“Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults.” -Psalm 19:12
My pastor is fond of saying none of us can see the back of our head. The point is we all have blind spots. And this is one of the promises of the Law, to show us the back of our head. A function of the Law is to help us discern our errors?
Pastor James admonishes us, “…the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” -James 1:25
The expression “Declare me innocent” in the ESV translation is two words in Hebrew (אֲנִי נָקָה ani naqqe) that mean “to exempt me or make me clean.”
David knows God will leave no sin condoned. His prayer is a recognition that his errors and faults may not be apparent to him. They may be hidden from him not because they are too small to see, but because they are too characteristic of his culture or way of life to register as sin.
How true might this be in our own situation? Only the perfect Law of liberty can say for sure.