Cleanse Thou Me

 

Evening Devotion

DECEMBER 30

 

… cleanse thou me from secret faults.

Psalm 19:12

 
No one but a Christian will heartily use this prayer.
 
It intimates such an acquaintance with the human heart, and such a desire for true holiness, as none can experience except taught of God.
 
And here is one, who supposes that there are faults which he has not detected, follies which have escaped his notice, and he prays to be cleansed from them.
 
He would not only have them pardoned, but the stain of them erased; he desires to be kept from them in the future.
 
Our secret faults are numerous, they often spring from inclination, from the unspiritual state of our souls.
 
But the fountain of a Saviour’s blood will cleanse form them all; and the power of the Holy Spirit can preserve us from a similar course in the future.
 
We need be filled with the Spirit if we are to keep our hearts with all diligence, if we are to preserve a watch over our souls in private as well as in public; let us seek this blessing.
 
Christians once enjoyed it, and we are exhorted to possess it; for the Apostle says, “Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.”
 
Lord, who can all his wanderings know?
Or watch where guilt begins?
Then let thy grace my heart renew,
And cleanse from secret sins.
 
James Smith