Psalms 34:11 “Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD.”
The phrase “the fear of the LORD” was once commonly used to identify those who strove to faithfully worship and obey “the LORD”. Faithful Children of God were honorably referred to as, God Fearing People. By definition, to “fear” “the LORD” is to be in total awe of His Power and Greatness, to Reverence His Holy Name, to tremble at the very thought of His Chastening, to use all our God-given strength to worship and serve Him, and to be wonderfully amazed at His Grace and Mercy and Love toward us. The wicked will learn to hatefully “fear” Him when He moves against them. Children of God learn to lovingly “fear” Him when they are “born again”, an act of the Holy Spirit working in them (John 3:1-8). As the Psalmist exhorted those around him to “hearken”, we should likewise, as the Lord gives us wisdom, “teach” those around us “the fear of the Lord”; that is, what it means in practice and how we are to respond to this blessed “fear”. He further explains “the fear OF the LORD” in the remainder of this Psalm.