The Multitude Of My Sins
“Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from my secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me.”—Psalm 19:12, 13
As faith gives a holy boldness at the throne of grace, so the regenerate soul is open and ingenuous in confession of sin. When sin is dethroned in the heart, its errors are its concerns; the most secret faults bow it in humility before the Lamb. To his precious blood the believer has recourse for cleansing; he has daily need of it. He cannot understand all his errors. Many secret faults cleave unto him. He is sensible that even these must be washed away, lest they defile his conscience, and spread a cloud over his mind. It is the peculiar wisdom of disciples, not only to observe the bud, blossom, and fruit of sin, but also to consider the evil root, the polluted nature from which it springs. Here is the exercise of watchfulness. This calls for their daily prayer to be kept by the power of God.
Happy souls, who, under a sense of peace through the blood of Jesus, are daily praying to be kept by the grace of the Spirit. Such truly know themselves, see their danger of falling, will not, dare not palliate or lessen the odious nature and hateful deformity of their sin. They will not give a softer name to sin than it deserves, lest they depreciate the infinite value of that precious blood which Jesus shed to atone its guilt. Far will they be from flattering themselves into a deceitful notion that they are perfect, and have no sin in them. The Spirit of truth delivers them from such errors; he teacheth them as poor sinners to look to the Saviour, and to beseech him to keep back the headstrong passions, the unruly lusts, and evil concupiscences which dwell in their sinful natures.
Alas, the most exalted saint, the most established believer, if left to himself, how soon might the blackest crimes, the most presumptuous sins, get the dominion over him! David had woful experience of this for a season. He prays from a heart felt sense of past misery, and the dread of future danger, and he found the blessing of that covenant-promise. Oh believer, may it be the exercise of thy faith daily to live upon it, daily to plead it before thy Saviour. ‘Sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace.’ Rom. 6:14. Why shall not sin lord it over the conscience of a believer? Truly, because the grace of Jesus reigns for him, and within him. For he saith, ‘I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.’ Jer. 32:40.
Oh who can ever find
The errors of his ways?
Yet with a bold presumptuous mind
I would not dare transgress.
Warn me of every sin,
Forgive my secret faults.
And cleanse this guilty soul of mine,
Whose crimes exceed my thoughts.
William Mason (1719-1791) was a High-Calvinist author. For many years he served as a Justice of the Peace, and in 1783 was appointed a Magistrate. He served as editor of the Gospel Magazine before and after the editorship of Augustus Toplady. He is best known for a morning and evening devotional entitled, “A Spiritual Treasury For The Children Of God.”
