Presumptuous

Psalm 19 is one of my favorite Psalms.  It begins with these familiar words:  The heavens declare the glory of God.  On this beautiful summer morning, with birds singing and a light breeze rustling through the trees behind my house, I was reminded of those words, so I began my morning with this Psalm.

Psalm 19 is a wonderful reminder of the majesty of God's creation, but there's a lot more to it than just that.  This Psalm is really in two parts, the first being the hymn of praise to our God for what He has created, and the second about the words of the Lord, about His rules for living.  Check that out in verses 7-9.  The Psalmist ends with a prayer we know well:

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer."  (Psalm 19:14 ESV)

But before he gets to that prayer, the psalmist makes another request of the Lord, and that is the verse that grabbed my attention this morning.  As I was reading through Psalm 19, I came across these words: "Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me."  (Psalm 19: 13 ESV)

It's the word presumptuous that got my attention.  I think I had previously always understood that to mean "inadvertent".  In other words, I believed the Psalmist was praying, as did I, not to sin inadvertently, not to sin accidentally or unknowingly.  But as I read Psalm 19 this morning, that didn't seem to be what he was saying.  So I dug a little deeper, did a little research.

The word which is translated presumptuous actually means proud or arrogant.  And that means something altogether different from accidental or unknowing, doesn't it?

And so I am praying that verse this morning.  Please, dear Lord, keep me from presumptuous sin; may I not be proud or arrogant in my attitudes or my behavior to You or toward others.

Keep me from presumptuous sins.  May my words and my thoughts, the meditations of my heart and my actions, be acceptable in your sight.  May they not be proud or arrogant. You are my Rock and my Redeemer, and I love You, Lord. Amen.