1 Praise ye the Lord.
Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord,
(The fear of the Lord is basically an understanding that if I do what God says to do it will go well with me ... but if I rebel against what God says to do I will not live as well as I might have lived.)
that delighteth greatly in his commandments.
2 His seed shall be mighty upon earth:
the generation of the upright shall be blessed.
3 Wealth and riches shall be in his house:
and his righteousness endureth for ever.
4 Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness:
HE is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.
5 A good man sheweth favour, and lendeth:
he will guide his affairs with discretion.
6 Surely he shall not be moved for ever:
the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.
7 He shall not be afraid of evil tidings:
his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.
8 His heart is established, he shall not be afraid,
until he see his desire upon his enemies.
9 He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor;
his righteousness endureth for ever;
his horn shall be exalted with honour.
10 The wicked shall see it, and be grieved;
he shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away:
the desire of the wicked shall perish.
Comments by Joan Boney
I had problem the same day with two different people ... one was a woman in our church group and the other was a woman who is not born again but very religious in her church.
The woman in our church group who does have the Holy Spirit has a "taste" of the fear of the Lord although she often ignores the instruction given her by the Holy Spirit and goes in another way which seems better to her.
The woman who is not born again has nothing, certainly no fear of the Lord. All she has is faith in her church group and in her own intellect.
It is possible to work with the woman who has the Holy Spirit. The other woman just has to be kept "at bay" so to speak.
We have a "fear of the Lord" because God has revealed "the Lord" to us. When this happens we know inwardly we must follow HIS way, HIS instructions. We know any other way would be very dangerous to us no matter how it seems. Therefore we Fear God! And we are blessed because we fear God for a fear of God also shows a belief in God.
Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord,
that delighteth greatly in his commandments.
And we do delight greatly in that which God tells us.
The woman who is not born again shuddered when I spoke of what God had done. She didn't want to hear about God. She wanted to delight in other humans and in that which humans have done. She wanted to hear that. She is very religious, attending church faithfully, but she doesn't want to hear about works done by God.
But the person who is greatly blessed is the one who delights in God and in hearing about God. And then puts away her own preference and goes in the way shown her by the Holy Spirit.
Wealth and riches shall be in his house:
Truly our "house" (our inner being where the Holy Spirit dwells) is full of wealth and riches. We have in us all the wisdom and counsel of God HIMSELF through HIS Spirit that dwells in us.
4 Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness:
We don't know what to do and all of a sudden there is "light" (wisdom) and we know the source of the problem and we know what to do in the midst of the problem for God sends us the information so we see clearly.