LORD, Forgive Me

August 29th, 2025
by Lance Waldie

Psalm 19:12-14 Who can discern his own errors? Acquit me of hidden faults. 13 Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins; let them not rule over me; then I will be blameless, and I shall be acquitted of great transgression. 14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.

After contemplating in awe God’s vast creation (19:1-6) and His perfect law (19:7-11), the psalmist considers his own soul and responds to God with confession of sins and a humble pleading to be acceptable to God through forgiveness (19:12-14). The writer knows that the one thing that separates him from the holy and eternal God is his own sin. It is as if the psalmist has just been presented the gospel from the created things and the word of God, and now, in his conviction of sin, he wishes to make things right with the Creator he has fully acknowledged.

If David is the writer of Psalm 19, it is interesting to compare these thoughts with Psalm 8. In Psalm 8, after reflecting on God’s greatness through the created universe—the sun, moon, and stars, David wonders about his own stateliness as a human being. In light of God’s majesty, he sees his own dignity, and the dignity of all men, for what it truly is. But in Psalm 19, David goes in a slightly different direction, reflecting not on man’s smallness but on his sinfulness. Whereas in Psalm 8 man is seen as trivial and incomparable to God, in Psalm 19 man is seen as sinful in the presence of the holy and eternal God. God’s revelation of Himself through creation and through His word displays a daily exhibition of glory, power, and wisdom, yet man stands in the midst of God’s glory as a sinful and depraved being completely reliant upon his Creator.

Therefore, in light of his own sin, David simply confesses his sins and asks to be forgiven. First, knowing that he has secret faults that are unknown to him but evident to God, he asks that God make those sins known and “acquit” him by letting him go unpunished for them. Second, he also knows that he has sinned presumptuously over the course of his life by willfully transgressing God’s laws. This is likely the “great transgression” he speaks of in v. 13. And if David is indeed the psalmist, then everyone who reads God’s law knows of David’s “great transgression” (cf. 2 Sam 11-12). He not only committed adultery, he coveted another man’s wife, murdered that same man, and made a general mockery out of his kingdom. In short, he shamed himself, scandalized Israel, and grieved God. Yet, he meekly asked pardon from God. Like the wicked tax collector in Luke 18:13 who humbly did the same, David knew enough about God to know that nothing was beyond His grace and mercy. He therefore asked God to forgive him, declaring him innocent of any wrongdoing, and making him “blameless.” Bold!

Now, having confessed and repented, David asks God to purify his words and the meditations of his heart so that they will be acceptable to God. He desperately desired to worship the God who pardoned him, yet knowing that he was still a sinful wretch who could not praise God with his unclean mouth and heart, he asked that they too be purified so he could worship properly. It is noteworthy at this point that David now calls Yahweh, “my rock and my Redeemer.” Standing on a new foundation of righteousness, the “rock,” and belonging to a new Master who has purchased him from his sinful state, David announces that, like the heavens which declare God’s glory (19:1), now his “words” will do the same. Though it is likely that the Hebrew form of the verb is jussive: “Let the words of my mouth…,” it is possible to translate it as an imperfect verb that continues the thought of the previous line. Thus, the writer could be saying that in light of being forgiven of the “great transgression… Then the words of my mouth…will be pleasing to You.” Either way, it is the forgiveness of sins that paves the way for man’s worship of the Creator. That forgiveness follows one’s recognition of God through His creation and the specifics of His word—Scripture.