Day 41: Hidden Faults, Hidden Place
Read: Psalm 19:12–14
Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults.
— Psalm 19:12 (ESV)
Reflect
"Who can discern his errors?" It is an honest question, and the honest answer is: no one, not fully. There are things in you that you cannot see.
The word for "hidden faults" is nistarot, "hidden things." It describes things that have been hidden — and often the one they are hidden from is you. These are not only the sins you cover up. They are the ones you have never noticed. Blind spots. Habits of heart so familiar they feel like personality.
David does not try to dig them all out himself. He asks God to declare him innocent of them. He brings what he cannot see to the One who sees everything.
Here the language offers a quiet echo — wordplay, not the psalm's argument. The same family of words is used for the "shelter" of the Most High in Psalm 91:1 — God's secret place, his hiding place for his people. There are two kinds of hiddenness. One is the place you hide from God. The other is the place God hides you.
The place God hides you is not the place you hide from him.
The psalm ends with a prayer about the most hidden place of all: "Let… the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight" (v. 14).
Across Scripture
"The secret things belong to the LORD our God" (Deuteronomy 29:29) — there, his undisclosed purposes rather than hidden sins, but what is hidden from us is never hidden from him. Moses confesses that God has set "our secret sins in the light of your presence" (Psalm 90:8). Paul says he is not aware of anything against himself, but that does not make him innocent; the Lord is the judge, and he "will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness" (1 Corinthians 4:4–5).
Sit With It
Ask God to show you one thing you cannot see. Then be quiet long enough to be shown. Do not fill the silence with your own guesses.
Pray
Clear me from what I cannot see.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.