NEMESIS AND PROPER FEAR

NEMESIS AND PROPER FEAR 

"There were they in great fear, where no fear was" Psa. 53:5

We have found this song already in Book I (Psa. 14). Its repetition here is of great interest in the light throws upon the editing of the collection. A comparison of the two will show how in this case ELOHIM has been substituted for JEHOVAH in harmony with the general usage in this second Book. The main theme of the songs is identical. Some slight alterations show how a great song may be adapted to meet the need of some special application of its truth. The words we have emphasized give us an illustration of this. In Psa. 14, the words are: "There were they in great fear." Here the addition of the words, "where no fear was," is explained, at once if we see in this form of the song an application to the departure of Sennacherib's army (Isa. 37:7) and its ultimate annihilation (Isa. 37:26). There indeed were men filled with FEAR, where there was no natural cause for FEAR. The words are very suggestive. The FEAR OF GOD is often thrust upon men suddenly and terrifically when they have no apparent cause for FEAR. Such FEAR is NEMESIS, and is destructive. There is only one way in which man can be delivered from this FEAR. It is that of beginning with the FEAR OF JEHOVAH, and ordering all conduct in the guidance thereof. The FEAR OF GOD is either an impelling motive, leading in the ways of life; or it becomes a compelling terror, issuing in destruction. To FEAR GOD, is to be rightly related to the ultimate fact of the universe. To say in the heart, "There is no God," is to neglect that fact, and sooner or later to discover it in a DESTRUCTIVE FEAR, the wrong kind.