Rejoice with trembling

Serve the Lord with fear,
and rejoice with trembling. (Psalm 2:11)

Here’s a verse you won’t see on a coffee cup anytime soon. To the modern christian, fear of the Lord is something that belongs to the Old Testament, along with the law. Now, God is love and we don’t think, or talk, about fearing him.

Serve the Lord? Yes! But with fear? Surely God doesn’t want that! He wants us to love him, not fear him. Yet verses like this abound, and so we redefine fear to mean “respect” only. But you don’t tremble in respect, you tremble in fear. The psalm tells of the Lord’s supremacy over the nations and rulers of the earth. He is sovereign, and no one can stand before him in his power and majesty. He is to be feared.

Yet our fear is not alone. Here, fear is compounded with joy. We are to “rejoice with trembling”. It may seem like a strange mixture, but it is a necessary one. God is the holy and righteous judge, who is far above all men. He is the creator. We are but puny creatures.

If we were to fear him only, our fear would be debilitating. It would be torment.

And yet, this righteous and holy judge, offers us refuge in his righteousness. This is a cause for rejoicing!

If we were to rejoice in blessing, with no holy fear mingled in, it would be presumptuous.

To rejoice with trembling is both right and healthy. A clear understanding of God’s holiness and fury at sin, will increase our joy and rejoicing in his mercy all the more.

And when we have fully grasped both the fear of the Lord, and the joy of the Lord, then we can say with the psalmist,

Blessed are all who take refuge in him. (Psalm 2:12)