For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
Parallel translations
- WEB For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me.
- KJV For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
- NKJV For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me.
- NASB For I know my wrongdoings, And my sin is constantly before me.
- NLT For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night.
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 openly acknowledges his transgressions; his sin is ever before him. True repentance begins with honest confession.
Overview
Rather than excusing or hiding his guilt, David confesses that he knows his sins and cannot escape the constant awareness of them. This honest acknowledgment is essential to genuine repentance. Scripture promises that the one who confesses and forsakes sin will find mercy (Proverbs 28:13; 1 John 1:9).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Prov 28:13He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.
- Isa 59:12For our transgressions are multiplied before You, and our sins testify against us. Our transgressions are indeed with us, and we know our iniquities:
- Ps 38:18Yes, I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin.
- Ps 32:5Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not hide my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah
- Luke 15:18–21I will get up and go back to my father and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
- Lev 26:40–41But if they will confess their iniquity and that of their fathers in the unfaithfulness that they practiced against Me, by which they have also walked in hostility toward Me—
- Jer 3:25Let us lie down in our shame; let our disgrace cover us. We have sinned against the LORD our God, both we and our fathers; from our youth even to this day we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.”
- Job 33:27Then he sings before men with these words: ‘I have sinned and perverted what was right; yet I did not get what I deserved.
- 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.
- Neh 9:2Those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all the foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.
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 51:3 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.