Psalms 51:9

Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

Hide {H5641}{H8685)} thy face {H6440} from my sins {H2399}, and blot out {H4229}{H8798)} all mine iniquities {H5771}.

Turn away your face from my sins, and blot out all my crimes.

Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.

Hide thy face from my sins, And blot out all mine iniquities.

Psalms 51:9 is a poignant plea from King David, found within his powerful psalm of repentance after his grievous sins involving Bathsheba and Uriah. In this verse, David expresses his deepest desire for God's complete and merciful removal of his transgressions, seeking not just pardon but a profound spiritual cleansing.

Context

Psalm 51 is traditionally attributed to David following his sin with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, Uriah the Hittite, as recounted in 2 Samuel 11 and his subsequent confrontation by the prophet Nathan in 2 Samuel 12. This psalm is a raw, honest confession, demonstrating true remorse and a profound understanding of the holiness of God. Verse 9 is a specific request for God to actively forget or disregard his sins, and to completely erase the record of his wrongdoing.

Key Themes

  • Divine Forgiveness: David's prayer underscores God's immense capacity for mercy and His willingness to forgive even the most heinous sins when met with genuine repentance.
  • Complete Cleansing: The request to "blot out" signifies a desire for total eradication of sin's record, not just a covering up. It speaks to God's power to make a person truly clean.
  • God's Aversion to Sin: "Hide thy face from my sins" implies God's holy nature, which cannot countenance sin. Yet, it is also a plea for God to turn His gaze away from the transgression itself and instead look upon the penitent heart, offering grace.

Linguistic Insights

  • "Hide thy face from my sins": This phrase conveys a dual meaning. On one hand, it acknowledges God's holy nature that cannot tolerate sin. On the other, it is a desperate plea for God to not count or acknowledge these sins against David, to overlook them in His judgment, and to focus His divine favor on the penitent.
  • "Blot out": The Hebrew word here is machah (מָחָה), which means to wipe away, erase, obliterate, or annul. It evokes the image of wiping ink from a scroll, removing a name from a register, or erasing a debt from a ledger. This powerful verb signifies a complete and permanent removal of the offense, making it as if it never existed in God's record. This concept of God blotting out transgressions is a recurring theme in Scripture.
  • "Iniquities": The Hebrew word avon (עָוֹן) refers to perversity, guilt, or the moral distortion of sin. It emphasizes the crookedness or deviation from God's righteous standard, highlighting the inherent wrongness of David's actions beyond mere transgression.

Practical Application

Psalms 51:9 offers profound comfort and instruction for believers today. It assures us of God's readiness to offer complete forgiveness when we approach Him with a truly repentant heart. Just as David sought the Lord to "blot out" his sins, we are reminded that through confession and repentance, God offers a full pardon, removing the guilt and shame associated with our past actions. This verse encourages us to seek not just leniency, but a deep, divine cleansing that restores our relationship with God and grants us a fresh start and a clear conscience, echoing the call to repent and be converted, that sins may be blotted out.

Note: Commentary was generated by an advanced AI, utilizing a prompt that emphasized Biblical fidelity over bias. We've found these insights to be consistently reliable, yet we always encourage prayerful discernment through the Holy Spirit. The Scripture text and cross-references are from verified, non-AI sources.

  • Jeremiah 16:17

    For mine eyes [are] upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes.

  • Micah 7:18

    Who [is] a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth [in] mercy.

  • Micah 7:19

    He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

  • Isaiah 38:17

    Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul [delivered it] from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.

  • Psalms 51:1

    ¶ To the chief Musician, [A Psalm] of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

  • Colossians 2:14

    Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
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