January 7
“Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression,” Psalm 19:12-13.
In his explanation to the Fifth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer, in which we pray, “And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us,” Dr. Martin Luther wrote, “We pray in this petition that our Father in heaven would not look upon our sins, nor on their account deny our prayer; for we are worthy of none of the things for which we pray, neither have we deserved them; but that He would grant them all to us by grace; for we daily sin much and indeed deserve nothing but punishment. So will we also heartily forgive and readily do good to those who sin against us.”
Luther says that, “We daily sin much and indeed deserve nothing but punishment.” The psalmist asks, “Who can understand his errors?” Could we possibly keep track of all of our sins in thought, desire, word, and deed on any given day? And the list of sins would include not only the sins that we committed, but also the things that we did not do which we should have done. “Cleanse me from secret faults,” the psalmist adds. This includes the sins in thought, desire, word, and deed of which we are not aware!
Jesus told a parable to people who thought very highly of themselves and despised others: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men – extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted,” Luke 18:10-14.
Like the tax collector, we plead, “God, be merciful to me a sinner,” without attempting to enumerate all of our sins, of which many are unknown to us. They are secret faults.
We must come into the presence of God like the prodigal son, who asked his father for his inheritance and then went out and wasted all of the money. Afterwards, he came to his senses when he was starving, and he decided to go back home and confess, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of our hired servants,” Luke 15:18-19. When the father saw him coming, he went out to meet him, and embraced him, forgave him, and welcomed him back home.
The point of Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son is this: We have sinned against our heavenly Father, and we can only plead to Him for His mercy and forgiveness through Christ Jesus. To our heavenly Father we confess all of our sins, even those which we cannot remember.
We also pray that God would keep us from presumptuous sins, from proud, stubborn, willful wickedness which could drive out our faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let us flee from sin and believe and trust that, “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin,” I John 1:7.
“I, a sinner, come to Thee,
With a penitent confession;
Savior, mercy show to me,
Grant for all my sins remission.
Let these words my soul relieve –
Jesus sinners doth receive.” Amen.