My only thought was that in our reading of Samuel, I thought quite a bit about punishment from God. David seemed to believe that his good times were God's favor for his righteousness and that his bad times were a result of, well, God's punishment. I don't remember the chapters now but I remember it being a theme that I was struggling with. In the context of fear for David, or whoever wrote this psalm... who knows, maybe they were afraid of punishment... maybe we should be too? I remember Tony C replying to one of my questions on the topic with the analogy to a father who disciplines/punishes his children... a loving father has to. But the kids are still scared. And maybe that fear of punishment is healthy. Some might argue no. I'm not really sure I've formed an opinion there yet, though in general I try to structure consequences to appear like natural consequences rather than dad's hammer of doom. So I guess I don't want them to be fearful of my punishment. This might be a little prideful, but maybe the Israelites were more like children than we are. I mean sure, we screw up in a lot of ways. But the Israelites really take it to a whole new level. SO maybe punishment is more applicable to them, like it is more applicable to a child, than it is to us now. Are we more adult as followers (not saying perfect by any means). But I certainly wouldn't want to be afraid of my dad's punishment at this stage in life... yikes. Maybe there's a parallel.

A cool chapter. Family members have a lot of interdependence. Spiritual life impacts day to day life.