Psalms 2:11

Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

Antagonistic forces

The scientist tells us that the laws of nature are arranged on the principle of antagonistic forces; and it is somewhat thus with the laws of the Christian life.

I. The two states of feeling referred to.

1. Fear. There are two kinds, servile and filial. The latter is indicated here. A noble sensitiveness, an anxious consciousness, a salutary apprehensiveness.

2. “And rejoice with trembling,” that is, with diffidence.

II. These two states of feeling are not incompatible. They are only apparently so. How often in nature contradictory materials and forces blend--hydrogen and oxygen, nitrogen and oxygen. Attraction and repulsion are really complementary, and not contradictory.

III. They are essential to the security and development of the Christian life. They not only may, but ought, to exist together.

1. We ought to fear. The brighter the star the more it trembles.

2. And we ought to rejoice. “Fear without joy is torment, and joy without holy fear would be presumption.” (W. L. Watkinson.)

The reverence due to Divine Providence

Fear, very necessary for us all. Yet not inordinate fear. Religion regulates it and God’s Word cautions us against superstitious terrors (Jeremiah 10:2). But we are to take notice of what He does and learn His will thereby. Many fail to do this by the common events of His providence; hence special and extraordinary ones are, at times, sent to us. Men avoid the lessons of them. They say “They did not do us harm.” But others may come and destroy you. And is not the fact of such forbearance a reason for not despising them? “But they are natural,” say others, And are not life and death natural? Terror alone is of no use, but generally the first motive of reformation. “But our dangers do not proceed from our sins: we are no worse than others”--so speak some. Are we sure that we are not greater sinners than others? Think of our national sins. Some would fly away from God’s judgments. Fly from your iniquities, if you would be safe. Some are afraid to express their convictions lest the world despise them. But take care lest our Lord’s words concerning them who deny Him before men apply to you. You are not called to forsake your proper duties, nor even relaxations, but your absorption in these things. Fear not man. The good will not shun you. Let the rest do so. Examine your state of heart. All is well if that be right with God. If not, humble yourself before Hint. (T. Secker.)

Divine service

I. The universal obligation. “No man liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.” We cannot even die without affecting others, much less can we live without influencing to a greater or less degree the condition and character of those by whom we are surrounded. This is not merely a fact, it is a law. There may be individual unwillingness, as in the case of a miser; or the principle may be socially counter-wrought. All classes unite in working for the common good; knowing it or not, whether they be willing or not, all serve the state-unity which they compose. In the language of the text, the business of all created life is to “serve the Lord.”

II. Particular obedience.

1. To serve God consciously.

2. To serve God reverently. Think how great and how good a Master! Our particular place and work may be humble; yet the whole is sublime. Angels, free from all distraction in the sinless world, are working at the grander parts; our work and theirs are yet to be brought together. Ours, therefore, must be our very best, or better be left undone.

3. To serve God fearfully. As having failed, and yet having been forgiven. As having promised better things, and yet as knowing ourselves weak; and finally, as bearing in mind the testing time. (J. M. Stott, M. A.)

Christian reverence

In a Christian’s course fear and love must go together. In heaven, love will absorb fear. No one now can love God aright without fearing Him. Self-confident men, who do not know their own hearts, or the reasons they have for being dissatisfied with themselves, do not fear God, and they think this bold freedom is to love Him. Deliberate sinners fear, but cannot love Him. But devotion to Him consists in love and fear, as we may understand from our ordinary attachment to each other. No one really loves another who does not feel a certain reverence towards him. It is mutual respect which makes friendship lasting. So again in the feelings of inferiors towards superiors. Fear must go before love. Till he who has authority shows he has it and can use it, his forbearance will not be valued truly: his kindness will look like weakness. We learn to contemn what we do not fear, and we cannot love what we contemn. So in religion also, We cannot understand Christ’s mercies till we understand His power, His glory, His unspeakable holiness, and our demerits; that is, until we first fear Him. Not that fear comes first, and then love; for the most part they will proceed together. Fear is allayed by the love of Him, and our love sobered by our fear of Him. Thus He draws us on with encouraging voice amid the terrors of His threatenings. Are we in danger of speaking or thinking of Christ irreverently? We may not be in danger of deliberate profaneness, but we are in danger of this, namely, of allowing ourselves to appear profane, and of gradually becoming irreverent while we are pretending to be so. Careless language cannot be continued without its affecting the heart at last. Men become the cold, indifferent, profane characters they professed themselves to be. (J. H. Newman, B. D.)

Rejoice with trembling.

The mixture of joy and fear in religion

Joy and fear are two great springs of human action. The mixed condition of this world gives scope for both. Each of them possesses a proper place in religion. Under the present imperfection of human nature each of these principles may be carried to a dangerous extreme. When the whole of religion is placed in joy it is in hazard of rising into unwarrantable rapture. When it rests altogether on fear it degenerates into superstitious servility. Joy tempered with fear is the proper disposition of a good man.

I. Joy is essential to religion. Religion inspires joy. It confers the two most material requisites of joy, a favourable situation of things without and a proper disposition of mind within. It infuses those mild and gentle dispositions whose natural effect is to smooth the temper of the soul. Benevolence and candour, moderation and temperance, wherever they reign, produce cheerfulness and serenity, The consciousness of integrity gives ease and freedom to the mind. As religion inspires joy, so what it inspires it commands us to cherish. Religious obedience, destitute of joy, is not genuine in its principle. We serve with pleasure the benefactor whom we love. Exclude joy from religion and you leave no other motives to it, except compulsion and interest. As religion destitute of joy is imperfect in its principle, so in practice it must be unstable. In vain you endeavour to fix any man to the regular performance of that in which he finds no pleasure. Bind him ever so fast by interest or fear, he will contrive some method of eluding the obligation. Estimate, therefore, the genuineness of your religious principles; estimate the degree of your stability in religious practice, by the degree of your satisfaction in piety and virtue.

II. When we rejoice we should rejoice with trembling.

1. Because all the objects of religion which afford ground for joy tend to inspire, at the same time, reverence and fear.

2. As joy, tempered by fear, suits the nature of religion, so it is requisite for the proper regulation of the conduct of man. Let his joy flow from the best and purest source, yet, if it remain long unmixed, it is apt to become dangerous to virtue, It is wisely ordered in our present state that joy and fear, hope and grief should act alternately as checks and balances upon each other, in order to prevent all excess in any of them which our nature could not bear.

3. The unstable condition of all human beings, naturally inspires fear in the midst of joy. Vicissitudes of good and evil, of trials and consolations, fill up man’s life. Whether we consider life or death, time or eternity, all things appear to concur in giving to man the admonition of the text, “rejoice with trembling.” (Hugh Blair, D. D.)