Not Ashamed

"In you, O Lord, I have put my trust,
  O let me never be ashamed."  Psalm 31, vs. 1.
What a strange thing to read in a Psalm!  Are you ashamed of God?  (Perhaps before Him, on account of our stumbling into sin, but that is a another matter.)  Why should the Psalmist ask God "Never let me be ashamed of trusting you"?
How often have you stepped out in faith, confident in the assurance that God answers prayer, and will not let you down, only to feel disappointed?
This was certainly Job's experience.
It was also Paul's experience: "We were so utterly, unbearably crushed," he wrote to the Corinthians, "that we despaired of life itself." 2 Corinthians, Ch. 1, vs. 8.
It was also the experience of Jesus on the Cross, when he uttered these words:
   "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" Mark, Ch. 15, vs. 34.
In bearing the sins of the whole world, the sinless for the sinful, He actually endured the complete and utter separation from God the Father that we sometimes anticipate in our anxious, agonizing, faltering moments, yet never truly have to know. Underline that word never.
Jesus has been there, and done that, for us.
As a character in a modern novel says to a friend who feels God has forsaken him: 'That may seem to happen, but it never happens.  But never, never, does it happen."
The final words belong to the end of Psalm 31, vs. 24:
   " Be strong, let your heart take courage,
      all you who wait for the Lord."
And you will not be ashamed.