As noted in Part 5 the honor of the king is enhanced because his enemies are shamed. They are the ones who are disgraced while he is the one lifted up and exalted. We see this refrain throughout the psalms of David as he asks God to rescue him and put his enemies to shame. “O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me. Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame; they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous” (Psalm 25:2-3). “Let them be put to shame and dishonor who seek after my life! Let them be turned back and disappointed who devise evil against me” (Psalm 35:4)!
The path of honor often goes through the shame of our enemies. We often miss this idea when we think about issues such as deliverance and salvation. In order to be delivered from our enemies, our enemies must be made powerless; they must be defeated. Our deliverance requires their defeat. So, too, when it comes to honor. Our honor must come through the shame of another—both the shame of our enemy (ultimately Satan who was defeated and thus shamed at the cross) and the shame of our Lord, Jesus Christ.[1]
Often David was in serious trouble and his enemies surrounded him with boasting. Part of the fear of being shamed is that if the shame came from following God then others who sought to follow God would also be put to shame. We see this in Psalm 69:6, “Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me, O Lord God of hosts; let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, O God of Israel.” So David’s prayers of vindication were both for his sake and for the sake of the faith of those who follow God.
Indeed, they are prayers for the sake of God’s honor, for in shaming one who takes refuge in God one also shames God himself. This is why God must act. He must rise up for the sake of his name. David cries out in Psalm 109:
Help me, O Lord my God! Save me according to your steadfast love! Let them know that this is your hand; you, O Lord, have done it! Let them curse, but you will bless! They arise and are put to shame, but your servant will be glad! May my accusers be clothed with dishonor; may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a cloak! With my mouth I will give great thanks to the Lord; I will praise him in the midst of the throng. For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save him from those who condemn his soul to death (Psalm 109:26-31).
David cries out for help and salvation. His heart is for his enemies to see that the Lord is on his side, acting on his behalf. He asks for his accusers to be clothed with dishonor. “Shame those who are shaming me!” Yet notice what immediately follows this. “With my mouth I will give great thanks to the Lord; I will praise him in the midst of the throng” (v. 30). The result of his deliverance is praise, not to himself, but to God. When God’s people are being shamed and God rises up to act by shaming the shamers, he is acting so that he not only honors his people, but so that he also honors himself. This is what lies behind Psalm 50:15, “[C]all upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”
[1] This would not be true if sin had never entered the world, but with a world of sin—which needs to be punished and put to shame—being honored implies another being put to shame.
Read the other posts in this series:
Part 1, “Introduction”
Part 2, “What Are Honor and Shame?”
Part 3, “The Honor of Man”
Part 4, “The Shame of Sin”
Part 5, “The Honor of the King (God’s Anointed One)”
Part 6, “Honor Comes through the Shaming of Your Enemies”
Part 7, “Honor, Shame and Salvation”
Part 8, “Honor through the Shame of the Messiah”
Part 9, “We Need More than a Messiah”
