My Lord will never put me to shame

“To You they cried out and were delivered; in You they trusted and were not disappointed” (Psalm 22:5 NASB).

Psalm 22 is one of the most quoted passages of the Hebrew Bible by the New Testament writers when describing the passion of the Messiah. As a matter of fact, the Lord Jesus Himself prayed to His Father with a very loud voice the very first part of verse 1. If one reads the whole psalm, one finds anguish, pain, a sense of abandonment, being taunted and mocked by enemies, a sense of being powerless in the face of suffering, but most of all, one finds pure and absolute trust in the will, ways, wisdom and workings of the God of Israel. This is exactly what we see in the New Testament when we read about the afflictions that Messiah had to endure to propitiate for the sins of His people. He was despised by men and afflicted by God, His Father, yet my Lord never lost His faith and trust in the plan of God, to the point that in the above supplication He referenced the people of Israel, who trusted in God during the events of the Exodus, and were delivered and were not disappointed as a way to also express His faith in God and His expectation of deliverance.

The Hebrew word used for ‘disappointed’ is bos, which connotates a sense of shame or feeling ashamed, more than disappointment. Shame is a word that has been deleted by the secular, atheistic modern societies from common speech and for good reason, since this word has moral and biblical connotations related to sin and rebellion against God. But shame was a word that ancient civilizations were more comfortable with using since they understood better what sinfulness was, and they were not deluded into the idea of a Divine Being who did not exist, therefore, they knew they needed to appease His justice, so they would not get punished for their moral transgressions. To show that being shamed is a consequence of sin and the Fall of mankind, Adam and Even never experienced this before their rebellion, despite both being butt-naked. They only knew this reality after they disobeyed the commandment and became sinners (Genesis 2:25).

Since that time, all humans have experienced shame with the exception, of course, of my Lord. But we might ask, what is shame? To us modern people, shame means an emotion caused by guilt or a condition of disgrace (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). It is without doubt that Messiah did not suffer guilt due to His sin on the cross since the Scriptures testify that He is without sin (2 Corinthians 5:21, Hebrews 4:15), “…holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens” (Hebrews 7:26 NASB). Therefore, what He asked to be saved from was the second meaning: disgrace. Many godly women, and men before Messiah and many more after Him, including His earthly progenitor, King David who penned this Psalm, have cried out to God for deliverance from this state of disgrace and disrepute. The beauty of it all is that God has answered every single time, and as Messiah Jesus was not put to shame but exalted above His enemies, God has not and will never put to shame those who trust in Him. David himself testifies to this victory provided by God when he says: “this poor man cried and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles” (Psalm 34:6 NASB). And again, David says: ” I was crying to the LORD with my voice, and He answered me from His holy mountain” (Psalm 3:4 NASB). Time and time again, God has answered the cry of His people and has provided victory over shame and disgrace. This too is my hope, my expectation and my security that my Lord and my God will never put me to shame. Amen!