Secret Faults and Presumptuous Sins

Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. Psa 19:12-13  

How and why do Secret Faults Happen?

They are the sins which are secret even to ourselves. The preacher and writer Morrison wrote an excellent piece on this subject, and I owe him for this abrupt blog.

All of us have them. But all of us don’t see them because of self-love. It is why it is the easiest thing on earth to see a mote in another’s eye, but fail to see the beam which is in ours.

The fact that God uses us – these breakable and irascible vessels – to be his witnesses in the world should greatly humble us.

Because we are human. We can blow up like a missile at one time, and at another we can be on our knees thirsting for God like a dear in a desert. Our sins testify against us, and we stumble at noon day as in the night. Yet who condemneth? ‘It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.’

‘Be true to thine own self’ muttered Socrates. But it is not easy. That is because self-love closes the shutters which are inside our hearts. ‘And so in our secret virtues we believe,’ writes Morrison, ‘and in the hidden possibilities within us, but from our secret faults we turn away. That common attitude is intellectual cowardice. It is a man's first duty to face all the facts. To flatter other men is bad enough, but to flatter one's ownself is far more deadly. And therefore if you believe in hidden heights within you, I ask you also to believe in hidden depths and to cry as David cried, "Cleanse thou me from secret faults."’

This alone should make us all temper our judgments. It should make us all remember that we are human.

People see, people read, or perceive, not only with the mind but also with character. If I am bitter I will see every cloud being black. If I am happy I will see the whole world aflame with the grandeur of God.

Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. Tit 1:15  

 

And how do we know that? To fear humiliation, for example, is to fear to know oneself. It is to fear to know the truth. But to accept humiliation is to accept that you are not perfect. It is to accept you are human.

Did David behave himself presumptuously? Was he guilty of an anger which razed? He was human like we are. That is why we run to his psalms when we are troubled. He fought life’s battles like us, and though he was a king, he also wept like us. Sometimes he rose to heights of Pisgah, but in others he wallowed (like us) in the dust of death.

He was human like we are yet God heard him. He kept him and preserved him. He was kingly, yet so human. He never flattered himself for fear of humiliation. He was true to himself as a fallen being. He understood his nature. Do you?

Feeling very alone this day? Feeling very rejected? Feeling very bereaved? Please call on him without fear. ‘What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee’ cried the psalmist. And God heard him.

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To know that is also to know our humanity, to know our secret faults, and knowing that, we can be able to guard against presumptuous sins.

How can we Prevent Secret Faults and Presumptuous Sins?

By praying day and night. By hiding his word in our hearts.

By seeing life as large, as expansive. We should see it through a wider prism of possibilities, and not through a ‘hermeneutics of suspicion’ attitude.

Love sees good in everything: ‘Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.’ Love covers a multitude of sins.

Bad things come from a sick heart and body. So pray instead of accusing. Love instead of hating. Be content instead of jealous. Learn instead of defending your position. Finally change without abjuring your principals. But if everything else fails keep your head. To faint in the day of adversity is to have very little strength indeed. Quit yourself like a man. Be strong.

Being human is not easy. Being a Christian is even harder. We plant but we don’t know if it will rain. We look up to the sky hopefully, and we see some clouds, and our hope is revived. But suddenly the clouds disappear. And our hope dies. We get angry and rave. But suddenly a drop of water falls to the earth.

To be alive every day and to see another day – or crop, or harvest – is a matter of grace. To live or die is grace. To be rich or poor is grace. We rejoice and mourn because it is grace. We believe and have faith because of grace. We fall and rise daily because of grace.

What should we do without God’s grace?

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer. Psa 19:14  

If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me: Psa 66:18 

But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer. Psa 66:19  

Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me. Psa 66:20