Alack and Alas!

Alack and Alas!

Is not your reverence your confidence?
Job 4:6

Recommended Reading
1 Timothy 3:8-11

Funny how some words go out of style. If you could go back in time and eavesdrop on your grandparents, you might hear them say: hark, hither, alack, fain, twain, betwixt, mayhap, nigh, and yon. Few people miss those words now; they've been replaced by others. But another set of nearly-forgotten terms isn't so expendable: holy, reverence, God-fearing, devout, and piety. How did we manage to lose those words?

The loss of reverence is particularly disturbing. We're to serve God with reverence and godly fear (Hebrews 12:28). The Lord told the Israelites, "You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary" (Leviticus 19:30). The psalmist said, "God is...to be held in reverence by all those around Him" (Psalm 89:7). Proverbs 28:14 says, "Happy is the man who is always reverent." To the people of Malachi's day, the Lord demanded: "If I am a Master, where is My reverence?"

In a world that has forgotten the meaning of the term, let's "lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence" (1 Timothy 2:2).

There is a communion with God in which the soul feels the presence of the unseen One in the profound depths of its being, with a vivid distinctness and holy reverence such as no words can describe.
Samuel D. Robbins, in Daily Strength for Daily Needs