For I acknowledge 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.
- BSB For I know 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 doesn’t prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.
- Isa 59:12For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them:
- Ps 38:18For I will declare my iniquity. I will be sorry for my sin.
- Ps 32:5I acknowledged my sin to you. I didn’t hide my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to Yahweh, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
- Luke 15:18–21I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight.
- Lev 26:40–41“‘If they confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against me, and also that, because they walked contrary to me,
- Jer 3:25Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us; for we have sinned against Yahweh our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. We have not obeyed Yahweh our God’s voice.”
- Job 33:27He sings before men, and says, ‘I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it didn’t profit me.
- Ps 40:12For innumerable evils have surrounded me. My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of my head. My heart has failed me.
- Neh 9:2The offspring of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, and 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.