“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!”— Psalm 111:10
Wisdom starts with God. That sounds crazy to most people, because the wisdom of the world looks nothing like the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:18–21). In fact, the Bible says that many who claim to be wise are fools, precisely because they deny God as the beginning of wisdom (Ps. 14:1). If you want to be wise, you have to start with acknowledging God.
But you aren’t quite there if you just acknowledge God. Wisdom starts with fearing God. This isn’t the same as being afraid of God, since “Even the demons believe—and shudder!” (James 2:19). The fear that leads to wisdom acknowledges God’s holiness and his wrath against sinners (Ps. 5:5), but it’s the next step that’s important. The fear of the Lord that leads to wisdom requires running in a direction you might not think. Fearing the Lord doesn’t mean running away from him, but running to him (Isa. 45:22). Augustine wrote: “There is no place where you may flee from an angered God except to a God who is pacified. There is absolutely no place for you to flee to. Do you want to flee from him? Flee to him.”
A good example of two kinds of fear, one that leaves you condemned and one that leads to salvation, is found in Hebrews 12, where there is a description of two mountains (Heb. 12:18–24). The author presents Mt. Sinai and Mt. Zion as a way of describing the two ways people relate to God. Sinai, representing the law which we all have broken, will crush you in condemnation if you stay trembling beneath it (Heb. 12:18–21). But Zion, representing the place where Jesus’ blood cries out forgiveness for his people, is a place of rejoicing (Heb. 12:22–24). What makes all the difference between these two mountains representing two ways to relate to God?
Jesus makes all the difference. 18th-century Anglican Bishop George Horne puts it this way, “The “fear of God” is the first step to salvation, as it stirs a sinner to depart from evil, and to do good; to implore pardon, and to plead for grace; to hold fast to a Savior for the one, and to a Sanctifier for the other.” God hasn’t changed—he’s still the consuming fire that set Sinai ablaze and strikes fear in the hearts of the wicked (Heb. 12:28–29). What changes—where wisdom begins—is a fear that leads to redemption by faith in God’s Son.
Footnotes
Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 74.
George Horne, A Commentary on the Book of Psalms, 408. Language updated.
