Psalm 19:7-14 Devotional, 5/19/24,
7 The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

8 The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

9 The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

10 More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

11 Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.

12 Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.

13 Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: so shall I be upright, and made clean from much wickedness.

14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.

We saw previously the pious exclamation of David against vanity and sensual indulgence, showing forth the true riches and delight found in the word of God, how that the doctrine of the gospel is to be desired above all earthly treasures, and this is the chief import of the words of Christ, “take up your cross and follow me” and “if any man love father or mother more than me, he is not worthy of me” for who can deny that preeminent in man’s affections, even darkened by sin, is his own kin, his family, his flesh and blood, so that he will even lose his life, and all his possessions for the keeping of them, and their promotion in this life? and this affection being defiled by sin and corrupted by the fall is set on them as his ultimate end, so that he pursues riches, wealth and pleasure, not for his own sake absolutely, but for those close to him, and his own pleasure in that as his chief end? But David as an example of a pious and holy man does not direct our affections to the love of this world, nor of riches, or the pleasure of family, but turns our attention to the law, even as in the first Psalm, saying, “blessed is the man (not who has riches, family and pleasures) but who delights in and meditates upon the word of God day and night.” Therefore we conclude that the Christian is always blessed, even as the scripture saith, “all things work together for good…etc.” Yet it is ever our duty to pursue that good and take delight and refuge in the word of God, as He hath promised us great rewards at the end of our journey. This then is the whole life of the Christian. Despite present trial, sorrow, loss, grief or poverty, we look to the word of God for sustenance and comfort, and find our blessing in and by the promises of God. More to be desired are they than gold even as they all point to Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of all the law and prophets. We ought also to see that the attitude of the Christian is ever directed away from sin and uncleanness, even as another holy man writes saying, “Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.” and so David says here, “cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: so shall I be upright, and made clean from much wickedness.” So we see that the Antinomian fiction of sinning because under grace falls to the ground. David, more than simply praying to God to keep him from open faults which may stain or damage our reputation among men, prays to God that He by His own free grace would keep and preserve him from sins of the heart, or “secret faults”. For so wide and broad is our duty that even when we have done all according to our own conscience, and other’s expectations also, we have not done the least part as is required in the law which is perfection therein according to absolute holiness, without the least degree of corruption. But we know within ourselves that all our services, yes our best duties are tainted and stained with sin so that if we should be justified by our best work alone and all else should be forgiven, we should not merit a heaven for it but a hell, inasmuch as what we performed was already owed to God by way of duty, and that which was imperfect was offensive to a holy and just sovereign. Therefore doth David pray to God to keep him clean from hidden sins, for that they are offensive in God’s sight though they escape our own. And such is the attitude of all those who March towards the heavenly city. They shun evil in all its degrees and manifestations and they seek to be pure entirely, for that is what God delights in. This Psalm is echoed in the Lord’s prayer, when immediately after Christ instructs His disciples to pray for forgiveness, he enjoins thereto a prayer against temptation. For it is certain that those only are forgiven who desire to be free from sin in all of its manifestations, both the guilt that renders us obnoxious to God’s law, and the pollution that separates us from His fellowship. And so we are taught to pray thus, “forgive us our transgressions as we are taught by this principle to forgive others, and keep us from being tempted to sin, even as it is within thy power to do so.” which exact principle you can see in Psalm 19 when David says, “cleanse me from secret faults and then, “keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins”, which is ever the prayer of the godly who have a sight of sin, sorrow for sin, shame for sin, hatred of sin, confession of sin, and a turning from it unto God.

