Psalms 51:9
in Psalms 51Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Hide thy face from my sins, And blot out all mine iniquities.
KJV
Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
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This verse in Psalms 51
Commentary
13 notes on this verseHide thy face from my sins. Do not look at them; be at pains not to see them. They thrust themselves in the way; but, Lord, refuse to behold them, lest if thou consider them, thine anger burn, and I die. Blot out all mine iniquities. He repeats the prayer of the first verse with the enlargement of it by the word "all." All repetitions are not "vain repetitions." Souls in agony have no space to find variety of language: pain has to content itself with monotones.
This site's exposition
the bones You have crushed
on Psalms 51:8-9
The plea is for joy and gladness David can hear, and for the bones You have crushed to rejoice. The verse credits the crushing to God, and the hand that broke him is the one asked to make him glad. Verse 9 asks God to look away from the sins.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers4 voices
God does not listen to sinners. When he was beating his breast, he was punishing his sins; when he was punishing his sins, he was associating himself with God as judge. God, you see, hates sins; if you too hate them, you are beginning to join God, so that you can say to him, "Turn your face away from my sins." Turn your face away—but from what? From my sins. "Do not turn your face away from me." What's the meaning of "your face from my sins"? Don't see them, don't look at them; overlook them instead, so that you can pardon me.
"Turn Thou away Your face from my sins, and all mine iniquities blot out" [Psalm 51:9]. For now bones humbled exult, now with hyssop cleansed, humble I have become. "Turn Thou away Your face," not from me, but "from my sins." For in another place praying he says, "Turn not away Your face from me." He that would not that God's face be turned away from himself, would that God's face be turned away from his sins. For to sin, when God turns not Himself away, he adverts: if he adverts, he animadverts. "And all mine iniquities blot out." He is busied with that capital sin: he reckons on more, he would have all his iniquities to be blotted out: he relies on the Physician's hand, on that "great mercy," upon which he has called in the beginning of the Psalm: "All mine iniquities blot out." God turns away His face, and so blots out; by "turning away" His face, sins He blots out. By "turning towards," He writes them. You have heard of Him blotting out by turning away, hear of Him by turning towards, doing what? "But the countenance of the Lord is upon men doing evil things, that He may destroy from the earth the remembrance of them:" He shall destroy the remembrance of them, not by "blotting out their sins." But here he does ask what? "Turn away Your face from my sins." Well he asks. For he himself does not turn away his face from his own sins, saying, "For my sin I acknowledge." With reason you ask and well ask, that God turn away from your sin, if you from thence dost not turn away your face: but if you set your sin at your back, God does there set His face. Do thou turn sin before your face, if you will that God thence turn away His face; and then safely you ask, and He hears.
So all past sins are forgiven people on conversion; but for the rest of this life there are certain grave and deadly sins, from which one can be released only by the most vehement and distressing humbling of the heart and contrition of spirit and the pain of repentance. These are forgiven through the keys of the church. If you start judging yourself, you see, if you start being displeased with yourself, God will come along to show you mercy. If you are willing to punish yourself, he will spare you. In fact, all who repent and do penance well are punishing themselves. They have to be severe with themselves, so that God may be lenient with them. As David says, "Turn your face away from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities." But on what terms? He says in the same psalm, "Since I acknowledge my iniquity, and my sin is always before me." So if you acknowledge it, God overlooks it.
God does not listen to sinners. When he was beating his breast, he was punishing his sins; when he was punishing his sins, he was associating himself with God as judge. God, you see, hates sins; if you too hate them, you are beginning to join God, so that you can say to him, "Turn your face away from my sins." Turn your face away—but from what? From my sins. "Do not turn your face away from me." What's the meaning of "your face from my sins"? Don't see them, don't look at them; overlook them instead, so that you can pardon me.
