Psalm 119:39

 

Psalm 119:39

Take away my disgrace

This verse is not the first time that the psalm-writer hints at disgrace and insults being aimed at him from his contemporaries. In verse 6 he talks about, “being put to shame”, in verse 22 he pleads for the Lord to “remove from me their scorn and contempt,” and such is his suffering that in verse 25 he describes being “laid low in the dust.”  It’s obvious that the poor guy is fearing disgrace and is being hounded by his adversaries. The question is, is his fear founded on truth or are the accusations of his enemies just a form of petty persecution?

There is another scenario that might be the source of his fear. Many people have secrets! Christians have secrets, we all have moments in our lives that we hope no one ever uncovers. There are events that fill us with shame, twisted stories that we know are not true, past sins that, if they ever came to light, would change the way others see us. Some people dread the possibility that their past could be uncovered, that their misdeeds might become public, we’ve all seen the way that the Press reacts when the dirty secrets of a celebrity or a well-known individual come to light. 

For those of us who believe in the salvation of our God and who seek to follow Christ, there is forgiveness and healing if we confess our sins and lay our burdens at the cross. I believe that, however stained our past may be, the Lord can protect His people from shame and from disgrace, but it behoves us all to measure our lives by the standards God sets, and those standards are His Law. His Law is good, let’s seek to obey it for as long as we are still living on this earth then we will have no fear of disgrace. 

 

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