This morning I was reading through a section of the Psalms.  I came to Psalm 19 where David pleads:  “Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins.” This verse has frequently grabbed my attention, but this morning it was particularly weighing on my mind.  I thought I would meditate on it a little further and consider the nature of these sins.  I found these words from a sermon by Charles Spurgeon on Presumptuous Sins:

ALL SINS are great sins, but yet some sins are greater than others. Every sin has in it the very venom of rebellion, and is full of the essential marrow of traitorous rejection of God. But there be some sins which have in them a greater development of the essential mischief of rebellion, and which wear upon their faces more of the brazen pride which defies the Most High. It is wrong to suppose that because all sins will condemn us, that therefore one sin is not greater than another. The fact is, that while all transgression is a greatly grievous sinful thing, yet there are some transgressions which have a deeper shade of blackness, and a more double scarlet-dyed hue of criminality than others. Now the presumptuous sins of our text are just the chief of all sins: they rank head and foremost in the list of iniquities.

Spurgeon then goes on to list what he considers to be the characteristics of presumptuous sins:

1.  A sin that is committed willfully against manifest light and knowledge is a presumptuous sin.

2.  A sin that is committed with deliberation is a presumptuous sin.

3.  A sin that is a matter of design and has been committed with the intention of sin is a presumptuous sin.

4.  A sin that is committed through a hardihood of fancied strength of mind. Says one, “I intend to-morrow to go into such-and-such a society, because I believe, though it hurts other people, it does me no hurt.”

After I had meditated on these truths for a time, I opened the morning newspaper and found the story of a man who broke into a local church, stole some valuable property, and left the following note sprawled on the wall, “Sorry but I’m poor.  Forgive me Lord.”

As I read his words, I was reminded of Prov. 30:8-9:  Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.

Reading the man’s note I could not help but connect the man’s words with the words of the Psalm 19 and not only prayed for him and the church, but also for myself.  Unless I think that I am not capable of committing such sins, I prayed, “Lord keep me from presumptuous sin.”