But You, O LORD, are a shield for me, my glory and the One who lifts up my head.
Psalm 3:3
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley,
Hang down your head and cry,
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley,
Poor boy, you’re bound to die.
– From an American folk song
We’ve all done things we are not proud of. Worry, guilt, and shame are heavy burdens that bow us down before the god of this world, who deceived us into thinking that sin is fun. Some people never get over it. They go through their lives with their heads hung down as slaves to their own self-destruction. Others come to Jesus, who is The One who Lifts up their Heads.
Christ is the one who is above it all: Above the hustle and bustle of modern society, above the pettiness of what other people think, and above the circumstances that complicate our lives and pull us down.
Jesus is the “High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: who dwells in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones” (Isaiah 57:15).
The Apostle Paul totally understood it: “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:10).
Things don’t always go my way. I even remember failures from thirty and forty years in the past and shudder. But then, I also remember that Jesus took away my sin and my shame. He is The One who Lifts up my Head.
March 10
