Psalm 147:11 NKJV
The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him,
In those who hope in His mercy.
The Heart That Pleases the Lord
MY NOTES
“The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, In those who hope in His mercy.”— Psalm 147:11 (NKJV)
Psalm 147:11 gives us one of the most tender and surprising truths in Scripture: God takes pleasure in His people. Not in their strength, achievements, or performance—but in their posture toward Him.
Worldly power, human achievement, and impressive displays of strength mean very little to the Creator of the universe. He isn’t swayed by the size of armies, the wealth of kingdoms, or our self-made status. Instead, the King of kings takes delight in something far quieter, more personal, and profound: a heart that holds holy fear and joyful hope in perfect balance.
At first glance, “fear” and “hope” might seem like opposites. Fear suggests shrinking back, while hope suggests reaching forward. But in the life of a believer, these two holy emotions work together like two wings on a bird, keeping our faith level and flying straight.
“Those who fear Him…”
This isn’t a fear that drives us away—it’s a fear that draws us near. It’s reverence, awe, humility, and a deep awareness of God’s holiness. It’s knowing He is God and we are not. It’s the kind of fear that steadies the soul and anchors obedience; it is a profound, childlike reverence for His greatness and holiness. We fear Him because He is majestic, holy, and we recognize our own sinfulness in comparison.
Without this reverent fear, our hope can easily spoil into presumption—we start taking God’s grace for granted, treating His mercy as something He owes us rather than an undeserved gift. Holy fear grounds us, sobering our hope and keeping our hearts deeply humble before the Almighty.
“Those who hope in His mercy.”
On the flip side, fear without hope quickly turns into hopeless despair. That is why God links fear directly with hoping in His mercy (in Hebrew, His hesed—His loyal, covenant-keeping love).
We hope in Him because even though He is great, He is also good. We hope because even though we are sinners, His lovingkindness never fails. Hope brightens our fear, reminding us that the God who commands the universe is the very same God who promises never to abandon His children.
Fear and hope are not opposites—they are companions.
Fear keeps hope from becoming careless.
Hope keeps fear from becoming crushing.
To fear God is to honor Him.
To hope in His mercy is to trust Him.
And God delights in both.
A Sacred Harmony
Charles Spurgeon pointed out the incredible condescension in this truth: God doesn’t just tolerate us; He actually finds pleasure and solace in our company!
He takes pleasure in the heart that trembles at His greatness and rests in His goodness. He loves the believer who says, “Lord, I fear You because You are holy, and I hope in You because You are merciful.”
This is the beauty of the gospel:
We fear because we are sinners.
We hope because God is merciful.
And God takes pleasure in both.
He delights in the quiet prayer whispered in reverence. He delights in the trembling heart that still clings to hope. He delights in the believer who trusts His loyal love—His hesed—even when life feels uncertain.
God sees your heart. You don’t need a perfect, flaw-free faith to bring Him joy; a growing faith that is in awe of His greatness while trusting His mercy brings a smile to the Father’s face.
Prayer
Abba, thank You for taking pleasure in those who fear You and hope in Your mercy. Teach me to walk in holy reverence and joyful confidence. Let my fear be filled with awe, not anxiety, and let my hope rest fully in Your loyal love. Shape my heart so that both trembling and trust honor You. Help me delight in You as You delight in Your people. I ask for this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Key Takeaways
Fear and hope belong together — Reverence keeps hope grounded; hope keeps fear joyful.
God delights in His people — Not in their power, but in their posture toward Him.
Hope in His mercy honors God — Trusting His lovingkindness brings Him pleasure.
Reverence is worship — Holy fear is part of loving God rightly.
Mercy is our anchor — When promises feel distant, His character remains steady.
Cross-References (NKJV)
- Psalm 33:18 — “Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, On those who hope in His mercy,”
- Psalm 103:11 — “For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;”
- 1 Peter 1:17–19
“And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” - Isaiah 66:2 — “On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word.”
