
Ashamed: to wound
Years ago, I came across a definition in my Bible concordance for a usage of ashamed: to wound.1 I can’t count the times it rolled through my memory, yet I did not feel compelled to write of it. These are days of compelling.
The Psalms record, beginning in Psalm 6 and periodically up through Psalm 127, about two dozen references to ashamed.2 A sampling speaks to the depth at which David felt and viewed the personal threat to him – and His personal relationship with God, in Whom he placed his life and his trust –
- pleading with God to not let me be ashamed
- declaration that those who wait for the Lord will not be ashamed
- that being ashamed and humiliated belong to those
- who seek my life and devise evil against me
- who rejoice at my distress and magnify themselves over me
- who seek my life to destroy it, with pleas to turn back and dishonor those who delight in my hurt
- for in You, O Lord, I have taken refuge; in Your righteousness deliver me
- sustain me according to Your word, that I may live
- and do not let me be ashamed of my hope
A Vessel of Honor or Dishonor
A nation is not a nation without its people. The people who wait on and for the Lord will come to know His strength in the days upon us. David led in his time, knowing that those who insulted him and God’s people, insulted God Himself. For David who loved his Lord, making ashamed: to wound was earthly evidence of defiance of the Living God. He didn’t defend his God; he stood firm before the enemy and proclaimed Him. 3
By mention of ashamed in Psalm 69, a shift had taken place in David’s supplication. No longer merely personal, though it is vitally important to pray for oneself, David asked that he not be a vessel of making ashamed. Let’s read what he implored the Lord on behalf of those who had also set their hearts and wills to wait for the Lord –
“May those who wait for You not be ashamed through me, O Lord GOD of hosts;
May those who seek You not be dishonored through me, O God of Israel,” (69:6)
There were those who loved David and those who hated him. Despised by many for his sinful humanity, he came to despise it himself. Where dishonor had reigned, David sought the Lord to redeem his life and his legacy. A nation in upheaval cannot redeem itself by the hand of man or woman. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.
Prayer for Your People of Our Wounded Nation
O, Lord God of Heaven and Earth, Ruler of the Nations –
to whom can we go but You, for healing the making ashamed of Your people of our wounded nation? Bruises make our battered souls ache. Pain-filled steps accompany our ready endeavors. Hope defers to the backseat as often as it rises with the dawn of each day. Tempers flare. Self-control is a broken dial on the setting of frayed emotions.
Voices bravely rise, then learn to go silent in the face of relentless insults. Pride strengthens the backbones of those who refuse to be humbled beneath Your Hand. Boastful words crack the thin ice on which we’ve been told we must stand. Decrees of domination masquerade as Your truth. Some who seek what they’ve been told they’ll find, quickly un-darken the door of man’s ‘sanctuary’. Spirit of God, speak to them that to seek You is to find You. Gently lift their face to Yours,to see You.
There is no place any of us can go from Your Presence. Wherever we go, You are There. You always were and always will be. Forgive us where we have declared You as our refuge while denying Your closeness, as if You were lost, nowhere to be found. Protests of circumstances disavow Your provision and Your protection. Your Presence is Your Person. You are Who You say You are. Help us to hear our own hearts toward You that you already know so well. Before a word is on our tongue, You Lord, know it completely.
Teach us, Father, to pray according to Your will, not our drives. Instruct our knowledge of You to the place of knowing You. Move in us, we pray, by Your Holy Spirit to will and to do Your good pleasure. Release us from the fear, worry, and peace-less discontent that has ruled our spirit far too long.
When our hearts tremble at wars and rumors of wars, remind us continually that You have told us what to do: “Look up! For your deliverance draws near.” In ways we cannot think or imagine, You have been waiting for these days. You have counseled us to prepare ourselves for You. You have prayed for us that our faith does not fail.
Father, by Your Spirit restrain us from staunch stances in the aftermath of battles fought. For only You are our Place of Repair. Forbid by Your compassion and justice that we be the vessels through which comes the making ashamed of those who wait for You, and the dishonoring of those who seek You.
Until we see You, may ashamed: to wound be far from us who name Your Name.
To Him Who dwells among us ~ Gracefully Free
1 kâlam – kaw-lawm’: A primitive root; properly to wound; figuratively to insult, shame, humiliate, blush, be ashamed, be put to shame, be reproached, be put to confusion, be humiliated. (Strong’s H3637 Greek/Hebrew definitions)
2 Strong’s H954, defined likewise to H3637 – H954 also found in Genesis, II Kings, II Chronicles, Ezra, Job, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Micah, Zechariah, Mark, Luke, Romans, II Timothy, Hebrews, and I Peter – before and after the Psalms
3 David and Goliath – I Samuel 17 Photo Credit: Pexels-Pixabay-33783 │ ©2024 Nancy C. Bentz
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