Calvin,
Who can understand his errors? This exclamation shows us what use we should make of the promises of the law, which have a condition annexed to them. It is this: As soon as they come forth, every man should examine his own life, and compare not only his actions, but also his thoughts, with that perfect rule of righteousness which is laid down in the law. Thus it will come to pass, that all, from the least to the greatest, seeing themselves cut off from all hope of reward from the law, will be constrained to flee for refuge to the mercy of God. It is not enough to consider what the doctrine of the law contains; we must also look into ourselves, that we may see how far short we have come in our obedience to the law. Whenever the Papists hear this promise,
“He who doeth these things shall live in them,” (Leviticus 18:5,)
they do not hesitate at once to connect eternal life with the merit of their works, as if it were in their own power to fulfill the law, of which we are all transgressors, not only in one point, but in all its parts. David, therefore, being involved as it were in a labyrinth on all sides, acknowledges with astonishment that he is overwhelmed under a sense of the multitude of his sins. We ought then to remember, in the first place, that as we are personally destitute of the righteousness which the law requires, we are on that account excluded from the hope of the reward which the law has promised; and, in the next place, that we are guilty before God, not of one fault or of two, but of sins innumerable, so that we ought, with the bitterest sorrow, to bewail our depravity, which not only deprives us of the blessing of God, but also turns to us life into death. This David did. There is no doubt that when, after having said that God liberally offers a reward to all who observe his law, he cried out, Who can understand his errors? it was from the terror with which he was stricken in thinking upon his sins. By the Hebrew word שגיאות, shegioth, which we have translated errors, some think David intends lesser faults; but in my judgment he meant simply to say, that Satan has so many devices by which he deludes and blinds our minds, that there is not a man who knows the hundredth part of his own sins. The saints, it is true, often offend in lesser matters, through ignorance and inadvertence; but it happens also that, being entangled in the snares of Satan, they do not perceive even the grosser faults which they have committed.

Accordingly, all the sins to the commission of which men give themselves loose reins, not being duly sensible of the evil which is in them, and being deceived by the allurements of the flesh, are justly included under the Hebrew word here used by David, which signifies faults or ignorances. In summoning himself and others before the judgment-seat of God, he warns himself and them, that although their consciences do not condemn them, they are not on that account absolved; for God sees far more clearly than men’s consciences, since even those who look most attentively into themselves, do not perceive a great part of the sins with which they are chargeable.

After making this confession, David adds a prayer for pardon, Cleanse thou me from my secret sins. The word cleanse is to be referred not to the blessing of regeneration, but to free forgiveness; for the Hebrew verb נקה, nakah, here used, comes from a word which signifies to be innocent. The Psalmist explains more clearly what he intended by the word errors, in now calling them secret sins; that is to say, those with respect to which men deceive themselves, by thinking that they are no sins, and who thus deceive themselves not only purposely and by expressly aiming at doing so, but because they do not enter into the due consideration of the majesty of the judgment of God. It is in vain to attempt to justify ourselves under the pretext and excuse of ignorance. Nor does it avail any thing to be blind as to our faults, since no man is a competent judge in his own cause. We must, therefore, never account ourselves to be pure and innocent until we are pronounced such by God’s sentence of absolution or acquittal. The faults which we do not perceive must necessarily come under the review of God’s judgment, and entail upon us condemnation, unless he blot them out and pardon them; and if so, how shall he escape and remain unpunished who, besides these, is chargeable with sins of which he knows himself to be guilty, and on account of which his own conscience compels him to judge and condemn himself? Farther, we should remember that we are not guilty of one offense only, but are overwhelmed with an immense mass of impurities. The more diligently any one examines himself, the more readily will he acknowledge with David, that if God should discover our secret faults, there would be found in us an abyss of sins so great as to have neither bottom nor shore, as we say; for no man can comprehend in how many ways he is guilty before God. From this also it appears, that the Papists are bewitched, and chargeable with the grossest hypocrisy, when they pretend that they can easily and speedily gather all their sins once a year into a bundle. The decree of the Lateran Council commands every one to confess all his sins once every year, and at the same time declares that there is no hope of pardon but in complying with that decree. Accordingly, the blinded Papist, by going to the confessional, to mutter his sins into the ear of the priest, thinks he has done all that is required, as if he could count upon his fingers all the sins which he has committed during the course of the whole year; whereas, even the saints, by strictly examining themselves, can scarcely come to the knowledge of the hundredth part of their sins, and, therefore, with one voice unite with David in saying, Who can understand his errors? Nor will it do to allege that it is enough if each performs the duty of reckoning up his sins to the utmost of his ability. This does not diminish, in any degree, the absurdity of this famous decree. As it is impossible for us to do what the law requires, all whose hearts are really and deeply imbued with the principle of the fear of God must necessarily be overwhelmed with despair, so long as they think themselves bound to enumerate all their sins, in order to their being pardoned; and those who imagine they can disburden themselves of their sins in this way must be persons altogether stupid. I know that some explain these words in a different sense, viewing them as a prayer, in which David beseeches God, by the guidance of his Holy Spirit, to recover him from all his errors. But, in my opinion, they are to be viewed rather as a prayer for forgiveness, and what follows in the next verse is a prayer for the aid of the Holy Spirit, and for success to overcome temptations.”

