He Covers Me

"To You O Lord, I lift up my soul.
O my God, I trust in You;
Let me not be ashamed;
Let not my enemies triumph over me.
Indeed, let no one who waits on You be ashamed;
Let those be ashamed who deal treacherously without cause"
Psalm 25: 1-3

Shame...a powerful human emotional state. Shame defined is a painful feeling of being exposed, uncovered, unprotected, vulnerable. Going back to the origins of the word we can find the meaning "to cover." Though, do we really need a bookish definition to know what shame is? Shame is something we have all felt over our lifetimes to varying degrees. In fact we have likely done backflips of choices through our life journeys in order to avoid being shamed. How often have we done ethically questionable things in order to "cover up" something we did that might expose us and leave us vulnerable to the slings and arrows of an unforgiving world.

I can remember instances of my own boys boldly lying to me when they were very young (too young to have been culturally conditioned to know what they were doing) about doing something they were forbidden to do, even though they were caught red handed. For them, like us, the thought that one might get "found out" is almost too much to bear. These episodes reminded me of Adam and Eve's shame, after disobeying God. Immediately after doing so, they realized their nakedness and sought to cover themselves, and then they hid from God.

After an honest evaluation of your relationship with God, how many of you find yourself still paralyzed by shame as you relate with God? How many of you are secretly fearful of God because He knows the "real" you, secret shames included? How many of you are truthfully fearful of the Lord's return and judgment day, because you believe on that day that your secret, sinful and shameful life will be exposed for all to see? I think shame hinders our spiritual journeys more than we'd care to admit.

David did not want to be publicly shamed for His allegiance to God. Though I suspect David also feared being shamed by God for his own sins and indiscretions as King of God's chosen people. So, David turned to God and prayerfully implored Him to cover him up. He did this by doing an act of faith - he lifted his soul and gave it to God (relinquishing his own sense of control) and fully trusted Him to care for it and cover it. Deep in his heart, David knew this truth about God...He does not want to shame us, or for us to feel ashamed in His presence because of our sins. He wants to cover us.

That's why He sent Jesus to take on our shame, and be fully exposed, uncovered, and vulnerable on the cross. In willingly mounting the cruel cross, Jesus scorned its shame in order to remove ours from our relationship with God. In fact the good news of the gospel is that God did not leave us like Adam and Eve futilely trying to cover our shame on our own. The good news is that He covers us up with the righteousness of Christ. Our shame is gone in the presence of God because Jesus covers us.

May you also lift your soul to Him, put your trust in Him, and let Him clothe you in His glorious righteousness.

Be God's, Scott