Psalm 19:12-13 - February 27, 2009

Ps 19:12-13 "Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults. 13 Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression." NIV

This psalm is founded upon the same principles that Jeremiah laments in Jer 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” On our own we cannot know the deep recesses of our hearts. “Who can discern his errors?” This question displays our need for the Holy Spirit. Apart from God’s searching presence each one of us is destined to live with a measure of self-deception. Our hearts are such a deep well of diverse motivations rooted in our childhood training, emotional traumas, and personal decisions that we have made both consciously and subconsciously, yet everything we do and say flows out of those very same depths within us. The apostle Paul reflected on this principle when he said, 1 Cor 4:4 “My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.” He recognized that even though he felt good about his own decisions this did not make him innocent. He understood that his heart could still hold dark places within it, and that final judgment as to the condition of his heart was in the hands of the Lord”
Paul’s insight into this principle is extremely valuable as he reflects on the Lord’s response to what he finds as he examines our hearts. In 1 Cor 4:5 Paul writes, “He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts.” Paul’s words invite us into a relationship with the Lord of such intimacy that the Holy Spirit reveals the hidden things in our hearts and exposes our very motives in life. The great contrast between Old Testament and New Testament intimacy is the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit in the believer that is able to reveal to us our own hearts and motives.
Even so, in his cry for purity, David does not stop with only the state of his heart. David turns now to his will. Oh, that ever believer would walk with God with such a stewardship of our inner man. David is concerned both about his inner motives and his acts of willfulness. David cries out for deliverance from those conscious areas of sin that he knows he is inclined towards as willful acts of disobedience. This condition is present in most every Christian. We know what we ought to do and yet we choose a more convenient or pleasurable way. May we all find this same heart of David that longs for a blameless life, both in the acts of our will and in the inner recesses of the heart.