Psalm 19:12 Komentář

There are two excellent books which the great God has published for the instruction and edification of the children of men; this psalm treats of them both, and recommends them both to our diligent study. I. The book of the creatures, in which we may easily read the power and godhead of the Creator (Psa 19:1-6). II. The book of the scriptures, which makes known to us the will of God concerning our duty. He shows the excellency and usefulness of that book (Psa 19:7-11) and then teaches us how to improve it (Psa 19:12-14). To the chief musician. A psalm of David.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 19 To the chief Musician, a Psalm of David. This psalm was penned by David, and inscribed to the chief musician, as others, to be used in public service, and was designed for Gospel times, as the subject of it shows; which is first, not an account of the light of nature, and then of the law of Moses, but of the Gospel of Christ; and especially as ministered in the times of the apostles, as a citation out of it in Rom 10:18, makes clear.

Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins,.... Some understand these words of persons: the Septuagint, and the versions that follow that, render it "from strangers": such who are strangers to God and godliness; that is, keep from all conversation with them in things sinful, or from others' sins; from having a fellowship with them, being a partaker of them, lest their plagues and punishments should be shared in: others, as the Targum, "from proud men", who are haughty, insolent, and conceited of themselves; lest he should be so corrupted and drawn aside by them: but rather the words are to be understood of sins wilfully, contumaciously, and presumptuously committed; and the petition supposes, that these may be committed by good men, if left to themselves; and that there is a proneness in them to them; and that they would rush into them, were they not kept back and restrained by the powerful and efficacious grace of God: and it also supposes that the saints cannot keep themselves; that God only can keep them from evil; and therefore they pray to him that he would, who does keep them by his power, at least from a final and total falling away let them not have dominion over me: neither presumptuous sins, nor any other, Psa 119:133; as they shall not, Rom 6:14; as sin has over wicked men; and they yield a ready obedience to the laws and lusts of it; it reigns over them as a king and tyrant, even unto death: it is something very powerful in good men; it prevails over them, and carries them captive; wherefore they pray it may not have a continued dominion, as it shall not; because they are in another kingdom, and under grace as a governing principle, which reigns through righteousness unto eternal life; then shall I be upright; in heart, and walk uprightly in conversation; being cleansed from secret faults, and kept from notorious crimes, and gross enormities; and shall exercise a conscience void of offence, both to God and man; and be "perfect", as the word is sometimes rendered, at least comparatively; and absolutely so, as washed in Christ's blood, and justified by his righteousness; and I shall be innocent from the great transgression; which some understand of pride, others of apostasy; perhaps the sin against the Holy Ghost may be intended; though the words may be rendered, "from much transgression" (k); and the sense is, that he should be cleared and acquitted of a multitude of transgressions he had been guilty of; or be preserved from much sin, which otherwise he should have fallen into. (k) "multa", Montanus, Rivetus, Gejerus, Cocceius; so Ainsworth.

So wicked and hard to cure and strong are those things possessed in the depths of our souls that it is not possible to rub them out and to remove them through human efforts and virtue alone unless through prayer we take the power of the Spirit as an ally and, in this way, conquer the evil that is playing the tyrant within us, as the Spirit teaches us through the voice of David: “Cleanse me from my unknown faults.”

It is not my will to conceive sin; I do not want to entertain bad thoughts, and yet I do; I do not want to entertain evil, and, like a captive against my will, I am drawn into evil reflections. Because it is not in my power either to think or not to think evil, that is why I declare, “Surely they are wanton sins that come into my heart,” but since I cannot seem to avoid them, I plead, “Cleanse me from my unknown faults.” Unprovoked they come, but because I harbor them, I beg the Lord, “From wanton sin especially restrain your servant.” Why am I saying all this? Because the prophet said, “I shall please the Lord”; not “I please” but “I shall please,” for no matter how much I strive here, I cannot be a perfect man, a just man. Consequently, the apostle also says, “We know in part, and we prophesy in part,” and “We see now through a mirror in an obscure manner.”

"Who understands sins?" [Psalm 19:12.] But what sort of sweetness can there be in sins, where there is no understanding? For who can understand sins, which close the very eye, to which truth is pleasant, to which the judgments of God are desirable and sweet? Yea, as darkness closes the eye, so do sins the mind, and suffer it not to see either the light, or itself.

However great a person’s righteousness may be, he ought to reflect and think, lest there should be found something blameworthy that has escaped indeed his own notice, when that righteous King shall sit on his throne, whose cognizance no sins can possibly escape, not even those of which it is said, “Who understands his transgressions?” “When, therefore, the righteous King shall sit on his throne, who will boast that he has a pure heart? Or who will boldly say that he is pure from sin?” Except perhaps those who wish to boast of their own righteousness and not glory in the mercy of the Judge.

You must know then, dearly beloved, that God’s testing is not aimed at his getting to know something he was ignorant of before but at bringing to light what was hidden in a person, by means of a test, which is a kind of interrogation. People are not as well known to themselves as they are to their Creator, nor do the sick know themselves as well as the doctor does. A person is sick; he is suffering, the doctor is not suffering, and the patient is waiting to hear what he is suffering from from the one who is not suffering. That is why a man cries out in a psalm, “From my hidden ones cleanse me, O Lord.” There are things in a person that are hidden from the person in whom they are. And they will not come out, or be opened up or discovered, except through tests and trials and temptations. If God stops testing, it means the master has stopped teaching.

Having given instruction in regard to devotion, at this point he proceeds to speak of the sins in respect of human beings and puts people on the alert so as to realize what is an involuntary sin and what voluntary, and how they differ from each other, and further into how many types involuntary sin is divided. He employs an admirable division, first dividing sin into two, voluntary and involuntary. After this he divides the involuntary sin into three, since for example we fall when compelled, or through weakness or when mislead; or we do something when an incident occurs that is more influential than good intentions, or we prove too weak to overcome the power of lust and fall into sin, or in many cases we make a judgment with the best of intentions but by some deception we are inveigled into doing the opposite.

