“Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me.” Psalm 19:13a
Beyond the hidden faults we unwittingly commit, there’s another, more dangerous category of sin: presumptuous sins. These are the sins we know are wrong, yet we willfully choose to engage in them anyway, often with the arrogant assumption that God will simply overlook our disobedience. It’s a blatant disregard for God’s commands, a reckless gamble with His mercy.
John Bunyan vividly described sin as “the dare of God’s justice, the rape of His mercy, the jeer of His patience, the slight of His power, and the contempt of His love.” This description is particularly fitting for presumptuous sins. When we knowingly defy God, we are essentially treating Christ’s sacrifice as a trivial thing, a license to indulge our sinful desires.
The Bible warns us clearly: “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries” (Hebrews 10:26-27).
This isn’t to say that a believer loses salvation over one presumptuous sin, but it highlights the severe spiritual danger of a lifestyle characterized by such defiance.
The New Testament is filled with warnings against various forms of willful sin. Paul explicitly lists behaviors that prevent one from inheriting the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-11; Ephesians 5:5-7; Galatians 5:19-21). These passages aren’t meant to condemn those who genuinely struggle and repent, but to underscore the seriousness of deliberate rebellion against God’s holy standards.
David, despite being a man of God, was not immune to this danger. His infamous sin with Bathsheba and his subsequent cover-up, which led to murder, serve as a stark reminder of how easily even devout individuals can fall into presumptuous sin. He recognized his own susceptibility, and so he prayed for divine intervention: “Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins.”
This is a crucial prayer for all believers. It acknowledges our inherent weakness and our desperate need for God’s protective hand to restrain us from knowingly walking into sin.
Almighty God, we confess that our hearts are prone to wander and to presume upon Your grace. Guard us, we pray, from presumptuous sins — those deliberate acts of disobedience we know are wrong. Strengthen us by Your Spirit to resist temptation and to honor Your commandments, always remembering the cost of Christ’s sacrifice. Keep us from treating Your mercy lightly and abusing Your grace. Amen.
[Scripture is quoted from the King James Version of the Bible.]