Concerning Wisdom and the Fear of God

Prov 3:2-5

My son, if you receive my words
and treasure up my commandments with you,
making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;
yes, if you call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
if you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures,
then you will understand the fear of the Lord.

Now, what I am about to say is completely speculative, but it seems to me that "fear of the Lord" is something that sets in--or at least is likely to set in--when understanding fails. In other words, in my seeking of wisdom I eventually come up against what I cannot know; it is vast, and it is beyond my grasp. To recognize this is perhaps the beginning of wisdom. To come up against mystery, to come up against the limits of our own understanding, is to come against the transcendent Lord, and to begin to "understand the fear of the Lord."

Or to put it another way: to understand our own lack of understanding is to begin to recognize God's awesomeness (as per Job, for example); our smallness and God's greatness, our poverty and God's riches, our emptiness and God's fullness, our sinfulness and God's righteousness; these attributes of God are thing we "understand" only in so far as we understand that they are truly far beyond our understanding, and we know them in the form of the stirrings of the fear of God.

Got wisdom?

I've been thinking about "wisdom" lately. What is it? What are the characteristics of wisdom? Here is one passage of Scripture that has helped. It's from Proverbs 3:

13 Blessed is the one who finds wisdom,
and the one who gets understanding,
14 for the gain from her is better than gain from silver
and her profit better than gold.
15 She is more precious than jewels,
and nothing you desire can compare with her.
16 Long life is in her right hand;
in her left hand are riches and honor.
17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness,
and all her paths are peace.
18 She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her;
those who hold her fast are called blessed.

19 The Lord by wisdom founded the earth;
by understanding he established the heavens;
20 by his knowledge the deeps broke open,
and the clouds drop down the dew.

21 My son, do not lose sight of these—
keep sound wisdom and discretion,
22 and they will be life for your soul
and adornment for your neck.
23 Then you will walk on your way securely,
and your foot will not stumble.
24 If you lie down, you will not be afraid;
when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.