Psalm 19:12-13
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The question "Who can understand his errors?" isn't just about knowing that we mess up, but about the vastness of our unknown failings. The psalmist realizes the law is so perfect and extensive, even his own self-awareness can't grasp the full scope of his deviations, leading to the plea for cleansing from hidden faults.
Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression.
English Standard Version (ESV)
After marveling at the perfection and power of God's law, the Psalmist shifts from praising its external revelation to an internal, personal confession of his own inability to keep it perfectly. He acknowledges that even with the law's clarity, his own faults are numerous and often hidden from his own understanding, prompting a desperate plea for divine cleansing.
Ever feel like you're doing okay, only to later realize you missed something important? David did too, and he was a man after God's own heart!
The Psalmist, after marveling at the perfection of God's law, faces a sobering reality: human understanding is incredibly limited when it comes to grasping the full extent of our own sin. The Hebrew word for 'errors' here, 'shegioth', doesn't just mean simple mistakes. It points to things we wander into, often unknowingly or carelessly.
Why We Can't See It All:
If we can't even see all our faults, how can we ever hope to be declared 'innocent'? David's answer is radical: we can't, on our own.
David's prayer, 'Declare me innocent from hidden faults,' isn't a request to be let off the hook for sins he he's committed. Instead, it's a cry for God's verdict of 'not guilty' even over those sins that are hidden from his own sight.
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What 'Declare Me Innocent' Means:
Understand the original words
shegi'ah · Hebrew Noun
Moral failings, mistakes, or deviations from God’s standard of righteousness. It implies a lack of perception or a turning aside from the path of truth.
nistarot · Hebrew Noun
Sins committed unknowingly or unintentionally; faults that are hidden from the person's own conscience or awareness, requiring divine revelation to identify.
zedim · Hebrew Noun
Deliberate, willful acts of rebellion or defiant sins committed with pride and conscious intent, in contrast to unintentional sins.
mashal · Hebrew Verb
The concept of ruling power or control; the state of being mastered or enslaved by an influence or action. The psalmist prays that sin would not gain the upper hand or master his life.
tamim · Hebrew Adjective
Characterized by integrity, wholeness, and spiritual completeness before God. It describes one who is sincere and whose life is aligned with God's requirements, not implying absolute sinlessness but total devotion.
pesha · Hebrew Noun
A serious, defiant, or rebellious act of turning away from God’s covenantal laws. It represents a willful rejection of God’s authority.
Paul's honest confession, 'For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing,' echoes David's bewilderment at his own errors and hidden faults, showing this struggle is a universal human experience.
1 John 1:8-10This passage reinforces the idea that even believers can deceive themselves about their sin ('If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves'), highlighting the need for God's cleansing, just as David prayed for protection from secret faults.
Jeremiah 17:9-10Jeremiah's stark declaration that 'The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?' provides a profound understanding of why discerning our own errors and hidden faults is so impossible, making David's plea for divine insight deeply resonant.
Job 38:1-11In God's powerful questioning of Job, He reveals the vastness of His wisdom and control, implicitly highlighting humanity's inability to grasp even the fundamentals of creation, let alone the depths of their own hearts and sins.
Proverbs 20:27The 'spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all his innermost parts' suggests that it's God's light that reveals our hidden faults, aligning perfectly with David's prayer for divine cleansing from what he cannot discern himself.
ellicottPsalms 19:12: "Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults."
(12) His eulogium on the Law was not Pharisaic or formal, for the poet instantly gives expression to his sense of his own inability to keep it. If before we were reminded of St. Paul’s, “The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good,” ( Romans 7:12 ), his own spiritual experience, contained in the same chapter, is here recalled: “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil that I would not, t…
calvinPsalms 19:12-14: "Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults."
Who can understand his errors? [463] Cleanse thou me from my secret sins. 13. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins, [464] that they may not have dominion over me; then shall I be upright and clean from much wickedness. [465] 14. Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Jehovah, my strength and my redeemer.
Who can understand his errors? Thi…
The question "Who can understand his errors?" isn't just about knowing that we mess up, but about the vastness of our unknown failings. The psalmist realizes the law is so perfect and extensive, even his own self-awareness can't grasp the full scope of his deviations, leading to the plea for cleansing from hidden faults.
After marveling at the perfection and power of God's law, the Psalmist shifts from praising its external revelation to an internal, personal confession of his own inability to keep it perfectly. He acknowledges that even with the law's clarity, his own faults are numerous and often hidden from his own understanding, prompting a desperate plea for divine cleansing.
After marveling at the perfection and power of God's law, the Psalmist shifts from praising its external revelation to an internal, personal confession of his own inability to keep it perfectly. He acknowledges that even with the law's clarity, his own faults are numerous and often hidden from his own understanding, prompting a desperate plea for divine cleansing.
"Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transg…" — The question "Who can understand his errors?" isn't just about knowing that we mess up, but about the vastness of our unknown failings. The psalmist realizes the law is so perfect and extensive,…
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Last reviewed October 2026
