A True Sight of Sin in Psalm 19

Can you imagine polling people on the street and asking them if they have sinned today? If they don't attack you first, chances are, the ones who say "yes" will claim to be Christians. In fact, I have frequently heard Christians say that they sin every day. What do they mean? Is this a transparent and humble confession of sin, or is it a boastful and entitled profession of sin? Of course, this is an extremely broad topic, and truth gets lost in the complexity.

We might begin with saying that Scripture assumes we will sin habitually. And yet Scripture also makes clear that sin in any form is unacceptable to God. Yes, you will hear the full gamut of doctrinal positions on sin, from sinless perfection to full-blown antinomianism, but far too seldom do either of these extremes meet in the middle to take an honest look at what Scripture actually says. The truth is that this question is secondary to the question we ought to be asking but notoriously overlook. What if the question is not whether we sin but what we do about our sin?

Study the Psalms with a pencil in hand and circle every reference to sin, trespass, iniquity, and transgression. You will find embedded in many psalms a contrite recognition of the psalmist's flawed and needy state. Take Psalm 19:12-14, for instance: "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. Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer." Can we see why David is called a man after God's own heart? It's all right there--all the theology of Romans in a nutshell. Notice the before, during, and after in the sin-solution closing this glorious Psalm.

David begins this closing section of his meditation with a rhetorical question: "Who can understand his errors?" Here, he openly acknowledges that everyone has errors and that these are beyond human comprehension. Certainly, he must have thought this after his adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah. David voices the central question of world philosophy across the history of civilization. We think of Paul's pre-conversion experience as outlined in Romans 7 or Jeremiah's observation, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9). Or we think of Solomon's terse observation, "He who trusts in his own heart is a fool" (Proverbs 28:26). Ultimately, we think of what Jesus said, "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: these are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashed hands defiles not a man" (Matthew 15:19-20). Any true cleansing from sin must begin with a deep sense of the horror of sin and the helplessness that this horror brings.

David has opened this psalm with what have become some of the most famous words of the entire Bible, "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard" (Psalm 19:1-3). We can picture David gazing deeply into the stars on a calm, cool night as he watches over his sheep. And as that long, quiet night stretches into morning, he sees the sun bursting just over the hill. "In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race" (Psalm 19:4-5). He knows that the sun brings with it merciless heat, and he thinks of the law of the LORD. In God's light, there is no place to hide. "The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple" (Psalm 19:7). And his soul yearns to follow this law with all his heart, for he knows that upon this law hangs all the beauty of the universe.

What David senses here in his communion with God is not merely natural beauty but spiritual beauty. God has designed a morally beautiful universe. "The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward" (Psalm 19:8-11). David's thematic imagery mirrors the consistency of God's glorious law--for, following the joyous blaze of sun, we see also David's reference to gold and to honey. Just as the sun brings light to the day, God's law brings light to the soul. Just as gold epitomizes value, the judgments of the LORD are the summum bonum of life. And they are not merely to be admired; they are to be consumed in the innermost soul as honey in the honeycomb.

And here David provides the transition to his closing prayer by observing, "Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward" (Psalm 19:11). A solemn note of warning echoes across the pastoral hills. What happens when humanity does not follow the perfect law of the LORD? But David flips the meditative coin over to remark, "and in keeping of them there is great reward" (Psalm 19:11). And then a sharp pain pierces his heart and mind as he realizes how utterly far from this great God his crowning creation is in their natural state. Out of all creation's symphony, we are the sole jarring notes out of tune. "Who can understand his errors?" It makes no sense at all that, if I know and love the law of God, I do not keep it at all times. What accounts for this bitterest of all riddles? Thus, has David given the prelude to his prayer as the Eden out of which steps his own transgression. And yet this question beginning this most personal prayer is indeed the starting point of all true deliverance from sin. If we fail to see how ugly sin is, how great a blight it is on the landscape of our Great Creator's universe, we will think it is normal and necessary, when the truth is, we cannot live with it at all.

"Cleanse thou me from secret faults." David here invokes the process of divine cleansing. He cannot cleanse himself. Beyond the faults which he sees but fails to understand are those he cannot even see. And yet even here, he believes that God will prevail. In keeping with Psalm 139:23-24, "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting," David prays with full confidence that God will make an end of searching him, and he surrenders to the thoroughness of this "knowing." From his heart to his thoughts to his ways, he surrenders his all.

This process of purification involves cleansing not only of those hidden motivations of which we are not aware but also of those pretensions that disguise who we are. "Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me" (Psalm 19:13). This is not merely cleansing from a sinful disposition but prevention from sinful behavior. And just here our Christian culture fails miserably in venturing forward into "presumptuous sins"--those things we brazenly do that we think God does not notice. Can we not think of a list of these? What about those things we think are too small to punish, like little lies, inappropriate language, careless and profane use of God's name? Our entire culture has long dared to presume upon the mercy of God, thanks to a corrupted view of grace. And for those who assume that we cannot rise above the sin that so easily besets us (Hebrews 12:1), David here proves otherwise. "Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins"--and we think of the Lord's Prayer, "lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil" (Matthew 6:13). It is not necessary, nor is it normal, to live a life of presumptuous sin.

David has opened his prayer with a helpless acknowledgment of sin's mystery. He has gone right to the heart of the sin problem with his request for cleansing of present sin and of prevention of future sin. Now he gives the aftermath of this wonderfully painful process: "then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression" (Psalm 19:13). What is the great transgression? Is it not the first transgression--the will to autonomy, thinking my way is better than God's, being my own "god"? In all of his heinous faults, David did not lift up his soul as his own god. Even for all his silence following his great fall from grace, we might say with that song, he "fell on Jesus." No, David did not immediately repent, and he was indeed very far from God during his year-long drought. But he never completely lost his shepherd's heart, which is why Nathan's story pierced the depth of his soul.

David closes his prayer and this great psalm with a standing request, the nature of which James reminds us determines our entire character: "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer" (Psalm 19:14). Jesus tells us that "out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks" (Matthew 12:34), and James tells us that the man who is perfect in his speech is a perfect man (James 3:2). What a beautiful and fitting ending to a psalm opening with these words, "The heavens declare the glory of God"! David's psalm of praise would be incomplete if he could not add his own voice to the glory of creation, and yet this is impossible unless his heart has been cleansed by the LORD, "my strength, and my redeemer."

Have we considered just what an affront it is to God to assume that the Great Creator of the universe is either unwilling or unable to tune our hearts to sing His praise? "This people draw near to me with their mouths and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me" (Isaiah 29:13). No amount of flattery to God can replace the absence of these most powerful words, "Cleanse thou me." If we ask Him, He will. And this cleansing is as perpetual as the sunrise if we are willing to walk in the light. "This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us" (I John 1:5-10).

Shall we not remember that it was the publican who went home justified and not the Pharisee? But shall we also not assume that the publican was from that point forever changed?

Come to Jesus, by Chris Rice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CdML_8uY18