The Medieval Church1 voice
"Turn away." Here he asks for the recovery of innocence. And because he considers that the evil of guilt is in him and the good of grace, he first asks for the removal of evil or sin; second, he asks for the removal of the …
6 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Blot out all my iniquities out of the book of thy account; blot them out, as a cloud is blotted out and dispelled by the beams of the sun," Isa. xliv. He prays for sanctifying grace; and this every true penitent is as earnest for as for pardon and peace,
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes
Hide thy face from my sins,....
The Nineteenth Century4 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
A series of prayers for forgiveness and purifying. Purge . . . hyssop--The use of this plant in the ritual (Ex 12:22; Nu 19:6, 18) suggests the idea of atonement as prominent here; "purge" refers to vicarious satisfaction (Nu 19:17-20).
Hide thy face from my sins. Do not look at them; be at pains not to see them. They thrust themselves in the way; but, Lord, refuse to behold them, lest if thou consider them, thine anger burn, and I die. Blot out all mine iniquities. He repeats the prayer of the first verse with the enlargement of it by the word "all." All repetitions are not "vain repetitions." Souls in agony have no space to find variety of language: pain has to content itself with monotones. David's face was ashamed with looking on his sin, and no diverting thoughts could remove it from his memory; but he prays the Lord to do with his sin what he himself cannot. If God hide not his face from our sin, he must hide it forever from us; and if he blot not out our sins, he must blot our names out of his book of life.
Hide thy face from my sins - The sentiment here is nearly the same as that in Psa 51:3: His sin was ever before his own face; and he knew that the eye of God was constantly upon him, and that his purity and justice must be highly incensed on the account. He therefore, with a just horror of his transgressions, begs God to turn away his face from them, and to blot them out, so that they may never more be seen. See the note on Psa 51:1 (note).
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Hide thy face from my sins - That is, Do not look on them; avert thy face from them; do not regard them. Compare the notes at Psa 13:1. And blot out all mine iniquities - Take them entirely away. Let the account be erased, cancelled, destroyed. See the notes at Psa 51:1.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הַסְתֵּ֣ר | haster | hide | H5641 → | 80 times |
| פָּ֭נֶיךָ | paneikha | face your | H6440 → | 2123 times |
| מֵחֲטָאָ֑י | mechataai | from sins my | H2399 → | 33 times |
| וְֽכָל־ | vekhol | and all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| עֲוֹ֖נֹתַ֣י | ʾavonotai | iniquities my | H5771 → | 233 times |
| מְחֵֽה׃ | mecheh | wipe out | H4229 → | 36 times |
הַסְתֵּ֣רhide
hasterH5641 →80 times
פָּ֭נֶיךָface your
paneikhaH6440 →2123 times
מֵחֲטָאָ֑יfrom sins my
mechataaiH2399 →33 times
וְֽכָל־and all
vekholH3605 →5413 times
עֲוֹ֖נֹתַ֣יiniquities my
ʾavonotaiH5771 →233 times
מְחֵֽה׃wipe out
mechehH4229 →36 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 51:1Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your loving devotion; according to Your great compassion, blot out my transgressions.
it leads to
- Isaiah 43:25
I, yes I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake and remembers your sins no more.
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- Isaiah 44:22
I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like a mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Acts 3:19
Repent, then, and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped away,
- Colossians 2:14
having canceled the debt ascribed to us in the decrees that stood against us. He took it away, nailing it to the cross!
- Psalms 69:16
Answer me, O LORD, for Your loving devotion is good; turn to me in keeping with Your great compassion.
- Isaiah 43:25
Through
Colossians 2:14having canceled the debt ascribed to us in the decrees that stood against us. He took it away, nailing it to the cross!
it leads to
- Ephesians 2:14–16
For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has torn down the dividing wall of hostility
- Hebrews 8:13
By speaking of a new covenant, He has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.
- 1 Peter 2:24
He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. “By His stripes you are healed.”
- Ephesians 2:14–16
Where this verse is studied
About Psalms
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, SERMON 136A.2; Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 51; Augustine of Hippo, SERMON 278:12; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 2; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Exposition on the Psalms of David.