Stand in Awe

by Scott Price

"Stand in awe and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still." Psalm 4:4

     To be in awe of the Lord is to see who He is in His majesty, holiness, righteousness, justice, wrath, hatred, grace, mercy, love, faithfulness, unchangeableness, His sovereign power, omnipresence, knowledge, wisdom, and whatever else He reveals to us. It is to stand in utter reverence and honor of this exclusive God and only Savior. The one way this is seen is through a revelation of Christ in the gospel of grace, by the Holy Spirit of God.

     This world is totally blind to the awesomeness of God Almighty. This is very easy to detect simply because of their lack of description of Him. Their view of God is shallow. They cannot advance much beyond what they have projected in their own imagination. When we boil it down using the Scripture as our source, we must conclude the world and it's religious system has missed Christ altogether. The religious Jews in the days of Christ boasted of their family bloodline, their connection to their father Abraham and seemed to consider that more awesome than Christ, the great "I AM", who was standing in front of them in the flesh. They rejected Christ, the God-Man. He was the same God, Jehovah of the Old Testament, awesome in every way. They were blind because of their self righteousness, their system, their formal ritual and liturgy thinking they knew better than this simple man named Jesus hailing from Nazareth. As a result they rejected the only Person who was their only hope in what they needed; JUSTIFICATION before an awesome God. Today we have the very same thing. Even the word "awesome" itself has lost it's meaning. It has become weak and unimpressive, with no effect left to it. Cars, clothes, sports, and even sinful humans have been labeled as awesome. This title should be reserved to God Almighty alone.

     Notice what the text says; "...commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still." There is not much quiet, still, thinking or meditating going on today concerning who God is, who man is, and who Christ is. The rat-race of our day keeps the weak, sinful mind occupied to the point where it never still. But thank God He stops His people in their tracks to be absolutely still long enough to reveal His awesomeness in the Lord Jesus Christ as both a just God and Saviour. God reveals the most awesome work by the most awesome Person that ever lived, as He finished the perfect work of redemption of the cursed tree at Calvary. Be still some more, again and again. Be still everyday and rest every moment in Christ Jesus the Righteous One alone.