Psalm 19:13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright… Everything evinceth the Almightiness of the great Creator. Three instances — 1. The glorious fabric of the spangled vault above us. 2. The vicissitude of day and night. 3. The excellencies of that great minister of nature, the sun; considered in the comeliness and beauty of his person, in the force of his incredible swiftness, in the largeness of his walk, in the universality of his influence. The Bible, or hook of holy writ, is described by its several names and titles. Note the terms and appellations, the qualities described, and the effects or operations. The third book is the conscience. What finds he there? A foul blurred copy, that he is puzzled how to read. The conscience being convicted of sin, where there is any sense of true piety, the soul will address itself to God for pardon, that it may be cleansed from secret faults; and for grace, that by its restraints and preventions and assistances it may be kept back from presumptuous sins, and, if unhappily engaged, that it may be freed at last from the dominion of them. There is here a request, and the ground of it, which is the advantage and benefit thence arising.Consider two propositions. 1. That the very best of men, without Divine restraints, are liable to the worst of miscarriages, even presumptuous sins. Secret faults are such as hide themselves, the common errors and frailties of our life: sins of infirmity, constitution, and temper; sins of surprise. Deliberation and consent make any sin to be a presumptuous sin. The course of sin is, the invitation of the sensual appetite, the inclination of the will, a force upon the judgment, a full consent, the act itself. This is aggravated into presumption when the daring sin gets the dominion and power over a man. From act it proceeds to delectation; this leads to new acts, and at last objuration and final impenitence. Note the ways and means God uses either to restrain and keep back men from committing presumptuous sins, or to rescue and recover them from under the dominion of them. These are partly on account of providence, partly from common morality, and partly from special grace. The best of men are still men, partakers of the same common nature with other men. They have the same affections and passions, the same fleshly appetites, which many times betray them into the same inconveniences. 2. Presumptuous sins, even in the servants of God themselves, are offences of a damnable and desperate nature. They tincture them with a deep guilt, subvert their spiritual state, and throw them out of God's favour into disgrace. And this reasonably, because of their ingratitude to God, and the great hurt of their example, as a scandal to religion, by the hardening of wicked men and the discouragement of the pious. (Adam Littleton, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
    |