10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
be warned, O rulers of the earth.
11a Serve the Lord with fear,
with trembling 12kiss his feet…
There are at least three kinds of “fear”.
There is the “fear” that is a natural, appropriate and necessary response to danger. Faced by a charging grizzly, I experience fear. This fear is my friend. It pumps adrenaline into my system and empowers me to flee from real danger. Despite some images that are occasionally conjured by terrifying preachers, God is not a grizzly bear, bent on my destruction. There is never a good reason to flee from God. Part of reading the Bible accurately is to always move towards the interpretation that shows how God/life is oriented towards the prospering of all creation.
For most of us the second kind of fear is much more common. Many of us are afflicted throughout our lives by speculative fear. I fear what could be or might be. This fear is always focused in the future. It lives in my mind, spinning stories that trouble the dark restless hours of night. Speculative fear is a terribly destructive force. Jesus said simply, don’t do it – “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own.” (Matthew 6:34) A strong healthy spiritual life is lived in this present moment, not in some imagined future. This moment, right here, right now is where life takes place. And, as difficult as it may be, this present moment can be endured.
The third form of fear is the fear we are instructed to have towards God. This fear is embodied in the gesture HP recommends as a sign of our willingness to serve God – “kiss his feet.” The healthy fear of the Lord is synonymous with honour, respect, and reverence. To “fear God” is to live with respect for all of life and to serve the well-being of all creation.
What do I honour, respect, and reverence in life? Lord, help me to live a life in which I let go of speculation fear and live with a healthy reverence for the wonder and beauty that is your presence in all of life.
In A Spacious Place 
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April 28, 2021 at 10:01 am
bobmacdonald
‘fear’ – you have a helpful taxonomy. As a translator, I have had my English stretched – and it needs stretching all the time – especially as I age. We have several ‘synonyms’ for fear and words that either cause fear or are the results of fear in us: alarm, dread, horror, terror, awe, apprehension, and so on, We may be nervous, shaken, astounded, perturbed, giddy, show pallor, cower, panic, quiver, shudder, convulse, tremble, quake. We are a whole world of potential responses to whatever this thing is that we call fear. We need its opposite – security, even for our limited lives. Is this one of the stimuli that leads us toward or away from what is good for us and our neighbours?
In my translation work from Hebrew, I strove to separate these English synonyms and carefully map them to a Hebrew equivalent. Hebrew has many such synonyms in this are also. I have put my words into an open and free concordance. This is a pointer to the glossary page for ‘fear’: https://qonqordnxih-ltnk.blogspot.com/p/search-by-gloss.html#fear
April 28, 2021 at 10:37 am
bobmacdonald
If you read any book on translating Hebrew – there are lots in the libraries – even the latest ones write of untranslatable phrases. Alter’s fav expression is ‘the Hebrew is crabbed’. He seldom explains. Similarly, study Bibles even good ones (like the old Jerusalem Bible of 1962) will have a note saying, ‘corr.’ or some equally forgettable note meaning, corrected. Rarely do they explain either. And commentaries? Well they explain what everyone else has said for the last 2000 years – and are therefore unreadable for a different reason.
The psalms cannot be opened with a can-opener or a corkscrew. Psalms 2:12 has some Hebrew that draws out a lot of commentary. I see 8 translations with kiss his feet including RSV, over 50 with kiss the son, following the Aramaic br for son, one or two that suggest purity, brr being the Hebrew root for pure. The Message is as usual a delight and wildly off in all directions at once. “So, rebel-kings, use your heads; Upstart-judges, learn your lesson: Worship God in adoring embrace, Celebrate in trembling awe. Kiss Messiah! Your very lives are in danger, you know; His anger is about to explode, But if you make a run for God—you won’t regret it!”
whew!
Here’s my take: “Kiss, each of you, pure lest he be angry and you perish in the way, // for he kindles as a hint of his anger. Happy are all who take refuge in him.”
Pure is supported by Jerome, Moffatt, and others. ‘feet’ requires an amendment to the text by pulling the gl from the prior verse to make up the rgl required for feet. This does violence to the music among other things. It assumes that the text was corrupted 2000 or more years ago. It aligns the words with common inscriptions that describe the submission of vanquished princes. We still have work to do of course.
The new English translation of the Septuagint, the first translation into Greek has this: Seize upon instruction, or the Lord may become angry; and you will perish from the righteous way, when his anger quickly blazes out. Happy are all who trust in him. This ties it back to Psalms 1 – and makes the two psalms a unit. Which they are, of course… The Septuagint gives no hint of changing the verse structure.