Ps. 71.12-13 (perpetual shame)

O God / be not fare from me
O God / hasten to my help.
Let my adversaries / end up / in complete shame
let them / be wrapped / in reproach and humiliation
those who seek my hurt. 

These verses introduce the reversal appealed for. These verses begin with an appeal to God’s presence: “be not far…hasten to my help”. They then, however, effortlessly move into judgment upon the adversaries. This points to something we have noted throughout many psalms when God’s presence (rather than his ‘answer’) is sought—that God’s presence effects his holiness and that, therefore, when he ‘comes near’, that which opposes him is, almost by necessity, judged. It is for this reason why the psalmist can merely say “be not far from me” in order for that to be a prayer for deliverance. When God arrives, his people are redeemed and their enemies cast down (“…the ‘last’ are made ‘first’; the hungry are filled with good things, while the wicked are sent away empty”). Further, when God moves close, the judgment is not only powerful but, importantly, complete. God’s judgment is a moment within his establishment of his people. These verses point in this direction: “end up in in complete shame…wrapped in reproach and humiliation…”. Shame, reproach and humiliation: this is their ‘end’. They will be almost clothed in these very public curses. It is instructive that what they attempted to do in secret, by way of ‘conspiracy’, is here, in God’s presence, not only revealed but revealed as shame, reproach and humiliation (it is, in other words, not just revealed but judged). What they attempted to do ‘inside’ will be turned ‘inside-out’ for the purpose of exposing them to others. In other words, God will put on display what they attempted to perpetuate in a hidden manner. And they will be ‘wrapped’ in this display, like a form of clothing they cannot remove. I think what we see here, in light of the above point about the total nature of God’s judgment, is that this public display will be perpetual. The adversaries will not be able to avoid it. They will be a permanent display. This is their ‘end’ and their ‘wrapping’. Much as Adam and Eve had their shame ‘covered’, so now will the wicked be ‘covered’ in shame.