Presumptuous Sins (Psalm 19:12-13)

2023-05-24

Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. (Psalm 19:12-13)

With sin, we need to be intentional with being open with God about them. The psalmist David here asks the LORD to clean him from sin that he did not even know he had. Ever discover that after years of being a Christian, a certain attitude or practice was sin? We ask the Lord to expose those.

Moreover, David asks the Lord to be kept back from “presumptuous sins.” The word is elsewhere translated as proud. Think of how we could proudly parade our sin around in public. If David was capable of it, so are we. Remember Bathsheba, the torture of Ammonites, and the census. He knew what he was capable of, and we need to be also.

Whatever this great transgression is, proudful living in sin leads to it, and likely leads to severe repercussions. Perhaps this is like the willful sin in the New Testament.

Again, David writes in Psalm 25:3, “Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.” We likewise see something like the willful sin. There was no luring into this sort of sin. There was no cause other than the wickedness of the sinner.

Keeping short accounts with the Lord, as said by many, is the best way. We cannot have our fellowship with the Lord disrupted by our sin because so much is at stake.