Got Shame? Don’t Need to Keep It!

Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible and it has one main topic…the words of God. The psalm has 22 stanzas, each one beginning with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Rather than move through this psalm in one day, I’m going to take 22 days, copying for you one stanza at a time and then talking about one aspect of that stanza. Here we go with the first stanza: “Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord! 2 Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart! 3 They also do no iniquity; they walk in His ways. 4 You have commanded us To keep Your precepts diligently. 5 Oh, that my ways were directed to keep Your statutes! 6 Then I would not be ashamed, when I look into all Your commandments. 7 I will praise You with uprightness of heart, when I learn Your righteous judgments. 8 I will keep Your statutes; Oh, do not forsake me utterly!”

What struck me this morning was the following: “Oh, that my ways were directed to keep Your statutes! Then I would not be ashamed, when I look into all Your commandments.” Shame is such a powerful emotion. In my life and the lives of everyone I have ever sat across a desk from or next to on a couch that has suffered shame, it ALWAYS has to do with them not following one of God’s commands or someone close to them not following one of God’s commands. I can think of no exception. There is no shame when we follow the words of God. Funny how the very cure to the shame problem that mankind faces is rarely proposed by the world as a solution? Do you want to reduce shame in your life…want to avoid that sick feeling in the pit of your stomach? Keep God’s statutes. And when you fail to keep them, repent quickly and receive forgiveness. God’s word is a sure-fire shame reducer and eliminator. Let’s use it as such!