“Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.” Psalm 19:12-14.

This is the final of the three parts of Psalm 19 that we have been examining.

The first part, Psalm 19:1-6 showed us the glory of God in His creation and brought out how His creation speaks to every man of God’s existence and His power.

Part two, Psalm 19:7-11 showed us that God’s word the Bible is true, it gives us the gospel, the way of salvation and if we study the Scriptures and keep its precepts we will grow to the full measure of a man in Christ Jesus and enjoy a closer relationship with Him. Note what the last verse in that study says about the Scriptures.

“Moreover by them Your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward.” Psalm 19:11.

Final part three, Psalm 19:12-14 shows us the value of acknowledging that God’s precepts are true and are a compass for us to follow all our lives.

“Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults.” Psalm 19:12.

“Who can understand his errors?” The first half of verse 12 presents a question few Christians think of.

The errors spoken of here are unknown errors committed by Christians, such as saying “I love my brothers and sisters” while harboring anger or hatred for some folks or saying “I love my wife as myself” while showing little or no consideration for her needs as you do for yourself. It is easy to make these claims without realizing that they are untrue.

There are many single word descriptions for Christians who do not recognize these sinful faults: rudeness, overbearing, prejudiced, crassness, untruthful, stingy, gossip, bitterness, jealous, deceitful, and self-centered.

Beware, these words can also describe people who are not true Christians, so be careful if we or someone else has too many of the faults on this list.

“If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses 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.” 1 John 1:6-10.

“He who says he abides in Him [Jesus] ought himself also to walk just as He walked.” 1 John 2:6.

“Cleanse me from secret faults.” This second half of Psalm 19:12 leads us in the right direction to rid us of secret faults, faults we do not recognize in ourselves.

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.” Jeremiah 17:9-10.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23-24.

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10.

Truthfully, it is easier to take criticism from God than it is from others, so the above verses leading us to pray to God to examine us and help us to cast pernicious character flaws like stinginess or deceptiveness away as we draw nearer to Jesus.

One powerful key to this is to confess our sins to God, whether it is something we have committed or the secret fault when we learn what it is. We must confess our sins every time the Spirit highlights them to us.

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9.

Another powerful key to eliminating unknown faults is to get into the habit of praying often and giving serious attention to the study of the Scriptures, all of which will give us a more Christ-like heart and draw us nearer to God.

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 3:18.

“Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression.” Psalm 19:13.

“Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins…” the dictionary describes presumptuous as, willful; in violation of known duty; as in a presumptuous sin.

An example of this is when King David who had numerous concubines, and wives saw a woman named Bathsheba bathing on her rooftop.

David sent for her and committed adultery with her. She got pregnant and things went downhill from there. David committed a presumptuous sin, he knew it was a blatant transgression of one of God’s commandments and did it anyway, see 2 Samuel chapters 11-12.

Presumptuous sins are often the result of acting out the lusts we have, covetousness can lead to cheating or theft, jealousy can lead to bearing false witness, or anger can lead to violent behavior.

Presumptuous sins are conditions of the heart and can become habitual in one’s life. This is why the psalmist continues on by writing, “let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression.”

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.” Psalm 19:14.

“Let the words of my mouth” Jesus tells us in Matthew 15:17-20 that the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man, words can damage so caution must always be used.

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath…” James 1:19.

“…and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight”, this seems to be the most difficult of the lessons included here. Our minds tend to wander constantly, and it is difficult to keep from impure, angry, or thoughts of revenge against a bully, to name a few.

These, of course, are counterproductive and often keep you angry for no reason at all in some cases. It has been said, “As a man thinks, so he is.” This is good advice and deserves to be heeded, good thoughts produce a good outlook, bad thoughts produce a bad or evil outlook.

How do you want to feel day to day? See Philippians 4:8 to find the things which are good to meditate on.

Finally:

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.” Psalm 19:14.

“O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.” Do not forget these words, too often the Christian immediately seeks to do things in their own strength before praying to God who is our real strength for help in time of need.

God in Christ is also the Redeemer of all who will call upon the name of the Lord. He is also our Redeemer because He shed His blood to buy us back from sin and hell. Meditate on these things.

Psalm 19:12-14 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 5-10-25 ck.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.