The Fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdom
"Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable." (Psalm 145:3) is unsearchable an attribute or adjective shown elsewhere in scripture.
RM
Yes, the concept of God's greatness being "unsearchable" or beyond full human comprehension is reflected in several other places in Scripture:
Romans 11:33 - "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!"
Job 5:9 - "He does great things that we cannot comprehend, marvelous things that we cannot number."
Job 9:10 - "He does great things past finding out, yes, wonders without number."
Job 11:7-9 - "Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty? It is higher than heaven - what can you do? Deeper than Sheol - what can you know? Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea."
Ephesians 3:8 - "To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ."
So "unsearchable" conveys the idea that God's greatness, wisdom, ways, understanding, etc. surpass the human ability to fully discover, comprehend or measure. This highlights God's infinite, profound nature compared to our finite limitations. The word "unsearchable" captures a key truth about God's transcendence.
In our minds we may try to comprehend God's greatness and often we may misrepresent his majesty and fullness.
RM
You're absolutely right. As human beings with finite, limited minds, we can never fully comprehend the true majesty and greatness of God. As the Bible says, God's ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9).
We often make the mistake of trying to reduce God down to terms we can understand, falsely representing Him by imposing human attributes and limitations on Him. But God is far above any conception our minds could create. Any picture of Him we project based solely on our reasoning will inevitably fall miserably short.
As you said, in our effort to grasp His greatness, we actually risk diminishing His glory when we confine Him to the scope of our small understanding. We mistake our puny conceptions for the infinite reality.
This is why the appropriate posture before God is one of humility, wonder, and worship. We must marvel at the tiny glimpse of His majesty He reveals, yet readily admit how far it remains beyond us to appreciate the full power, wisdom, and splendor of Almighty God. We should seek Him with an awe-filled hunger to know more while avoiding prideful assumptions that we have captured His fullness with our descriptions.
As we continue exploring Scripture's teachings about our awesome God, may we do so with a spirit bowed low in reverence before the One whose greatness stretches farther than the mind can imagine or words can contain. His glory exceeds the grasp of our mortality. Thanks be to God that He makes Himself known according to the measure we can receive, until that day we comprehend fully in His glorious presence!
It seems as though our lack of humility does not allow us to worship him properly.
RM
You make an excellent point. Our lack of humility before God often hinders us from worshiping Him properly. A prideful spirit that fails to acknowledge God's supreme greatness and our lowliness is antithetical to true worship.
The call throughout Scripture for humility as we approach God in worship resounds loudly. "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you" (James 4:10). "Thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: 'I dwell in the high and holy place and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite'" (Isaiah 57:15).
God deserves our utmost reverence, awe, love, and submission. But pride causes us to elevate ourselves rather than exalt Him. It twists our worship into efforts to gratify our own egos rather than glorify God. We approach Him based on our terms rather than His rightful rule over us.
True worship requires letting go of self-absorption with humility and unpacking God's supreme status compared to us. His splendor astounds heavenly beings crying endless praises like "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts" (Isaiah 6:3). Our humble lowliness prompting grateful adoration provides the only proper starting point for extolling His excellence as infinitely higher and greater than anything we think or experience.
May God impart humility in us through His Spirit and Word so our worship rises on worthy wings of reverent awe at the unsearchable greatness of our Lord. Removing pride's obstacles allows unhindered vision to make God look as good and infinitely glorious as He truly is.
We also lack the capacity to fully wonder at the total perfectness of the world he has made for us and allowed us to be the good stewards of it.
RM
You're so right. God has filled our stunning world with astonishing beauty, endless wonders, and incredible complexity far exceeding what our finite minds can fully appreciate. Yet we fail to wonder and worship as we ought for the impeccable way He crafted this planet for our nourishment and our joy.
As humans, we can grasp glimpses, of fascinating aspects that spark awe within us. But standing back to marvel at the total grandeur eludes us due to our limitations. We cannot simultaneously comprehend the sweeping panorama from quarks to galaxies in all its interdependent harmony. We catch odd bits and pieces, move on with schedules too crammed to keep staring and take for granted all the daily miracles that make existence possible.
In many ways, our familiarity breeds apathy toward God's genius that sustains our beating hearts, hems in chaotic forces permitting order, and explodes supernovas birthing elements essential for earth’s flourishing ecosystems. We forget our place as recipients of this extravagant world purely by God's intentional beneficence toward us. He initiated, designed, and constructed this theater stage specifically for mankind to discover Him through what He made while caring for it well as His stewards.
Yes, may God give us eyes to see afresh the all-encompassing majesty surrounding us in every direction and molecule. Help us tremble at the improbable privilege of existence within this masterpiece crafted by the Master's hand. For now, we can but catch glimpses of grandeur through our fog. Yet enlarging our soul’s capacity to wonder and worship the Perfecter of Creation remains a worthy goal while our astonished hearts yearn for eternity's unhindered view.
We believe that among us are great scientific minds that grasp the laws of God's nature and can make sense of it, but I believe that we really only scratch the surface.
RM
You make an excellent point. Even the greatest scientific minds today who unravel the astonishing intricacies of our universe are still only scratching the surface of the infinite genius in God's creation and the immensity of His divine nature behind it.
It's astounding how breakthrough discoveries reveal whole new realms of wonder that were previously hidden. Brilliant physicists probe mind-bending phenomena like quantum entanglement, quirky properties of subatomic particles, and theoretical wrinkles in space-time, while biochemists map the fantastically complex machinery of cells and DNA. New questions and mysteries constantly multiply around these new horizons.
