When You Are Ashamed of What You Feel
They looked to him, and were radiant. Their faces shall never be covered with shame.
Psalm 34:5 WEB
Psalm 34 was written by David after one of the most humiliating and destabilizing periods of his life. He had been hunted by Saul, forced to flee, and driven into enemy territory where survival required him to pretend insanity before the Philistine king Achish. Though David escaped physically, the emotional weight of fear, desperation, and humiliation followed him. This psalm does not come from a place of victory or strength. It comes from exposure. When David speaks about shame, he does so as a man who had been reduced, frightened, and painfully aware of how far circumstances had pushed him from who he thought he was. The verse reflects relief rather than confidence. David points to God as the one who removes shame, not because the past never happened, but because God’s gaze does not condemn what He sees.
Current Feelings
There are emotions you carry that feel unacceptable even to you. You do not talk about them because you believe they should not exist in the first place. You may look steady on the outside while quietly feeling disgust, frustration, fear, or sadness on the inside. That internal split creates tension. You manage life well enough, but you judge yourself for what you feel and wonder why faith has not corrected it by now.
Shame often attaches itself not to actions, but to emotions. You may believe that strong men do not feel this way, that faithful men move past these things quickly, or that admitting these emotions would expose weakness you cannot afford to show. So you keep them contained. You silence them. Over time, that silence becomes heavy. It drains energy and creates distance, not only from others, but from yourself.
This verse speaks directly to that hidden weight. David does not claim he felt proud or composed. He says his face was no longer covered with shame. God did not demand better performance from him. He did not minimize what David had experienced. He simply met him without rejection. That matters. God’s presence does not intensify your shame. It removes it. When you bring what you feel into His presence, even the emotions you wish away, you are not exposed to condemnation. You are met with acceptance. Shame loses its grip where honesty is allowed to exist.
Action Steps
In a quiet moment, acknowledge one emotion you have been ashamed to admit and speak it honestly to God without explaining or defending it.
Pray Over It
Father, there are emotions inside me that I wish were not there, and I have carried shame for feeling them at all. I judge myself for what rises up in my heart, and I hide parts of myself because I am afraid of being exposed. I am bringing You what I usually keep guarded, trusting that You see me without turning away and that Your presence removes shame instead of adding to it. In Jesus' name amen.
