Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
Parallel translations
- WEB Serve Yahweh with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
- KJV Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
- NKJV Serve the Lord with fear, And rejoice with trembling.
- NASB Serve the Lord with reverence And rejoice with trembling.
- NLT Serve the Lord with reverent fear, and rejoice with trembling.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Rulers are called to serve the Lord with reverent fear and to rejoice with trembling. Worship rightly combines awe and joy.
Overview
Service to God is to be marked by holy fear, and even joy is to be tempered by trembling reverence before His majesty. This balance guards both against careless familiarity and against joyless dread. In Christ believers draw near with confidence, yet still worship 'with reverence and awe' (Hebrews 12:28).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Phil 2:12Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now even more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
- Heb 12:28–29Therefore, since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us be filled with gratitude, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.
- Heb 12:25See to it that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if the people did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject Him who warns us from heaven?
- Ps 119:119–120All the wicked on earth You discard like dross; therefore I love Your testimonies.
- Ps 89:7In the council of the holy ones, God is greatly feared, and awesome above all who surround Him.
- Heb 4:1–2Therefore, while the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be deemed to have fallen short of it.
- Ps 97:1The LORD reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the distant shores be glad.
- Ps 95:1–8Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout to the Rock of our salvation!
- Ps 99:1The LORD reigns; let the nations tremble! He is enthroned above the cherubim; let the earth quake!
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 2:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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