"O Lord, so many are against me. So many seek to harm me. I have so many enemies. 2 So many say that God will never help me. 3 But Lord, you are my shield, my glory, and my only hope. You alone can lift my head, now bowed in shame." Psalm 3:1-3
Shame....
We've all experienced it - that feeling of shame that comes over us when we've messed up and we know it. When we realize again that we fall short of even our own expectations. Shame comes with sin. It entered the world when Adam and Eve sinned.They immediately realized that they were naked and hid from God. Shame isn't only attached to our sin, we feel it when those we are close to sin, when our family is less than stellar and when our own children choose to live in sin. We hang our heads and hide.
I'm reading through the Psalms (again) in my quiet time and read Psalm 3 this morning in the Living Bible. I've read this Psalm many times and sung songs based on it, but for the first time, it was a living picture for me and I could picture Jesus, lifting my chin and looking lovingly into my eyes, reminding me that He has washed away all my sin and shame. He is the one who lifts my head. His love gives me courage to look up again. This Psalm was written while David was fleeing from Absolom. He understood what it is to be ashamed because of the behavior of your own child. But he looked to God who lifted his face and freed him from the shame.
HE IS THE LIFTER OF MY HEAD!
