(These notes are an exerpt from a Bible study I led in December)
Psalm 19:12-14
12 “Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults.”
With this question, David points to a mark of a maturing disciple. Many people like to think they know themselves thoroughly, but they are fooling themselves. There are so many deep and hidden crevices in our lives that we do well to submit ourselves to God and ask Him, Maker of heaven and earth (and us) to show us things about ourselves that we do not even know about, or only know incompletely. Related to this, if we want to become people whose errors are more fully known by us and then dealt with, it makes a lot of sense to be in close relationship with several people through whom God will reveal these things, people who can and will speak candidly to us. When we isolate ourselves however, as many do, sin and error are given the perfect breeding ground and further trouble ensues. Think of David when he decided to stay home and go gazing on his rooftop by himself. Disaster. (2 Samuel 11-12)
He asks God to “Declare me innocent from hidden faults,” indicating that he understands the fact that he is inclined to “hiddenness” in his life and so he wants instead to be absolutely transparent before his God who sees all. This is a good thing to pray for, that God would sanctify us through and through, not just in those areas we are aware of, but in those hidden (to us) areas as well.
13 “Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression.”
David now draws attention to his and our inclination to “presumptuous” or willful sins. Knowing the human heart well, he understands its movement toward sin, when it stands at a fork in the road so to speak, with either good or evil to choose, and it turns to evil. It is one thing to sin unwittingly, it is another to sin knowingly, and David asks, as we must, that God would preserve him from that kind of “great transgression.” He knows that sin seeks dominion, lordship, kingship over a person’s life, and he wants God’s dominion over him instead.
14 “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.”
Sometimes we ask for small things, but here we have an asking for a really big thing, namely that God would work in David at the deepest possible level, where it really counts, in the heart. He wants not only what comes out of his mouth to be acceptable in the LORD’s sight, but he wants “the meditation of my/his heart” to be that as well. Consider; what you think about in the quiet tells a lot about your substance. It’s a great litmus test of your Christward leanings. For example, as you wake up in the morning, what do you think about? Where you’ll have lunch? When you lay your head on your pillow at night, what is your last conscious thought? Where does your heart go? Is the routine answer, “my heart goes to banality, to the sitcom I watched, to whether I’ll get a Christmas bonus, to whether there’s orange juice in the freezer etc . . .?”
Let us be more like David and ask God to give us greater desires for Him and for His Son, that what we say and what we think about and what we do would be like little acts of worship before Him, “acceptable in His sight,” that we too would much more routinely “Taste and see that the LORD is good. . .” (Psalm 34:8)