Weekly Blog: Walk with Your Head High
Feb 24, 2020 3387
When you read Psalm 3 in the Bible, there’s a little note right at the beginning, that tells you something very important about the situation in which David wrote it. It says,
A psalm of David. When he fled from his son Absalom.
This tells us when David wrote this psalm. It was when he had sunk to the lowest point in his dramatic life. It was definitely the most humiliating moment of his life.
In the years of his old age, when he should have been sitting peacefully on his thrown, his family had completely fallen apart, and he had been betrayed by his own son, Absalom. King David had been forced to flee from his own throne, palace, and from his own city.
The once might-conqueror had been totally humiliated, not by a pagan king, but by his own flesh and blood! And the worst thing was that the ruin of his family had been precipitated by David’s own sins of adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, and his loyal servant, Uriah.
David knows that he has brought all this upon himself. And it is right in the middle of this humiliation and shame that David writes the following words,
But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high (Psalm 3:3, NIV).
Given the circumstances, this is an amazing claim!
There are two kinds of trouble that you will face in life: those which are caused by others, and those which you have brought upon yourself.
It is difficult enough to walk with your head high when you have been the victim of the evil of others. How much more difficult is to walk with your head high when you face troubles that you know you have brought upon yourself!
How is it that David can walk with his head high? The answer is also for us! We find it right in the next few verses:
I call out to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy mountain. 5 I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me. 6 I will not fear though tens of thousands assail me on every side (vv.4-6, NIV).
When you believe that it’s the Lord who sustains you, you will walk with your head high.
I don’t have ten thousands of real enemies who are out to get me at all. But what I do have is worse: a deep sense of worthlessness ingrained in me by my own wrong responses to my experiences in life. Despite how I may come across to others at times, my natural tendency is definitely not to hold my head high!
In different people this false shame can reveal itself in many ways, and not necessarily in obvious negative thoughts. It can be through behaviours that tear us down and bring down those around us. It can be manifested through defensiveness, withdrawal, anger, or various kinds of obsessions.
But when you let the awareness sink deep into your soul that it is the Lord who sustains you through the patterns of life, your life will be transformed. He is with you in every detail; even when you lie down and sleep, it is the Lord who wakes you. When you believe that it’s the Lord who sustains you, you will walk with your head high.
When your life is grounded in a real and active relationship with the Lord – when you know that when you call out to the Lord, he always answers – then you will learn to live without fear. You will live with your head held high, sustained by the Lord.
George Roussos
Mar 4, 2020
Thank you Eli. How do you know I needed this truth just now?
Visesio Amituanai
Mar 3, 2020
Thank you for sharing the Good News
RAYMOND KING
Mar 3, 2020
awesome words and lessons to live daily. nice job.
Luis
Mar 2, 2020
Execelente....no somos definidos por nuestros herrores. Somos definidos por dios
Rukh
Mar 1, 2020
Very beautifully explained. I can only imagine when my head was down with my own mistakes and also when I became victim of others. Thanks for the encouraging words. God bless. Rukh
Beshel Michael A
Mar 21, 2020
Bless God for such a unified word of hope which inspired life's daily.I am very happy and always will be if I will continuing having opportunity to be in touch with you. Thanks very much and may God bless you