What Are You Haunted By?

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What Are You Haunted By? What man is he that fears the Lord?  PSALM 25:12

This comes from the believer’s apprehension of the living God. According to Luther, the natural man cannot fear God perfectly; according to Rudolf Otto, he is ‘quite unable even to shudder or feel horror in the real sense of the word’. 

Holy fear, on the other hand, is God-given, enabling men to reverence God’s authority, obey his commandments and hate and shun all form of evil (Je. 32:40; cf. Gn. 22:12; Heb. 5:7). It is, moreover, the beginning (or principle) of wisdom (Ps. 111:10); the secret of uprightness (Pr. 8:13); a feature of the people in whom God delights (Ps. 147:11); and the whole duty of man (Ec. 12:13). It is also one of the divine qualifications of the Messiah (Is. 11:2–3).

In the OT, largely because of the law’s legal sanctions, true religion is often regarded as synonymous with the fear of God (cf. Je. 2:19; Ps. 34:11, Moffatt), and even in NT times the term ‘walking in the fear of the Lord’ was used in connection with the early Christians. Gentile adherents of the synagogue were called ‘God-fearers’ (Acts 10:2, etc.; cf. Phil. 2:12).

In the NT generally, however, the emphasis is laid on God as loving and forgiving, the One who through Christ gives to men the spirit of sonship (Rom. 8:15), and enables them boldly to face up to life (2 Tim. 1:6–7) and death (Heb. 2:15) without fear. 

Nevertheless, a reverent fear remains; for the awesomeness of God has not changed, and there is a day of judgment to be met (2 Cor. 5:10f.). Godly fear stimulates the believer to seek holiness (2 Cor. 7:1) and is reflected in his attitude towards his fellow-Christians (Eph. 5:21).

b. Slavish fear

This is strictly a natural consequence of sin (Gn. 3:10; Pr. 28:1), and can come as a punishment (Dt. 28:28). It was felt by Felix when he heard Paul preach (Acts 24:25); it is felt by Christ-rejecters, for whom remains only ‘a fearful expectation of judgment’ (Heb. 10:27, RV, 31; cf. Rev. 21:8). Though not of itself good, this fear is often used by the Holy Spirit for the conversion of men (Acts 16:29ff., etc.).

c. Fear of men

This can be expressed as 
(i) reverential awe and regard of men, as of masters and magistrates (1 Pet. 2:18; Rom. 13:7); 
(ii) a blind dread of them and what they can do (Nu. 14:9; Is. 8:12; Pr. 29:25); and 
(iii) in a peculiar sense a Christian concern for them lest they are ruined by sin (1 Cor. 2:3; 2 Cor. 11:3; Col. 2:1).
 
This kind of fear, and also the slavish fear mentioned in (b) above, can be cast out by true love to God (1 Jn. 4:18).

d. ‘Fear’ as the object of fear

Fear is used in another sense, as in Gn. 31:42, 53, where God is called the ‘Fear’ of ISAAC—i.e. the God whom Isaac feared and worshipped. Their ‘fear’, the thing that terrifies them, comes upon the wicked (Pr. 1:26–27; 10:24; cf. Is. 66:4). 

When the Hebrews entered the promised land God sent his fear before them, destroying and scattering the Canaanites, or so impressing them with his fear as to render them spiritless and unable to withstand the invaders (Ex. 23:27–28). Fear in this sense is found also in Jb. 4:6 (cf. 9:34; 13:21): ‘Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?’


What are you haunted by? You will say — “By nothing,” but we are all haunted by something, generally by ourselves, or, if we are Christians, by our experience. The Psalmist says we are to be haunted by God. The abiding consciousness of life is to be God, not thinking about Him. 

The whole of our life inside and out is to be absolutely haunted by the presence of God. So we are to live and move and have our being in God, to look at everything in relation to God because the abiding consciousness of God pushes itself to the front all the time.

If we are haunted by God, nothing else can get in, no cares, no tribulation, no anxieties. We see now why Our Lord so emphasized the sin of worry. How can we dare be so utterly unbelieving when God is round about us? To be haunted by God is to have an effective barricade against all the onslaughts of the enemy.

“His soul shall dwell at ease.” In tribulation, misunderstanding, slander, in the midst of all these things, if our life is hidden with Christ in God, He will keep us at ease. We rob ourselves of the marvellous revelation of this abiding companionship of God. “God is our Refuge” — nothing can come through that shelter.

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