Fear-of-the-what?

LORD! What's up with the Fear-of-the-Lord? Eugene Peterson says this "stock biblical phrase" is just what we need when we wonder how it is that we live responsively and appropriately before who God is, who he is a Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And isn't that what, we who have been redeemed by Jesus, want to do?
Well, it turns out that the meaning of this phrase/word is illusive and maybe that's a bit of a good thing. We can't simply file it away and box it up in our mental dictionary.
First let's clear the slate and understand that fear-of-the-lord is a "bound phrase". It's four words in English (two in Hebrew) that are bound together, making a single word. Here's the deal. The meaning of this new single word is not the sum of all its defined parts, fear+of+the+lord. Fear-of-the-lord is a word all its own. We don't look up "fear" then "God" in the dictionary. Doing that gets us way off track according to Peterson.
Just consider that for a couple days and I'll add more content later.

Ps. There are around 138 occurrences of this word mostly in Proverbs, Psalms, Isaiah, Chronicles and Duet' Duet' Deuteronomy! Take a look!