Failure Rate
Let me not be put to shame, O Lord, for I call upon You; let the wicked be put to shame, let them be silent in Sheol Psalm 31:17 NASB
Shame– We’ve investigated the Hebrew word bôš several times in the past. John Oswalt notes:
The primary meaning of this root is “to fall into disgrace, normally through failure, either of self or of an object of trust.”[1]
The word is often paralleled with kālam“to be humiliated,” and less frequently with ḥātat“to be shattered, dismayed.” As these parallels suggest, the force of bôš is somewhat in contrast to the primary meaning of the English “to be ashamed,” in that the English stresses the inner attitude, the state of mind, while the Hebrew means “to come to shame” and stresses the sense of public disgrace, a physical state. [2]
In the culture of ancient Hebrew, public disgrace was the arena of shame. Does that mean that the private lives of individuals didn’t experience what has become a Western world fixation? Of course not. The difference is that Hebrews lived in close community. They knew when someone was in trouble, when life’s expectations were not being met, when betrayal or disaster or death ravaged a family or village. They didn’t have to turn on the news or the internet to connect with their neighbors. They lived together. Therefore, public experience was the cement of communal involvement. To be humiliated, disgraced or embarrassed in the community was not simply an individual matter. It affected the family and the family’s interaction with everyone else. Each person in the community carried the expectation of God’s approval.
In modern industrialized societies, especially technological ones, we have lost this essential obligation for community respect. From graffiti to littering, our world no longer demonstrates an awareness of the requirement to honor God in public. Once we pushed God out of the culture, we opened the gates for the abuse of all of His creation. A walk along virtually any street in any Western city will convince you. And by the way, there is no social cure for this. No legislation. No enforcement. No zoning. This is a result of the lost condition of the human heart. When there is no god, no essential respect of others soon follows.
David is not crying out for God to relieve his inner turmoil and make him feel better. He is crying out for the return to a social environment where righteousness is rewarded and wickedness punished. Our contemporary ideas of social justice are bound to fail because they are missing the most important foundation: God’s design for creation.
Topical Index: bôš, shame, public, social justice, Psalm 31:17
[1]Oswalt, J. N. (1999). 222 בּוֹשׁ. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(electronic ed.) (97). Chicago: Moody Press.
Even the beauty of a small country town is as you say, so much less now. The expectation of that One common approval having an import is so yesterday and we only want to look into ‘the solvable future’ by eating up our present, whilst running from our unresolved past/present.
The precious jewel, of actual wisdom has been thrown down and shattered into sherds.
Really there is no glory without the crystalisation process to make us draw one to another with purpose that is truthful in bonds and boundaries. The actuality of Wisdom is constrained because we forget the source of Wisdom and manufacture a comfortable individual version of it moment by moment as we run towards nowhere except our own desires.
We have been programmed to expect self desire realised is The Good instead of looking up or even out or testing the hypothesis.
All these free spinning wheels of ‘freedom of the individual’ remind me of those useless toys that just waste energy.
But now we are wasting the finite resource time & have become toys, mimicking every form of unreality. Disjointed micro groups are what families end up like, what towns look like too…. just individuals who coalesce by convenience & accident to use the same fridge….or go to the footy and then leave to spin their individual groove somewhere else, leaving only a teaspoon of milk in the bottle for their brother or throwing the food wrapper out the window as you leave the sports ground for someone else to deal with.
I now find it ironic we try to fix something by legislating righteousness. I previously thought that way & had The ‘great cause’ in my heart too, reckoning ‘we oughta make a law against this or that’ so that won’t happen again. It is like a flouro light, to rally around whilst rejecting the author of the light of righteousness. Goodness we need His help!
Be blessed. FJ
This is very good, F J. Thank you.
Shame is what we go into when there are problems that are not being addressed. The ‘fixes’ of the world are about alleviating that collective public humiliation. Our social safety nets; our legislated regulations that now number, in this country, into the millions upon millions of pages that NOBODY has a grasp of any more; our increasingly formalized and simultaneously fractured religious groupings: all are about Bandaids over the individual and collective hole in the soul that is left when there is no community. We all feel the shame of the fracture. We all suffer without the essential features that community – and only community – provides.
Many people, such as Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn, have described the solidarity of community in prison or, in his case, the Gulag, as the happiest time of their lives, and have also pointed out that there is no comparison for this in modern society. He said that he always felt relieved after his occasional short sojourn outside prison when he got put back in, because that was his community. Never mind the high stress and attrition rate!
Creation is all about community. The vast web of nature is our lesson book on how community is done. We can even look at our interior biome and see that all the ‘individuals’ contribute to the collective life that we represent for them. When we suffer dysbiosis, such as in our gut, all the body will attempt to correct the imbalance, for if one part of the body suffers, all that collective life is endangered. The Body of Christ should be no exception. We should form solidarity around the weakest among us, for all of us are essential for the rest of us. I think nature puts us all to shame. There are no substitutes or ‘fixes’ for love, and community – “oneness” – is how love is done. All of us can see this problem – and even describe it – but, sadly, that does not mean we are able to fix it.
