Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 316 · November 12
Fear Before Him
“O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth.”
Psalm 96 asks God for nothing. It has thirteen verses, and there is not one request in any of them. Instead, the singer spends the whole psalm calling other people in: "Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people." "Give unto the LORD, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the LORD glory and strength." "Say among the heathen that the LORD reigneth."
Today's verse puts together two words that most of us keep in separate rooms: "O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth." Beauty comes first and then fear, with nothing to soften the step between them. The same pair of lines appears in the psalm David handed to Asaph on the day the ark was brought up to Jerusalem: "worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness. Fear before him, all the earth." So these words were first given by a man who had watched Uzzah die for touching the ark, and who later, when it finally came home, "danced before the LORD with all his might." David knew that God's holiness is both beautiful and fearsome, and he held on to both.
The end of the psalm explains why the whole earth is called in. Everybody is being summoned to a day in court: "For he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth." What may surprise you is who is glad about it. The psalm says, "let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein." The fields are not worried about the verdict, because the Judge is good. He is coming, and when He comes, He will set everything right. That is why you can fear Him and still find Him beautiful.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 316 is Taste and See (Psalm 34:8).