“Awesome/ Terrible”

BIBLE READING: Psalm 61-67

                Several years ago, during one of my sermon illustrations, I used the word “awesome” to describe something or someone.  After my lesson, one of our sweet older ladies came up to me after my sermon and said this. “I really enjoyed your lesson this morning, but you really need to be careful of the words you use to describe things.”  I appreciated the compliment, but I didn’t quite understand what she was referring too. She could tell by the look on my face that I had no clue what she was talking about, so she continued to explain.  “Young man, you need to be careful how you use the word “awesome”.  That word should only be used to describe God, He alone is awesome and nothing else comes close.”  I knew she wasn’t scolding me, because that wasn’t her demeanor.  However, she did make a fantastic point.  Although the word isn’t used very much in our Bibles, a few of our newer versions do include it.  In fact, in Psalm 66 the word “awesome” appears twice in the one chapter.  The word “awesome” as it translates in the ESV is very unique, because some of the earlier translations use the word “terrible” instead.  If you’re like me, that sounds a little unusual to have the same Greek word translate as “awesome” in one version and “terrible” in another.  Yet, the same idea has been seen culturally even in our lifetime.  For instance, my generation used to use the word “bad” to refer to something good.  The generation before used the word “gay” to describe someone that was happy, today the word “gay” has a totally different meaning.  In the case of “awesome” and “terrible” the same thing may be happening.  The word translated in the KJV as “terrible”, was used to mean “to revere” or to “fearfully respect”.  In that sense the word “awesome” takes on a whole different meaning than what we have come to use today.  The point of the passage in Psalm 66 is that God’s deeds are to be revered and are “fearful things” not because they are scary in the sense of being frightened, but to fear in the sense of being so great and powerful.  Maybe we should be more careful how we use that word today, because in the sense of God’s deed…awesome may be the more correct word.