Psalms 19:12

Who can understand [his] errors?.... Sin is an error, a wandering out of the way of God, swerving from the rule of his word; and many mistakes are made by the people of God themselves; even so many

Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults. His errors , [ shªgiy'owt (H7691), from shaagah (H7686), to wander] - all failings and infirmities of the believer.

Who can understand? this may be here added, either, 1. As a further proof of the excellency and necessity of God’ s law, because men’ s errors are so many and hard to be discovered and prevented, that they indispensably need such a friend and counsellot as the law is, to give them the true knowledge of themselves and of their sins. Or, 2. As a just and sorrowful censure of himself, upon the consideration of the exact purity of God’ s law, and the comparing of his life with it. Thy law, O Lord, is holy, and just, and good. But I am a poor sinful wretch, falling infinitely short of it, and condemned by it. Or, 3. As a signification of the insufficiency of God’ s law, strictly so called, for the healing and saving of men’ s souls, and of the necessity of further supplies of the gospel and grace of God; whereby the eyes of their minds may be enlightened to see that light which shines in God’ s law, and their hearts may be renewed to yield universal obedience to it, for which therefore he prays in the following words. And withal, he implies that he did not expect that reward which he last mentioned as a just recompence to his obedience, which he confesseth to need a pardon more than to deserve a reward, but only as an effect of God’ s grace and goodness. His errors; either, 1. His sins of ignorance, of which this word is used, ,22,27 Ecclesiastes 5:6. Or rather, 2. His sins in general, (which afterwards he divides into secret and presumptuous sins,) or all deviations from God’ s law, which are thus called, ,118 Hebrews 9:7 . The sense is, I cannot comprehend the numbers, or the several kinds, or all the heinous aggravations of my sins. Cleanse thou me; both by justification, or the pardon of my sins, through the blood of thy Son, which is to be shed for me; and by sanctification through thy Holy Spirit, co-working in and with thy word, to the further renovation of my heart and life for these are the two ways of cleansing sinners most frequently mentioned both in the Old and New Testament: though the first may seem to be principally, if not only, intended, because he speaks of his past sins, which could be cleansed no other way but by remission. From secret faults, i.e. from the guilt of such sins as were secret, either, 1. From others; such as none knows but God and my own conscience: or, 2. From myself; such as I never observed, or did not discern the evil of. Pardon my unknown sins, of which I never repented particularly, as I should have done.

Psalms 19:12 Who can understand [his] errors? cleanse thou me from secret [faults].Ver. 12. Who can understand his errors?] This David speaketh doubtless out of a deep sense of his own imperfections and defects in what the law (so much by him commended) requireth; and to prevent mistakes, lest any man, hearing him speak of great reward, should think that heaven may be merited and salvation attained by a man’ s own righteousness. No such matter, believe it, saith holy David, I have neither done the law nor deserved the reward, but do fly to God by prayer; and three things I have to beg of him: First, That he would graciously pardon my secret sins and errors, unknown to myself, or at least to others. Secondly, That he would keep me from proud and presumptuous sins, Psalms 19:13. Thirdly, That he would bridle my tongue and mind from speaking, or but thinking, aught that may be offensive to his majesty, Psalms 19:14. For the first of these, Humanum est, errare et ignorare suum, It is incident to every man to err, and then to be ignorant of his errors (Jun.). Certain it is, that our lives are fuller of sins than the firmament is of stars, or the furnace of sparks. And if the best man’ s faults were written in his forehead, it would make him pull his hat over his eyes, as the proverb hath it. David here seeth such volumes of corruptions in his heart, and so many foul erratas in his life, that he cannot but cry out, Who can understand, &c., O cleanse, &c. The most perfect saints are the most sensible of their imperfections; as the more delicate the senses are the more sharply are they affected with what offends them, Romans 7:14 1 Corinthians 15:9-10. Alas for us (saith one good man)! Ipsae lachrymae sunt lachrymabiles; we had need to weep over our tears, sigh over our sobs, mourn over our griefs, &c. Look how when we have swept a room never so clean (saith Spinaeus, De Instit. Christian.), if the sun do but come into it at the windows, we soon espy abundance of filthy motes, mingled with the beams thereof; so is it with our hearts, when once enlightened. What a blind buzzard then was he that said, Non habeo, Domine, quod mihi ignoscas, Lord, I have nothing for thee to pardon! And no wiser was Bellarmine, that great scholar, but ill read in his own heart, if that be true that is reported of him, viz. that when the priest came to absolve him, he could not remember any particular sin to confess till he went back in his thoughts as far as his youth. Of Philip III, king of Spain, it is said, that he lived so strictly that he never committed any gross crime or wilful wickedness; yet coming to die, he cried out, Oh that I had never reigned!

(12) His eulogium on the Law was not Pharisaic or formal, for the poet instantly gives expression to his sense of his own inability to keep it. If before we were reminded of St. Paul’s, “The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good,” (Romans 7:12), his own spiritual experience, contained in the same chapter, is here recalled: “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil that I would not, that I do.” Who can understand.—In the original the abruptness of the question is very marked and significant. Errors who marks? From unconscious ones clear me, i.e., pronounce me innocent, not cleanse, as in Authorised Version.

Verse 12. Who can understand his errors?] It is not possible, without much of the Divine light, to understand all our deviations from, not only the letter, but the spirituality, of the Divine law. Frequent self-examination, and walking in the light, are essentially necessary to the requisite degree of spiritual perfection. Cleanse thou me from secret faults.] From those which I have committed, and have forgotten; from those for which I have not repented; from those which have been committed in my heart, but have not been brought to act in my life; from those which I have committed without knowing that they were sins, sins of ignorance; and from those which I have committed in private, for which I should blush and be confounded were they to be made public.

12–14. The contemplation of this holy law leads the Psalmist to express his personal need of preservation and guidance.

Who can understand his errors? - The word rendered errors is derived from a verb which means to wander, to go astray; then, to do wrong, to transgress.

12. Errors—The radical idea of the word is, to wander, go astray, rove; used often of unconscious sins, (sins of ignorance,) as Leviticus 4:2. These are difficult to detect.