Psalms 119:6-110 - Supplementary

God's Word and shame.

There are—

I. THE THREE KINDS OF SHAME .

1. The shame of which we need not be ashamed; of which we may be proud—the " reproaches of Christ;" being disregarded and even despised because we are loyal to our Lord, and true to the convictions we have learnt of him; the reproach which purity sometimes suffers at the hands of laxity, and integrity from the lips of dishonesty, and devotion from the ribaldry of ungodliness. This is all to our credit, and does us honor. But then there is:

2. Self-reproach, the accusation of our own conscience. There is also:

3. The condemnation of the good; that strong and sometimes stern reprobation with which an instructed society visits the crime, the vice, the cruelty, the selfishness, the wrong-doing which comes before its tribunal, and calls for its verdict.

II. OUR TRUE SUPPORT IN HONORABLE SHAME . This is found in what God's Word tells us of:

1. Our Lord's esteem add strong approval ( Matthew 5:10-12 ).

2. His own example. He "suffered the contradiction of sinners against himself," and stooped to the lowliest shame, "even to the death of the cross."

3. Our hope. "Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness."

III. THE TRUE PRESERVATIVE FROM THE SHAME WE SHOULD FEAR . This also God's Word affords us, for it supplies:

1. The constant, the eternal principles which save from sin and wrong—truth, probity, purity, temperance, faithfulness, etc.

2. The strongest inducements to integrity—that fear of God and love of Jesus Christ which will make us shrink sensitively from all that grieves his Spirit, and which will lead us to pursue that path which ends in his large reward.