What if "the fear of the Lord" has less to do with me being afraid that God is going to cause me pain if I sin and more to do with me being afraid that I am going to cause God pain if I sin...
I did not cosider "fear of the Lord" in either of those contexts. I always saw it more in an "awe and reverence" sense. But I don't know Hebrew or Greek.
And in the same way, I'd direct that 'awe-inspiring fear' also to the end of 'being afraid that I am going to cause God pain if I sin', although I may adjust this more towards disappointment. So, not dealing with an either/or, but a both/and that emphasis an 'and' that is often forgotten. Edit: my post was in response to another that was subsequently deleted. Not sure why, but oh well. The point of that post was to indicate that the 'fear of the Lord' was really an awe-inspiring fear.
I suspect that upon seeing the God who is love, who loves me, I would fall down in abject terror. More succinctly, however, I will see Christ and His wounds. Terror!