There are two kinds of awe, and they lead to entirely different places. Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi maps them with surgical precision in the Tanya, drawing on the Mishnah (the earliest code of rabbinic law)'s paradox: "Where there is no fear, there is no wisdom. Where there is no wisdom, there is no fear" (Avot 3:17).
The first is yirah tata'ah (יראה תתאה), lower fear. This is the awe you feel when contemplating the sheer scale of creation. The Talmud says the distance from earth to the first heaven is a journey of 500 years. From that heaven to the next, another 500 years. And the feet of the Chayot, the living angelic creatures, measure up to all of them combined (Chagigah 13a). Layer upon layer upon layer, and all of it is merely God's "garments," the external coverings in which the King conceals Himself.
This fear is real. It drives a person to fulfill the Torah and commandments. But it is called "external" and "inferior" because it comes from looking at the garments, not at the King Himself.
The second is yirah ila'ah (יראה עילאה), higher fear. This is not fear of punishment or even fear of God's vastness. It is a fear born of shame, an inner trembling that comes from seeing reality as it truly is. The word Chochmah (חכמה), wisdom, can be read as koach mah (כ"ח מ"ה), the power of "what" or "nothing." True wisdom is seeing that everything, the heavens, the earth, your own body and soul, is absolutely nothing compared to the word of God that sustains it all. Like the light of the sun dissolving inside the body of the sun itself, all of reality is nullified within its Source.
The lower fear opens the gate. The higher fear is what you find on the other side. You cannot reach wisdom without first practicing awe, and you cannot reach the deepest awe without first acquiring wisdom.