Discerning and Dealing with Sin

Psalm 19 is a wonderful psalm--Decalring the glory of God revealed in creation (vs. 1-6) and displaying the worth of God's Word as more desirable than much fine gold and sweeter than honey from the honeycomb (vs. 7-11), ending with David's instructions on discerning and dealing with the sins that still linger with in our hearts (vs 12-14).

It is in verses 12-14 that we discover how to deal with sin in our life. David categorizes sin into two broad groupings in these verses. The first is perplexing sin and the second is persumptuous sins.

The perplexing sins are those sins that are mysterious to us and often hidden from our eyes. David said in verse 12, "who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults." Perplexing sins are those sins that seem to sneak up on us. We say, think, feel, or do things and dont understand why these things just happened. You say something that you didnt mean to say or maybe you feel some feeling you dont mean to feel. Perplexing sins seem to come out of nowhere. "Who can discern his errors?" Who can get to the bottom of his own sinning? Jeremiah 17:9 tells us, "the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?" This type of sinning that we must fight against leaves us feeling much like Paul at the end of Romans 7--perplexed!

The persumptuous sins are those sins that we do with forethought and defiance and arrogance. It is those sins that we do from a rebellious heart. David said in verse 13, "Keep back your servant from presumptuous sins." These are those sins that we commit becasue we presume to know better than God--that our sins are no big deal. It is those sins done with an attitude that disregards what God has said to be wrong and harmful and declares "I am going to do it anyways!"

Every born again Lover of God still has lingering sin that we must fight against on a daily basis. They are either perplexing sins or presumptuous sins, but these feelings, and attitudes, and actions, and words are sin regardless and must be dealt with.
So how do we who love God deal with theses lingering sins?

David provides us the answer in these verses. First, concerning the perplexing sins he says "Acquit me of hidden faults." In other words, prayer for God's mercy and forgiveness as soon as the thought, attitude, word, or action is made known to you to be sin. Second, concerning the presumptuous sins David prays "Keep back your servant from presumptuous sins." We must pray for power to overcome. We must plead God to make our heart love Christ more than all other things, that His word will be to us more desirable than much fine gold and sweeter to us than honey from the honeycomb.

Oh that we might fight against these sins by praying for God to forgive us for both preplexing and presumptuous sins and that He might empower us to overcome them both.

There is one last thought. David spent four verses on the value of God's word (vs. 7-11). This is not accidental, but by design. The way we fight sin is with the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (Eph. 6:17). So we must take the Sword by the power of the Holy Spirit with prayer and strike down our enemies--put to death our remaining sin with in our hearts.

Grace be with you as you fight