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Who can understand? this may be here added, either,
1. As a further proof of the excellency and necessity of God’s law, because men’s errors are so many and hard to be discovered and prevented, that they indispensably need such a friend and counsellot as the law is, to give them the true knowledge of themselves and of their sins. Or,
2. As a just and sorrowful censure of himself, upon the consideration of the exact purity of God’s law, and the comparing of his life with it. Thy law, O Lord, is holy, and just, and good. But I am a poor sinful wretch, falling infinitely short of it, and condemned by it. Or,
3. As a signification of the insufficiency of God’s law, strictly so called, for the healing and saving of men’s souls, and of the necessity of further supplies of the gospel and grace of God; whereby the eyes of their minds may be enlightened to see that light which shines in God’s law, and their hearts may be renewed to yield universal obedience to it, for which therefore he prays in the following words. And withal, he implies that he did not expect that reward which he last mentioned as a just recompence to his obedience, which he confesseth to need a pardon more than to deserve a reward, but only as an effect of God’s grace and goodness.
His errors; either,
1. His sins of ignorance, of which this word is used, Lev_4:2,22,27 Ec 5:6. Or rather,
2. His sins in general, (which afterwards he divides into secret and presumptuous sins,) or all deviations from God’s law, which are thus called, 1Sa_26:21 Psa_119:67,118 Heb 9:7 Jam_5:20. The sense is, I cannot comprehend the numbers, or the several kinds, or all the heinous aggravations of my sins.
Cleanse thou me; both by justification, or the pardon of my sins, through the blood of thy Son, which is to be shed for me; and by sanctification through thy Holy Spirit, co-working in and with thy word, to the further renovation of my heart and life for these are the two ways of cleansing sinners most frequently mentioned both in the Old and New Testament: though the first may seem to be principally, if not only, intended, because he speaks of his past sins, which could be cleansed no other way but by remission.
From secret faults, i.e. from the guilt of such sins as were secret, either,
1. From others; such as none knows but God and my own conscience: or,
2. From myself; such as I never observed, or did not discern the evil of. Pardon my unknown sins, of which I never repented particularly, as I should have done.