1. Refutation of Papist superstition enjoined in the exposition as necessary to it.
2. The conscience after the fall is still seeking justification by the works of the law.
Gal.3:21-22, Rom. 8:3-4
3. Both the Papists and their followers are accursed. The same for today’s Calvinists.
4. Calvin mentions the saints as separate from them.

And therefore shunning evil, and cleaving to our God as to an only refuge and place of safety, let us come before Him with open hearts, confessing our iniquity, and begging for grace to be forgiven and purified from all evil works.

Opening Prayer.

Lesson 20.
The Militant Nature of Fallen Man’s Ignorance and the Remedy thereof.

Would parents but begin betimes, and labour to affect the hearts of their children with the great matters of everlasting life, and to acquaint them with the substance of the doctrine of Christ, and, when they find in them the knowledge and love of Christ, would bring them then to the pastors of the Church to be tried, confirmed, and admitted to the further privileges of the Church, what happy, well-ordered Churches might we have! Then one pastor need not be put to do the work of two or three hundred or thousand governors of families, even to teach their children those principles which they should have taught them long before; nor should we be put to preach to so many miserable ignorant souls, that be not prepared by education to understand us; nor should we have need to shut out so many from holy communion upon the account of ignorance, that yet have not the grace to feel it and lament it, nor the wit and patience to wait in a learning state, till they are ready to be fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.

But now they come to us with aged self-conceitedness, being past children, and yet worse than children still; having the ignorance of children, but being overgrown the teachableness of children; and think themselves wise, yea, wise enough to quarrel with the wisest of their teachers, because they have lived long enough to have been wise, and the evidence of their knowledge is their aged ignorance; and they are readier to flee in our faces for Church privileges, than to learn of us, and obey our instructions, till they are prepared for them, that they may do them good; like snappish curs, that will snap us by the fingers for their meat, and snatch it out of our hands; and not like children, that stay till we give it them.

Intro.

The cause of so little profit from the gospel is to be attributed to lack of instruction in youth.

Sin grows as weeds grow. The longer they are left alone, and the deeper they gain root, the harder they will be to pull out.

I. The militant nature of ignorance.
i. It grows, and becomes worse with time. (Heinousness rather than quality of nature)
ii. It stimulates pride.
iii. It is hostile to the knowledge of God. (secularism, materialism, psychology)
iv. It is hostile to the strictness of the law. (antinomianism)
v. It is hostile to authority and order. (credobaptism)
vi. It is hostile to the simplicity of the gospel. (Papism)
vii. It is hostile to God’s dominion and authority. (Arminianism)
viii. It is hostile to correct doctrine. (neo-Calvinism)

II. The remedy of ignorance.
i. The law and the gospel.
ii. Repentance and faith.
iii. A lifelong commitment to the study of holy knowledge.
iv. Instruction of the young.

Conclusion.
Application.
i. Bless God if delivered from damnable ignorance which the whole world is swallowed up in.
ii. Continue in fellowship with the saints, the study of godliness, prayer and waiting upon God for the fulfillment of the promises.

Closing prayer.

YouTube Audio: https://youtu.be/Kxswil7XzKI