- Psalm 130:7 — “With the LORD there is mercy, and with Him is abundant redemption.”
Proverb for Today
He who earnestly seeks good finds favor, But trouble will come to him who seeks evil. He who trusts in his riches will fall, But the righteous will flourish like foliage. Proverbs 11:27-28 NKJV.
Daily Scripture
Return to the stronghold, You prisoners of hope. Even today I declare That I will restore double to you. Zechariah 9:12 NKJV
Closing
“The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.” Numbers 6:24-26 NKJV
Grace be with you. Amen.
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Summary of Commentaries:
It’s amazing to think that Almighty God takes genuine pleasure in us! These commentators show that God isn’t impressed by physical strength or human pride, but by those who humbly worship Him. He delights when we balance holy fear with hope in His loyal mercy (hesed). Fear keeps us grounded so we don’t become arrogant, while hope keeps us from despondency. Together, this reverent awe and trust bring joy to the Father’s heart.
Commentaries:
Charles Spurgeon
“The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him in those that hope in his mercy.” While the bodily powers give no content to God, spiritual qualities are his delight. He cares most for those emotions which center in himself: the fear which he approves is fear of him, and the hope which he accepts is hope in his mercy. It is a striking thought that God should not only be at peace with some kinds of men, but even find a solace and a joy in their company. Oh! the matchless condescension of the Lord, that his greatness should take pleasure in the insignificant creatures of his hand. Who are these favored men in whom Jehovah takes pleasure? Some of them are the least in his family, who have never risen beyond hoping and fearing. Others of them are more fully developed, but still they exhibit a blended character composed of fear and hope: they fear God with holy awe and filial reverence, and they also hope for forgiveness and blessedness because of the divine mercy. As a father takes pleasure in his own children, so doth the Lord solace himself in his own beloved ones, whose marks of new birth are fear and hope. They fear, for they are sinners; they hope, for God is merciful. They fear him, for he is great; they hope in him, for he is good. Their fear sobers their hope; their hope brightens their fear: God takes pleasure in them both in their trembling and in their rejoicing.
Is there not rich cause for praise in this special feature of the divine character? After all, it is a poor nature which is delighted with brute force; it is a diviner thing to take pleasure in the holy character of those around us. As men may be known by the nature of the things which give them pleasure, so is the Lord known by the blessed fact that he taketh pleasure in the righteous, even though that righteousness is as yet in its initial stage of fear and hope.
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Enduring Word
The LORD takes pleasure in those who fear Him: What God takes pleasure in is the reverence and trust of His people. Those who find their hope in His mercy delight God, because they honor Him with their trust. (Guzik)
i. Mercy here is the word hesed, which refers to the great love of God, especially in the context of loyalty to His promises and covenant. It pleases God when we hope in His loyal love, His lovingkindness. (Guzik)
ii. Those who fear Him…those who hope: “Marks of new birth are fear and hope. They fear, for they are sinners; they hope, for God is merciful. They fear him, for he is great; they hope in him, for he is good. Their fear sobers their hope; their hope brightens their fear: God takes pleasure in them both in their trembling and in their rejoicing.” (Spurgeon)
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Albert Barnes
The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him — In those who truly worship him, however humble, poor, and unknown to people they may be; however unostentatious, retired, unnoticed may be their worship. Not in the “pride, pomp, and circumstance of war” is his pleasure; not in the march of armies; not in the valor of the battlefield; not in scenes where “the garments of the warrior are rolled in blood,” but in the closet, when the devout child of God prays; in the family, when the group bend before Him in solemn devotion; in the assembly – quiet, serious, calm – when his friends are gathered together for prayer and praise; in the heart that truly loves, reverences, adores Him.
In those that hope in his mercy — It is a pleasure to him to have the guilty, the feeble, the undeserving hope in Him – trust in Him – seek Him.
