For thy name’s sake, O LORD, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.
Parallel translations
- WEB For your name’s sake, Yahweh, pardon my iniquity, for it is great.
- BSB For the sake of Your name, O LORD, forgive my iniquity, for it is great.
- NKJV For Your name’s sake, O Lord, Pardon my iniquity, for it is great.
- NASB For the sake of Your name, Lord, Forgive my wrongdoing, for it is great.
- NLT For the honor of your name, O Lord, forgive my many, many sins.
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 pleads for pardon of his great iniquity for the sake of God's name. He appeals to God's honor as the ground of forgiveness.
Overview
Strikingly, David asks pardon precisely because his guilt is great, appealing not to the smallness of his sin but to God's name and reputation for mercy. Forgiveness magnifies the glory of God's grace. This anticipates the gospel, where God forgives even great sinners to display the riches of his mercy in Christ, for his own glory.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Ps 79:9Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name’s sake.
- 1 Jn 2:12I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake.
- Isa 43:25I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.
- Ps 31:3For thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for thy name’s sake lead me, and guide me.
- Rom 5:20–21Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
- Ezek 20:9But I wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, among whom they were, in whose sight I made myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt.
- Isa 48:9For my name’s sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off.
- Ps 143:11Quicken me, O LORD, for thy name’s sake: for thy righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble.
- Ps 109:21But do thou for me, O GOD the Lord, for thy name’s sake: because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me.
- Ezek 36:22Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went.
- Rom 5:15But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
- Num 14:17–19And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my LORD be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying,
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 25:11 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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