Who can discern his own errors? Cleanse me from my hidden faults.
Parallel translations
- WEB Who can discern his errors? Forgive me from hidden errors.
- KJV Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.
- NKJV Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults.
- NASB Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults.
- NLT How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Confronted by God's perfect law, David asks who can perceive his own faults and prays for cleansing from hidden sins. The Word exposes sin we cannot even see.
Overview
The searching purity of Scripture leads David to recognize that he harbors errors beyond his own awareness. He pleads for forgiveness of 'hidden' faults, sins unknown even to himself. This honest confession shows that the law's true work is to drive us to seek mercy, a mercy fully provided in the atoning work of Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Ps 90:8You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence.
- Ps 139:23–24Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns.
- Job 6:24Teach me, and I will be silent. Help me understand how I have erred.
- Jer 17:9The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
- Ps 40:12For evils without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, so that I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart has failed within me.
- 1 Jn 1:7But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
- 1 Cor 4:4My conscience is clear, but that does not vindicate me. It is the Lord who judges me.
- Ps 139:6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
- Ps 51:2Wash me clean of my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
- Isa 64:6Each of us has become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.
- Heb 9:7But only the high priest entered the second room, and then only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance.
- Lev 4:2–35“Tell the Israelites to do as follows with one who sins unintentionally against any of the LORD’s commandments and does what is forbidden by them:
- Ps 65:3When iniquities prevail against me, You atone for our transgressions.
- Ps 51:5–10Surely I was brought forth in iniquity; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.
- Ps 139:2You know when I sit and when I rise; You understand my thoughts from afar.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 19:12 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.