The Fear of God: Obvious in Heaven, Obscured on Earth

“God is greatly feared in the council of the holy ones, and awesome over all who surround Him.”Psalm 89:7

In the heavenly realm, there is no confusion about who sits at the center. God is the focus of all attention—not because He demands it, but because He is rightly perceived. Those in His presence see Him clearly. They fear Him because they understand who He is: righteous, authoritative, powerful. He is feared not abstractly, but personally—because He alone has the authority to judge and the power to condemn. Those around Him know this. It is not theory. It is not theological posturing. It is reality—painfully and gloriously obvious.

They know they are not Him.

They know their holiness is borrowed, not innate.

They know they are accountable.

There is no need for reminders in that place. No prophetic warnings. No veiled parables. The truth of who God is confronts them with unrelenting clarity. The fear of the Lord is not an idea to be cultivated—it is a natural response to divine proximity.

But alas, for us.

Down here, among humans, the one Being who should be feared is often ignored, domesticated, or recast in our image. We fear lesser things—nations, ideologies, sickness, death. We respect created powers more than the Creator. We tremble at cultural pressures, but yawn in the face of divine authority.

How upside-down we’ve become.

God must command His people not to fear the surrounding nations and their gods. He must plead with them to remember who He is. All while the holy ones in His council tremble without a word being spoken. They understand. We, so often, do not.

Why?

Maybe it’s because perception itself is a gift. As Jesus said to His disciples:

“To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven…” (Matthew 13:11)

Some truths are hidden in plain sight—obvious to the holy ones, obvious in heaven—but veiled from those who live by sight rather than faith.

We need God to open our eyes.

We need the fear of the Lord—not as a concept, but as a restored perception of reality. A fear that is born not of terror alone, but of truth—of seeing Him as He truly is, and seeing ourselves as we truly are in His presence.

Let us pray for the clarity of heaven.

Let us seek the kind of fear that the holy ones already know.