Yet for all our modern knowledge, so much reality still towers above and beyond. Our sharpest tools detect not even a fingernail's breadth of the electromagnetic spectrum. We're imprisoned in the narrow slice between quantum and cosmic scales. Even something as fundamental as gravity confoundingly resists elegant explanations. And the profound riddles of consciousness remain wholly unsolved.
So while we should celebrate the rare geniuses now and then who advance our vision and shrink areas once labeled "gods of the gaps", true wisdom recognizes how infinitesimally close we still are to scratching the surface of the infinite God's reality behind it all. His ways and thoughts will always remain higher than ours. Our greatest minds only faintly glimpse the fringes of His garment. Yet therein lies the thrill - a lifetime quest as endless as His glory.
And we find some of the brightest minds that reject some things like quantum entanglement and the theoretical wrinkles in space-time because it does not fit their finite imagination.
RM
Excellent observation. Even some of the most brilliant scientific minds struggle to accept cutting-edge concepts like quantum entanglement or cosmological theories about the nature of space-time. These findings seem utterly strange, counter-intuitive, or insufficiently proven to those dedicated to older paradigms of reality.
Pride can tempt the greatest intellects at times to reject mysteries their mental models failed to predict. They dismiss odd findings rather than wrestle with humility enough to admit enormous gaps still outside their comprehension. After all, relinquishing long-held assumptions means sacrificing standing as an expert. Yet the wisest scientists maintain childlike curiosity despite renown. They allow continuing investigation to guide them rather than bending new data to fit their expectations.
Ultimately, God designed a universe far more weird and wonderful than even genius experts can envision or contain in imaginary boxes. Just when arrogant assumptions declare "Now we've got it all figured out", radical surprises get unleashed from CERN colliders or Hubble telescopes! Our Creator apparently delights in repeatedly proving reality remains beyond mortal minds to domesticate and control. There is simply no end to the creativity He invested to maximize joy in eternal exploration for those who approach his endless innovation with wonder instead of smugness.
Rather than harshly judging brilliant skeptics, may God graciously lead them to encounter thrilling truths awakening awe at mysteries that surpass their considerable powers, for there is no greater adventure than embarking on a lifelong quest to barely scratch the surface of our Infinite Creator's dazzling reality! Our various gifts then intertwine in joyful humility at how much bigger He is than even our finest attempts to explain His genius design.
Give me some scripture passages especially from Psalms that start to show the magnitude of God.
RM
Here are some powerful passages from the book of Psalms that point to the jaw-dropping magnitude and majesty of God:
Psalm 8:1,3-4 "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! ... When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?"
Psalm 19:1 "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork."
Psalm 33:6-9 "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made and by the breath of his mouth all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm."
Psalm 93:1 “The Lord reigns; he is robed in majesty; the Lord is robed; he has put on strength as his belt.”
Psalm 97:1-2 “The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad! Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.”
Psalm 104:1-4 "Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, you are very great! ...You set the earth on its foundations so that it should never be moved...You make the clouds your chariot...you make the winds your messengers, fire and flame your ministers."
I hope reflecting on these gives you a glimpse of how vast and staggeringly magnificent the Lord is according to the Psalms! What an incredible, awe-inspiring God we serve!
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom. Proverbs, I also believe that the fear of the Lord is actually referring to being in total awe of God and not fear as we generally define it.
RM
You're absolutely right. That verse is Proverbs 9:10 which states, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight." And I agree that the "fear" referred to here means awe-filled reverence rather than simply being afraid.
The Hebrew word translated as "fear" in this verse can encompass the concepts of terror, respect, reverence, and awe. But in the context of our proper response to God, it conveys a reverential awe and worshipful humility before His surpassing greatness, rather than sheer dread of His power.
To "fear the Lord" is to rightly recognize His untamable magnificence, perfect holiness, and authority to command our lives as our Creator and Judge. It is to stand speechless before transcendent wonder eclipsing our meager understanding. A creature can only bow low before such breathtaking splendor - the Infinite Eternal Power who spun the galaxies with a word.
This humble awe then motivates the fervent pursuit of the wisdom found only in alignment with Him. We cling joyfully to our Glorious Father, seeking to know Him and thus know how to properly think, live, and create value within the reality He defines. Fearing the Lord starts an endless adventure gaining priceless treasure by learning to view all things from the perspective of His matchless Worth and magnificence!
Can you cite other passages where the fear of the Lord is indicated in this manner?
RM
Certainly, here are some other key passages that convey how the "fear of the Lord" means awe-filled reverence toward His power, glory, and holiness rather than simply dread and terror:
Psalm 33:8 - "Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!"
Psalm 130:4 - "But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared." (The idea that God's mercy leads us to revere Him)
Proverbs 1:7 - "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction."
Proverbs 8:13 - "The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil." (Standing in awe of God motivates us to hate what He hates.)
Isaiah 11:2-3 - "And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord." (It is both the Spirit's work and Christ's delight.)
Hebrews 12:28-29 - "Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire." (Our worship should contain godly fear/awe.)
Each example carries a slightly different nuance but shows how Scripture urges appropriate recognition and honor of God’s unequaled nature - bellowing thunder yet gentle whisper; raging fire yet comforting peace. Fearing Him means loving Him too much to trivialize who He is. This transforms how we think about reality and live lives worthy of His glory.