Lesson Two, Question 1

1. What happens to people who fear God (1:50)? What happens to those who are
proud of themselves (1:51)?

He looks at people who fear him (or are in awe of him, or have seen how glorious he is) with mercy--that is to say with kindness, love, forgiveness. People who are proud of themselves, he leaves to the "mercy" of their own minds. They do not believe that they want or need anything from God, so he gives them nothing--just what they've asked for.

Those who fear God--who know Him (or seek to know Him) in all His power and mercy receive mercy (and power and grace); the proud don't recognize Him, or acknowledge their utter dependence on Him, and so receive nothing. (love my translation (RSV), which reads: "he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hears"! Boy, that's limiting oneself!)