I think shame is our barometer that alerts us to whatever puts community – the substrate of the individual – at risk. I have come to think the modern world, which has chosen to base its understanding of community on the Greek model of the singularity of the individual (for which there is no comparison in nature) as the building block of community, has it exactly backwards. The individual can only emerge in its marvelous diversity in the context of the community that provides the purpose as well as the mirror for the function of the person. Without community, there is no identity for ANY of us. I think shame is about that lack of identity. Shame is the warning bell that sounds whenever there is a fracture in the communal web that alerts us to the fact that a facet of the mirror is missing.
I think shame is not a sin, but I also think that if we ignore shame, or attempt to divert it or transform it or ANYTHING ELSE except pay attention to the pain of it and go get it fixed, we are sinning. It is shameful to try to ignore shame! Shame tells us where there is fracture. None of us – not even the collective that is secular society – can ‘fix’ the shame, however. Only the grace of God can hold the fractured parts together “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:” (Eph. 4:13)
Shame is experienced as an intensely PRIVATE phenomenon – it makes us want to hide even more! This should alert us to the problem that put us over in the corner – fractured – in the first place. Shame is a highly toxic killer if we do not get it out into the Sonlight and call the Waste Management Service (aka grace) to come get it out of our lives. May we, like David, face all the shame of the fracture that we find in our lives and pray for that grace today!
Excellent Laurita and so helpful!
Ended up going back to this. Not sure how the trail led me here, but , here I am reading your comments, Laurita. Your discussion in regards to shame. Such a big issue for me. I was reminded last night about Ephesians 4:13. Bringing every part into unity. Speaks to me of God’s healing our inner man. Healing the fractures or splits that have occurred in our lives. How he does this, I’m not sure because I still suffer from disconnected parts, so to speak. Really relying on the promises of God to perfect that which concerns me. Even though the accuser seems to be doing a certain amount of accusing. I wonder if when you get close to resolution there is a blow back that occurs to restrict another level of healing or unity. I’m talking about inner unity. Fractures. This may sound strange but I feel like God has a assignment for me but there are requirements for its fulfillment . Feeling stuck. I think I’m having a reaction to the word for today which was integration.???
Larry, cheer up, brother. What the Lord starts He finishes as long as we don’t give up, either. Who He calls, He is responsible for equipping. I am really struggling with my demons right now about the next phase of what I feel I am being called to. I think that grace covers us up to a point, but at that point we are supposed to go for the victory over the sin that so easily besets us because the next part needs us to not be vulnerable in those areas any more. Turn around and face the shortcomings and cry for complete victory, which is sanctification. 2Thess. 2:13 reminds us that salvation is not only “belief of the truth” but also “sanctification of the Spirit”. I think submission to sanctification means that grace no longer glosses over the lacking areas: victory erases the old identity and fills in the new one. Erasure time! Prepare to meet our new and improved selves!
Thank you so much for that word. Gracious but challenging. Kind but firm. Just like our Jesus. Thank God for you. I am reminded as I write but the Bible says be not only hearers of the word but doers also ! Blessings ! A generous soul will prosper, he who refreshes others will himself/ herself be refreshed !
Thank you for refreshing me, Larry. You heartened my day!
Skip, I liked what you said, “these things are the result of the lost condition of the heart”.
We are running around trying to deal with the symptoms instead of addressing what has/is causing the symptoms. In order to deal with symptoms you need to get dirty and involved and most of us don’t want to pay the price, so we keep trying to fix things. Reminds me of Matthew 6:33, “seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all of these things will be added unto you“. More time in waiting and contemplation is essential to health. Shalom. So grateful for TWOT ! It is playing a big role in my repentance, my about face!
Ah, the good old days. Think that mantra has rung true for every generation. I am sure even the Israelites felt that way in the exile, It’s human nature to think back and say how much better life was when.If we stop the nostalgia we may find that it wasn’t all that and a bag of chips. It does me no good to live the life of I could of,would of should of, there are no redo’s. We may not see or feel much of a future,but he says he will restore all things . There is hope so I run the race set before me with all it’s unknowings,what else is their to do he still has the words of life. We better understand what it is to be content in any situation or we will fall apart when I it gets worse. I am grateful and thankful for the life he has given me and choose to minus the complaints I think I might have.
As we wonder how in the world have we gone so
disastrously astray, I am filled with awesome wonder
about how the Creator’s design of restoration will quietly
show signs of efficacy.
Perhaps they’re well under way and we just don’t see them all. . .
“And the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world
as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
Aren’t we all part of the design? Haven’t we been given the keys to the kingdom?
Proverbs 3:5-6 comes to mind.