Reading… and Thinking

Among the blessings are “wealth and riches in his house.” (verse 3) Do all those who fear the Lord have houses filled with wealth? You only have to look in any of the historical books of the Bible to see they do not. Often God’s people are persecuted. A few of them are wealthy, but many are not.

So we understand that the psalmist is speaking of a different kind of wealth. The rest of the verse reads, “his righteousness endures forever”. The writer is talking about eternal rewards, eternal riches.

How should we read the verses quoted at the top? In God’s eternal kingdom, of course we won’t fear bad news—nothing will be able to touch us then. But you know, somehow that’s not much comfort, and it seems like it robs these verses of any real meaning now.

Let’s start over. Certainly the riches and eternal righteousness that will be ours in the kingdom are the ultimate confirmation of the psalmist’s words. But is there no sense in which we have riches now? Certainly we do! I’m not talking about gold, but about the riches of grace, the rich fellowship with other believers, the treasure of the Word. These are wealth beyond compare, now, and they foreshadow what we’ll enjoy in the kingdom. Similarly, do we not have righteousness now? By grace, through faith, we do! And it will never be taken away from us, forever, if we remain faithful.

There are very powerful ways that all of the blessings are ours now, as well as having the prospect of being perfected in the kingdom. The psalmist says it’s true, now, that we have no fear of bad news.

The phone rings in the middle of the night—who would call at that time if it wasn’t an emergency? A letter comes in the mail from the IRS. A policeman walks up to your door. The boss calls you into his office. We tend to react to these situations with fear. Fear paralyses, incapacitates. The vast majority of the time, the thing we’re worried about doesn’t happen. But the fear has damaged us.

The psalmist says the man or woman who fears the Lord need have no fear of bad news. Easier said than done? I don’t think so. John says that love casts out fear. (1 John 4:8) If we love and trust God (what “fearing” Him means), then there’s simply no room for the terror that affects the world. The thousands of little anxieties of daily life disappear—because we see things in their eternal perspective. Even the “big” fears—those involving harm to people we love—come into their proper perspective, if we trust that God knows, He cares, and He absolutely will do right. Take note that the psalm acknowledges that this man has adversaries. The writer doesn’t pretend we have no troubles. What he tells us is that if we trust God, then we can meet those troubles without being terrified by them.

Fear destroys people’s lives, robs people of happiness, steals away the very blessings God has given to us. We human beings stubbornly cling to our fears, though—another example of the perversity of our hearts. Thanks be to God that He is greater than our hearts, and can overcome all of our fears—if we will simply open our hands in trust, and accept the blessings He gives.