Hidden Faults

They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb. By them your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward. But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults.

Psalm 19:10-12

David, summing up all that he said about the Word of God, declares that the only thing which can interfere with the Word having its full effect is us. We are the problem. If we cannot benefit from the Word, it is not because there is anything wrong with it. It is us who are the problem. Who can discern their own errors? We are all victims of hidden failure in our lives. If we examine ourselves, we usually look fine. Everybody thinks that what he does is right. We cannot see our own errors, yet these errors are constantly affecting us so that we cannot see truth the way it is. Therefore, we desperately need to be delivered from hidden errors.

That is what hinders our desire for the Word — these hidden errors. The Psalmist faces the fact that something is wrong with us, so he concludes this Psalm with a wonderful prayer: Forgive my hidden faults (Psalms 19:12b). Is that your prayer? Do you know what will happen when you pray that way? You might think that God will take a sponge and wipe around inside you so that you will not even know what those hidden faults were. But God does not do that. His way of dealing with hidden faults is either to send somebody to point them out to you, or to bring them out through some circumstance in which you are suddenly confronted with what you have done or said, and you find that it is ugly and you do not like it. That is the way God cleanses us from hidden faults. He opens up the secret places.

Usually he does it through other people, because we cannot see ourselves but other people can see us. These faults are hidden to us but not to others. They see them very plainly. And we can see their hidden faults better than they can. You say, I don't see how they can be so blind. Well, someone is thinking that very same way about you. We do not see ourselves. That is why it is always proper to say, Lord, forgive my hidden faults. Help me to see myself through the eyes of a friend who loves me enough to tell me the truth.

David closes this psalm with these often quoted words which are so wonderfully penetrating that we should pray them often: May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer (Psalms 19:14). That is a wonderful prayer, is it not? This is the attitude that will open the Word of God to us. When you pray that kind of prayer before you read the Word, you will find that God will speak to you in a marvelous way.

Thank you, Father, for this word of instruction to my own heart. May I follow through on this truth and live in the humble understanding that you have revealed yourself to me through your Word. Let me be ready to listen and see. Amen.