The Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods (Psalm 95:3). He is great in glory, in power and holiness. He is “the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power (1 Timothy 6:15-16).” He commands all the earth to tremble before him (Psalm 96:9).
The immediate response of the natural man, the unbeliever, to the revelations of the majesty of God is terror. When God appeared to Adam and Eve in the garden after they had eaten the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and before he had revealed to them his way of salvation, they hid themselves from his presence (Genesis 3:8). Belshazzar saw the finger of God writing on the wall of his banquet hall, and his “countenance changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his hips were loosened and his knees knocked against each other (Daniel 5:6).” John’s vision of the judgment of the Lord teaches us that the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
Indeed, “Who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like launderers’ soap (Malachi 3:2).”
But believers are also to fear God. Three things belong to that fear. There is, first, a sense of wonder. “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him? (Psalm 8:3,4)” It is a prostrating ourselves in reverence and awe before him. “Give unto the LORD, O you mighty ones, Give unto the LORD glory and strength. Give unto the LORD the glory due to his name. Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness (Psalm 29:1,2).” Finally, it is a dread of his majesty and a terror of his anger.
The last needs further explanation. Abraham was very careful when he questioned God about his purpose in Sodom (cf. Genesis 18:22-33). Six times he asked the same question, and four times he recognized his own boldness in questioning the Lord. “Indeed now, I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord (v.27).” There’s a shortened form of this in verse 31. In verse 30: “Let not the Lord be angry,” and the same again in verse 32. Moses hid his face when he understood what was happening at the burning bush (Exodus 3:6). The people of Israel trembled and stood far away when the Lord revealed himself on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 20:18). Joshua fell on his face when the commander of the Lord’s army appeared to him (Joshua 5:14). Manoah said, “We shall surely die, because we have seen God (Judges 13:22).” The psalmist who loved the law of the Lord more than gold and silver said, “My flesh trembles for fear of you, and I am afraid of your judgments (Psalm 119:120).” The Lord promises in Isaiah 66:2, “On this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word.” The shepherds who heard the announcement of Christ’s birth and saw the glory of the Lord were greatly afraid (Luke 2:9).
Three more notable examples. When Isaiah saw the vision of the glory of the Lord filling the temple, he said: Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts (Isaiah 6:5).
Daniel saw a vision of Christ (Daniel 10:5-6). A great terror filled the men who were with him, and they fled to hide themselves at the mere sound of his voice (v.7). Of himself Daniel says (v.8), “no strength remained in me; for my vigor was turned to frailty in me, and I retained no strength.” Even after being strengthened he “stood trembling (v.11).” When Peter witnessed one of the Lord’s miracles (Luke 5:5f), he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
This fear is the knowledge that, if it were not for his hiding from us in every revelation of himself to us some measure of his unbearable light, we would be utterly undone by the splendor of the glory of his majesty. But this dread is different from the terror of the wicked because, in spite of our trembling, we still feel deeply that to be there in the presence of the great God is the best possible place to be, and to worship his majesty the best possible thing to do. We are dust and sin, but he who is great is also merciful.
Do you not fear Me?’ says the LORD. ‘Will you not tremble at My presence, Who have placed the sand as the bound of the sea, By a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass beyond it? And though its waves toss to and fro, Yet they cannot prevail; Though they roar, yet they cannot pass over it. Jeremiah 5:22