Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom is the ability to discern right from evil and apply knowledge toward things that are right before God. This is a well established premise in scripture. It is also well established, especially through the psalms, that to gain knowledge, we ought to listen to something that is transcendent to our own will. We must look beyond the desires of our hearts. This is specifically found in God’s word. It corrects our path and shows us the way of righteousness. This psalmist now adds another piece of spiritual logic to the equation of a godly man. He states that forgiveness is given to learn fear of the Lord. This seems counterintuitive as it can be easily exploited. Yet, it should be noted that forgiveness cannot be easily given. Jesus noted that it was harder to forgive sins than to perform miracles. Naturally, when we see forgiveness at work, a sense of awe and respect comes over us. This thing that garners our pause is the seed of awe and respect for a god who would sacrifice himself for his creation. This helps us to understand far more about our world than power or passion. We ought to practice the same forgiveness we see in the scriptures if we aim to be wise.