Who understandeth [his] errors? Purify me from secret [faults].
The psalm has just praised God's word. Now the writer turns that same light back on himself. He asks a question he cannot answer. Then he prays about sin in himself that he has never seen.
The prayer does not follow failure. It follows delight in God's word. It shows what happens when a person who loves that word looks at himself.
There is delight in it, according to the new nature, and the consciousness of relationship... But this confidence and nearness turn the eye to another point: the lack of full self-knowledge, and distrust of self. "Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults." In many things I may delight in the word, and value it when I think about it, and still not have judged my own heart. I may not be able to test my heart in practice and measure it by that perfection, for spiritual judgment grows over time.
Ask why we did wrong and we come up short. One writer compares adults to a child who cannot explain himself, and points ahead to the day God judges what is hidden.
If we ask a child why he did something wrong, he cannot answer. He does not understand his errors, and adults are no different. We do not understand what our mistakes really mean. We also have secret faults that we do not want brought into the open. But the day will come when "God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ" (Rom. 2:16). How much better now for us to judge them and echo the language of David, "Cleanse me from secret faults."
The word "hidden" means hidden from me, not from God. Older translations read "secret faults," and that is the wording these writers use. The next verse sets the opposite case beside it.
"Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults," that is, from the sins I do without knowing it myself. "Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins." To sin when you know you are sinning is indeed presumption.
Ignorance changes nothing about what sin is. Because we notice so little, we have to ask for the washing instead of waiting until we feel the need.
So the psalmist is convinced: "who understands his errors?" In that conviction he turns to God with confidence and prays, "Free me from things hidden from me." Sins are not harmless just because they are unknown. They are still sins, as the law of sacrifice shows. (Lev. 4:2, 13, etc.) The dust of a defiling world settles on us without a sound, and it dulls the mirror of conscience before we notice. We need the basin and towel in the Lord's hand (John 13), not only when we are aware of evil, but because we are aware of so little.
One writer sets Paul beside the psalmist. Neither man could claim more than a clear conscience.
But who can say he is free from sins of ignorance? Not the psalmist, when he asks the same thing, "Who can understand his errors? cleanse me from secret faults." (Ps. 19:12.) Not the apostle, when he declares, "For I know nothing against myself; yet am I not thereby justified; but He that judges me is the Lord." (1 Cor. 4:4.) Here we see two things at once. There is the integrity of a man who has been tested and has judged himself, free from every known offense. And there is the full admission that things might easily be wrong in him without his knowing it. Trusting His grace, he could hand those things over to the One who will bring everything to light. If none of us ought to be able to say less than this, who on the other hand can say more?
The man praying is not in doubt about where he stands. That is why he dares to raise the question at all.
Jehovah is his Rock and his Redeemer (verse 14). The heart that searches itself always feels its own weakness and sinfulness (verses 12, 13). But it trusts Jehovah and looks to Him with confidence for protection and rescue from the evil it feels and fears... So reverence and godly fear, the constant companions of a true heart-enjoyment of grace, set the tone of this wise and thoughtful psalm.
- Hidden from me — hidden faults are sins I commit without knowing it. The next line names the opposite: sinning with my eyes open.
- Hidden, not harmless — unknown sin is still sin. The dust of the world settles without a sound, and conscience dulls before I notice.
- Hidden, so I must ask — I cannot cleanse what I cannot see, so I leave the basin and towel in His hands, not mine.
- Hidden, yet no barrier — Paul knows nothing against himself, and still will not call himself justified by that. A clear conscience is honest, not final.
- Hidden, and safe — the prayer rises from trust in the One who is rock and redeemer. That is why searching myself here brings reverence, not dread.
Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous [sins]; let them not have dominion over me then shall I be perfect, and I shall be innocent from great transgression.
Psalm 19 moves from the silent witness of the skies to the perfect law of the Lord, and then inward. David turns to his own heart, confesses the faults he cannot see, and names a bolder danger: sin chosen with open eyes.
Verse 13 stands beside the "hidden faults" of verse 12, and the two name different kinds of sin.
"Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults," that is, from the sins I commit without knowing it myself. "Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins." To sin, knowing it, is indeed presumption.
Under the law of Moses, that difference decided whether any sacrifice covered the sin.
Under the law the only sins that were provided for were those of ignorance. If a man acted presumptuously, he was to die without mercy; no sacrifice was provided for that. So, in the nineteenth psalm, David says, "Keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins" — that is, sins done knowingly.
The second half of the request — that such sins would not rule him — recognises how fast a chosen wrong becomes a master.
Much worse than this are "presumptuous sins" (v. 13). They involve deliberately and willfully indulging in what we know is wrong. Once we launch out in such a course, it is not long before such sins take control of us. May the Lord indeed preserve us from this dreadful danger. It is not usually sins of ignorance that cause us the greatest trouble, but sins we know are sins, yet we give way to them. The Lord knew we needed His preserving mercy for this, when He gave His disciples the prayer, "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."
The prayer grows out of self-distrust, and it looks for safety outside himself.
We can find our safeguard only in the sanctuary. The Lord Himself is our constant necessity; and the self-distrust is wholesome that keeps us close to Him.
Verses 12 and 13 belong together, and small unjudged sins have a way of leading to big ones.
He asks to be cleansed from his secret faults, and to be kept from all presumptuous faults — what one would commit with open disregard of God. So he would be undefiled, and kept with God, not turning aside to idols or empty things. For small and neglected sins and unjudged confidence of heart lead to forgetfulness of God, and denial of Him in the truth.
But what is the "great transgression" he wants to stay clear of?
"The great transgression" (verse 13) is, undoubtedly, rebellion of the will. It is this that the believer who is growing in the way of the Lord learns most of all to dread. Man's capital sin has always been the attempt to act and prosper independently of God. This is the very root and essence of all the varied forms of personal transgression. Jesus alone found complete joy in doing the will of God perfectly. Over those whose desire is to walk as He walked, keeping themselves in His name in the love of God, the tempter has no power (1 John 2:5-6; 5:18).
The Hebrew behind "presumptuous" carries the thought of pride, and David had reason to know his own temperament.
We may gather from Ps. 19:13 that he was conscious of this weakness. "Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins (literally, of pride); let them not have dominion over me." He knew how soon they get the mastery... Few realized more than he the deep and constant need of delivering grace, and none has had richer experiences of it. "The Lord was with him" is the key to his whole history.
Others apply the same breathing of heart to any reader who wants to be teachable.
Let us cultivate a lowly and an obedient spirit. God has said, "To this man will I look, even to him who is of a contrite spirit and trembles at my word." May these words sink down into our ears and into our hearts.
Blamelessness follows the answer to this prayer. The closing verse adds the positive side.
When God answers the prayer of verses 12 and 13, then David may say, "Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression." ... This is the negative side. Verse 14 gives what is beautifully positive: "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer."
- Known sin. Hidden faults need cleansing. Presumptuous sins are different: to sin knowing it is presumption.
- Kept back. David asks God to hold him back, not just to forgive him. Self-distrust is healthy: it keeps a person close to the Lord.
- Dominion. Chosen sin does not stay a single act. It takes control fast, so the plea is that it never rules the life.
- The great transgression. Under every sin lies rebellion of the will — the effort to act and prosper apart from God.
- The result. Blamelessness is God's answer to the prayer, not a boast. Verse 14 completes it: he asks that his words and his thoughts please God.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Jehovah, my rock, and my redeemer.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.