Psalm 130 · a question people ask
"But there is forgiveness with you, therefore you are feared" (130:4). Why would forgiveness make the LORD feared?
The verse joins the two and doesn't explain further. Here is what the text shows. Where the WEB has therefore, the Hebrew has lema'an, which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "for the sake of, on account of, to the intent or in order that". Solomon's prayer (1 Kings 8:22) joins forgiving and fearing with the same word. He asks the LORD to "hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive" (1 Kings 8:39), "that they may fear you all the days that they live in the land which you gave to our fathers" (1 Kings 8:40). There that is lema'an, and fear is the verb of Psalm 130:4's feared (tap feared). Psalm 130 doesn't say more about why, and these notes don't add a reason.
The verses
“But there is forgiveness with you, therefore you are feared.”
“Solomon stood before the LORD’s altar in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven;”
“then hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and give to every man according to all his ways, whose heart you know (for you, even you only, know the hearts of all the children of men); that they may fear you all the days that they live in the land which you gave to our fathers.”