Keep Your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless and cleansed of great transgression.
Parallel translations
- WEB Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then I will be upright. I will be blameless and innocent of great transgression.
- KJV Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.
- NKJV Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression.
- NASB Also keep Your servant back from presumptuous sins; Let them not rule over me; Then I will be innocent, And I will be blameless of great wrongdoing.
- NLT Keep your servant from deliberate sins! Don’t let them control me. Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin.
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
David prays to be kept from deliberate sins so they will not rule him, that he may be blameless. He seeks God's restraining grace against willful rebellion.
Overview
Beyond hidden faults, David asks God to hold him back from 'presumptuous' (high-handed, deliberate) sins lest they gain mastery over him. He longs for integrity, free from 'great transgression.' This prayer recognizes that holiness requires God's keeping power, anticipating the gospel reality that grace breaks sin's dominion (Rom 6:14).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Ps 119:133Order my steps in Your word; let no sin rule over me.
- Rom 6:12–14Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires.
- 1 Sam 25:39On hearing that Nabal was dead, David said, “Blessed be the LORD, who has upheld my cause against the reproach of Nabal and has restrained His servant from evil. For the LORD has brought the wickedness of Nabal down upon his own head.” Then David sent word to Abigail, asking for her in marriage.
- Ps 7:10My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart.
- Acts 24:16In this hope, I strive always to maintain a clear conscience before God and man.
- Ps 84:11For the LORD God is a sun and a shield; the LORD gives grace and glory; He withholds no good thing from those who walk with integrity.
- Deut 17:12–13But the man who acts presumptuously, refusing to listen either to the priest who stands there to serve the LORD your God, or to the judge, must be put to death. You must purge the evil from Israel.
- Gen 20:6Then God said to Abimelech in the dream, “Yes, I know that you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against Me. That is why I did not let you touch her.
- Ps 11:7For the LORD is righteous; He loves justice. The upright will see His face.
- Rom 6:16–22Do you not know that when you offer yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one you obey, whether you are slaves to sin leading to death, or to obedience leading to righteousness?
- Ps 18:23And I have been blameless before Him and kept myself from iniquity.
- Exod 21:14But if a man schemes and acts willfully against his neighbor to kill him, you must take him away from My altar to be put to death.
- 1 Chr 10:13–14So Saul died for his unfaithfulness to the LORD, because he did not keep the word of the LORD and even consulted a medium for guidance,
- 2 Pet 2:10Such punishment is specially reserved for those who indulge the corrupt desires of the flesh and despise authority. Bold and self-willed, they are unafraid to slander glorious beings.
- Num 15:30–31But the person who sins defiantly, whether a native or foreigner, blasphemes the LORD. That person shall be cut off from among his people.
- 1 Sam 25:32–34Then David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who sent you to meet me this day!
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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 19:13 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
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