Psalm 19

“Keep back your servant from presumptuous sins…” (Psalm 19:13)

I teach my students that the end result of Bible Study is not information but transformation. Psalm 19 is such a great example of how God’s revelations moves David to transformational behavior. In his commentary on the Psalms James Montgomery Boice points out that this Psalm is divided into three parts. The first section (vv. 1-6) speaks of God’s general revelation through creation, the second section (vv. 7-11) speaks of God’s special revelation through his Word and then the Psalmist ends with (vv. 12-14) how God’s revelation should transform us – specifically how we should view sin and how that should influence our confession of it.

In verses 7-11 David gives us six ways God’s divine revelation (His written Word) impacts us. Hebrew poetry often “rhymes” ideas instead of words[1] by using parallelism in which the ideas in the first line relates to the ideas in the second line. In this section of Psalm 19 the psalmist uses synthetic parallelism in which the idea of the second line builds on or completes the second. Let’s look at how this works. David says, “The Law of the LORD is perfect, revising the soul” (v. 7 ESV). How is the law of the LORD perfect? David tells us God’s Word has a way of revising/refreshing our soul. David uses this synthetic parallelism six times but on the last one he mixes it up a bit.

What we learn is that God’s divine revelation (His written Word) Refreshes the soul (v. 7), makes the simple person wise (v. 7) makes our heart rejoice (v. 8), enlightens us (v. 8),  endures forever (v.9), and is righteous all together (v. 9). On the sixth synthetic parallel David interrupts the pattern with a beautiful reminder that God’s word is more precious than gold and sweeter than honey (v. 10) and the sixth parallel gives us two things God’s divine revelation gives us. The Word of God warns the servants of the Lord and brings great reward (v. 11).

God’s divine Word has a way of revealing sin in our lives. The Psalmist interaction with God’s divine Word leads him to ask God to forgive his sins (vv. 12-13) and confess his dependence on God as his rock and redeemer (v. 14). David’s confession of sin divides into three categories. First, David asks for God to forgive his “hidden faults” (v. 12).  So many of our sins fall into the categories of things we don’t see in our self or words that have gone out of our mouth that we didn’t realize were hurtful to someone else. They are blind spots in our character (hidden to us but not to others). David realizes some of his faults/sins go unnoticed to him but they are not unnoticed by God – so David ask God to forgive those sins.

Second, David asks God to “keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins” (v. 13). Other translations say willful sins. The root of the Hebrew word means to act proudly or presumptuously.[2] One online definition of presumptuous was “failing to observe the limits of what is permitted or appropriate.” This prideful sin carries with it the idea that we don’t stop to think – is this wrong, will this bring glory to God, or is this something that I should be involved with? It is taking liberties were we should not. Sometimes we take for granted that what we are doing is right, but in fact it is not. So the Psalmist prays keep me back for assuming in my pride that I know what is right. You know what happens when you assume, right?

The third type of sin mentioned is great transgressions. The word transgressions means to revolt, rebel or trespass against God. Sometimes in debates someone might say, “This is a hill I am willing to die on.” Meaning I will not concede this point. Great transgressions are the ones that get us in trouble because they represent ways that we willing rebel against God. Notice here the Psalmist doesn’t ask forgiveness for these types of sin, but says if God protects him for the presumptuous sins he will be blameless and “innocent of great transgressions.”

This Psalm is a great reminder of how God has revealed Himself to us and how we should respond to Him in confession and trust. True transformation comes when we don’t just listen to the Word for instruction but become doers of the Word and seek to be transformed by it (James 1:22-23). David’s interaction with the Word specifically brings him to a point that He wants God to reveal any hidden sin and guard him from any pride that would cause him to presume on God’s Holy Word. May our hearts also respond to God’s Word in this way.

[1] Lubeck, R. (2005). Read the Bible for a change. Eugene: Wipf & Stock.

[2] Strongs