Although in any time there are many who lead an innocent life, and very many commend themselves to God by their habitual performance of good deeds, we should not however trust in the integrity of our conscience to such a point that we think that human weakness, living among scandals and temptations, can meet nothing that will harm it. The chief of prophets says, “Who will boast that they have pure hearts or that they are cleansed from sin?” [Here in this psalm] he says, “From my hidden faults cleanse me, O Lord, and from dangerous ones spare your servant.”

Although there are three ways to transgress through human errors—by thought, word and deed, by condensing that boundless sea of transgressions into an abbreviated form—he testifies that transgression flows from two sources. Hidden sin is what is termed “original,” in which we are conceived, born and sin with a secret desire. This happens when we covet the property of our neighbor, or desire to carry out vengeance on our enemies, or want to become more prominent than others, or seek more palatable food or similar desires which swell and steal on us in such a way that they escape the notice of many people before they take effect. If these sins do not become known to anyone, … we must still realize that there are many sins of which we are completely unaware, whose origins and deceptions we are not able to perceive. Therefore the text ought to be understood to refer to all sins when it says “Who can understand his sins?”

“Who can understand his sins? Cleanse me from my hidden faults, O Lord.” See, the door of the third section opens, in which the prophet implores that all his sins would be washed away until the eloquence of his mouth would be rendered acceptable in the sight of the Lord. But because transgressions occur by means of human errors in three manners—thought, word and deed—he attests that that immense sea of sins, condensed in brevity, originates from two sources. The “hidden” sin is that which is called “original,” in which we are conceived, born and sin by a secret will, such as when we covet our neighbor’s property, when we desire to take vengeance on our enemies, when we want to be exalted above others, when we seek after tastier foods, and do things similar to these things. They sprout up and quietly seize us in such a way that they seem to be hidden to many until the deed is done. But if these things should be rendered visible to someone—as Solomon warns, “Do not go after your evil desires”20—we nonetheless ought to notice that there are many sins which we altogether do not know, of which we are able to understand neither their origins nor their manners of snatching us away. One must understand the phrase “Who understands all his sins?” from this perspective, because when he will go on to say in Psalm 51, “My sin is always before me” and elsewhere, “I have made my sin known to you,” how can it not be understood that whenever he sins he is compelled to confess? But if you add the word “all,” then this objection is shown to be obviated.

Very often sins creep up on us through thoughts or desires or speech or action, as the result of necessity, through weakness or out of forgetfulness. If a person thinks only of serious sins and strives to resist only these but has little or no care about small sins, he incurs no less danger than if he committed more serious offenses. Therefore let us not think little of our sins because they are slight, but let us fear them because they are many. Drops of rain are small, but because they are very many, they fill rivers and submerge houses, and sometimes by their force they even carry off mountains. Concerning these it is written: “He who scorns little things will fall little by little”; and again: “Who can detect failings?” Who is there who guards his heart with such great vigilance that no idle word ever proceeds from his lips? However, an account must be rendered for this on the day of judgment. Who is there who does not lie?… Who is there from whose mouth an evil word does not sometimes issue?… Who could even count the sins that we consider small or almost nonexistent, even though sacred Scripture testifies that we are going to be severely punished for them? For this reason, with God’s help and in accord with the text of Solomon, [“The just person falls seven times in a day and rises again,”] let us keep our hearts with all watchfulness.

"Offenses." Here he prays concerning the offenses of those who transgress the law. And first he sets forth the hiddenness of sins. Second, he asks for their remission, at "From my hidden ones." Third, he sets forth the reason for the petition, at "If they shall not have dominion over me," and so on. He says therefore: we frequently offend against the law, but "Who can understand sins?" As if to say, no one. And this for three reasons. First, because sin blinds the eyes of the sinner, hence small sins are not easily discerned: Wis. 2: "Their own malice has blinded them." Second, because sins are many: Ps. 39: "Evils without number have surrounded me; my iniquities have overtaken me, and I was not able to see." Likewise, because of their subtlety: Ps. 39: "They are multiplied above the hairs of my head," from their subtlety. But he does not say "sins" but "offenses." There is a twofold kind of sin: namely, of transgression -- and this is more easily known, because a man knows he has done a wicked act. And also of omission -- and this is difficult to know, because these do not bind at all times, but according to place and time. And distinguish: when it is the proper place and time, it is difficult to affirm -- and when alms should be given, how and where, and so on. Then he sets forth the remission of sins. Now there is a twofold kind of sin. One takes its beginning from ourselves, and this is principally original sin, and those which proceed from the corruption of the fomes, such as sins of the flesh; and these stain the soul, because they join it to earthly things. And therefore he says, "From my hidden ones cleanse me," that is, those which proceed from a hidden root, or which are done in secret, or which arise from a secret will: Eph. 5: "The things that are done by them in secret, it is shameful even to speak of."

After exhibiting the harmonious revelation of God's perfections made by His works and His word, the Psalmist prays for conformity to the Divine teaching. (Psa 19:1-14) the glory of God--is the sum of His perfections (Psa 24:7-10; Rom 1:20). firmament--another word for "heavens" (Gen 1:8). handywork--old English for "work of His hands."

The clearer our view of the law, the more manifest are our sins. Still for its full effect we need divine grace to show us our faults, acquit us, restrain us from the practice, and free us from the power, of sin. Thus only can our conduct be blameless, and our words and thoughts acceptable to God. Next: Psalms Chapter 20