooperate family worship, I learned the first steps of the walk in being immersed in the “Fear-Of-The-LORD” - I learned to be in awe of our awesome God, I learned to love and to cry and sacrifice, I learned to pray and to be in worship of our LORD and saviour Jesus Christ…
We primarily sang three songs as our family worship songs; almost every morning we sang these songs. The first one is a translation from a Nepali song and the other two we sang it in English. (The first one, I can see so vividly my dad singing the song along steady beat of his claps - with his eyes closed softly; And the third one, I can see so clearly my mother singing it out loud with tears rolling down her cheeks).
Psalm 40
He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases
His mercies never come to an end
They are new every morning
New every morning
Great is Thy faithfulness, O Lord
Great is Thy faithfulness
Make me a servant
Make me a servant, humble and meek,
Lord, let me lift up those who are weak.
And may the prayer of my heart always be,
Make me a servant, make me a servant,
Make me a servant today.
“Train up a child in the way he should go;
even when he is old he will not depart from it”
Proverbs 22:6
Also see this article (Click Here)
"...But when we let the biblical contexts provide the conditions for understanding the word we find that it means something more like a way of life in which human feelings and behavior are fused with God’s being and revelation. There are upward of 138 occurrences of the term in a wide range of Old Testament books but most prominently in Proverbs, Psalms, Isaiah, Chronicles, and Deuteronomy. God is active in the term; the human is active in the term. “Fear-of-the-Lord” designates a way of living that cannot be dissected into two parts, any more than a baby can be dissected into what comes from sperm and what comes from egg. “Fear-of-the-Lord” is a new word in our vocabularies; it marks the way of life appropriate to our creation and salvation and blessing by God.
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