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John Gill
The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him,…. With a filial and godly fear; that serve and worship him, privately and publicly, with reverence and love: as, appears by the goodness he lays up for them; the good things he communicates to them; the discoveries of his love, covenant, and grace, they have from him; the guard he sets about them; his eye of providence and grace over them; and his heart full of love, pity, and compassion to them; see Psalm 33:18;
in those that hope in his mercy; not general, but special; not in the absolute mercy of God, but as displayed in Christ; and great encouragement there is to hope in it, from the plenty of it in his heart, from the instances of it among men, and from the blessings of grace and salvation that spring from it: and in such the Lord takes pleasure; hope is his own grace, and mercy is his delight; and he is pleased with those that exercise hope upon it: not that the graces of fear and hope, and the exercise of them, are the cause and motives of God’s delight in his people, which, as they were considered in Christ, was before the world was, or those graces were in them; but these describe and point out the persons who are openly and manifestly the objects of his delight and pleasure. Plutarch, an, Heathen writer, seems to have been acquainted with this and Psalm 147:10, and to refer to them, when he says, “it is somewhere said, that God is not a lover of horses, nor of birds, but of men, and desires to dwell with those that are eminently good; nor does he refuse nor despise the familiar converse of a man divine and wise.”
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Matthew Henry
God is pleased to own the strength of grace. A serious and suitable regard to God is that which is, in the sight of God, of great price in such a case. The Lord accepts and takes pleasure in those that fear him and that hope in his mercy. Observe,
[1.] A holy fear of God and hope in God not only may consist, but must concur. In the same heart, at the same time, there must be both a reverence of his majesty and a complacency in his goodness, both a believing dread of his wrath and a believing expectation of his favor; not that we must hang in suspense between hope and fear, but we must act under the gracious influences of hope and fear. Our fear must save our hope from swelling into presumption, and our hope must save our fear from sinking into despair; thus must we take our work before us.
[2.] We must hope in God’s mercy, his general mercy, even when we cannot find a particular promise to stay ourselves upon. A humble confidence in the goodness of God’s nature is very pleasing to him, as that which turns to the glory of that attribute in which he most glories. Every man of honor loves to be trusted.
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Miscellaneous Comments
“Them that fear him, those that hope in his mercy.” Patience and fear are the fences of hope. There is a beautiful relation between hope and fear. The two are linked in this verse. They are like the cork in a fisherman’s net, which keeps it from sinking, and the lead, which prevents it from floating. Hope without fear is in danger of being too sanguine; fear without hope would soon become desponding.
—George Seaton Bowes, in “In Prospect of Sunday;” 1880.
Fear and hope are passions of the mind so contrary the one to the other, that with regard to the same object, it is strange they should meet in the same laudable character; yet here we see they do so, and it is the praise of the same persons, that they both fear God, and hope in him. Whence we may gather this doctrine: That in every concern that lies upon our hearts, we should still endeavour to keep the balance even between hope and fear. We know how much the health of the body depends upon a due temperament of the humours, such as preserves any one from being predominant above the rest; and how much the safety and peace of the nations result from a due balance of trade and power, that no one grow too great for its neighbours; and so necessary is it to the health and welfare of our souls, that there be a due proportion maintained between their powers and passions, and that the one may always be a check upon the other, to keep it from running into extremes; as in these affections mentioned in the text. A holy fear of God must be a check upon our hope, to keep that from swelling into presumption; and a pious hope in God must be a check upon our fear, to keep that from sinking into despondency. This balance must, I say, by a wise and steady hand, be kept even in every concern that lies upon our hearts, and that we have thoughts about. I shall enumerate those that are of the greatest importance. We must keep up both hope and fear.
1. As to the concerns of our souls, and our spiritual and eternal state.
2. As to our outward concerns, relating to the body and the life that now is.
3. As to the public concerns of the church of God, and our own land and nation.
In reference to each of these, we must always study and strive to support that affection, whether it be hope or fear, which the present temper of our minds and circumstances of our case make necessary to preserve us from an extreme.
—Matthew Henry.
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