Turn away thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
הַסְתֵּ֣ר פָּ֭נֶיךָ מֵחֲטָאָ֑י וְֽכָל־עֲוֺ֖נֹתַ֣י מְחֵֽה׃
7 Church Fathers comment on this verse · 11 commentaries
Speak plainly, what are your desires? ‘Create in me a clean heart, O God.’ This work is attributed to an unnamed author from the fourth century, as noted by Wilmart. By the year 422, it was recognized under the name of St. John Chrysostom in the Latin anthology of St. Augustine. The text contains additions from the writings of St. Theodoret of Cyrus and the “Greek” St. Ephrem the Syrian. The introduction mirrors the style of Conversation 22 on Genesis.
When the tax collector struck his chest, he was expressing remorse for his transgressions; through this act of penitence, he drew nearer to God the Righteous Judge. God detests sin, and when you share this disdain, you align yourself with God in pleading: Look away from my iniquities. What does it signify to say, 'Look away from my iniquities'? It means to cast no gaze upon them, to not recognize them, so that You may grant me forgiveness.
The sacrament of reconciliation frees the believer from all previous transgressions, yet the sins that persist in this life serve as a weight and a affliction that can only be alleviated through profound humility, a contrite heart, and sincere repentance. These burdens are lifted through the ministerial authority of the Church. If you cast judgment upon yourself, if you harbor self-dislike, God is ready to offer you forgiveness. If you seek to chastise yourself, He will show you mercy. For true repentance involves self-discipline. You ought to hold yourself accountable, that God may extend His compassion towards you. As David proclaims, Turn away Thy face from my sins, and cleanse all my iniquities. But what grounds does he provide? He answers in the very psalm: For my iniquity I am conscious of, and my sin is always before me. Therefore, if you confess, He will grant forgiveness.
In our collective song to God, we implore Him not to turn away from our transgressions and to erase all our wrongdoings. However, dear brethren, it is important to recognize that within the same psalm, we hear the acknowledgment of personal guilt: I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever present before me. Furthermore, in another psalm, the plea is made to God: Do not hide Your face from me (Psalm 26:9). Therefore, since the individual and the sinner comprise one being, the person cries out, Do not hide Your face from me, while the sinner implores, Turn Your gaze away from my sins.
Hence, it is articulated: 'Do not turn away from what You have created, but rather turn away from my actions.' 'Let Your sight,' he continues, 'perceive all things, so that creation does not suffer due to wickedness. You have created life, and I have committed wrong. What You have made is referred to as creation; what I have done is termed wickedness.' May wickedness be healed, so that creation may be restored.
However, you are called to come into the light so that your deeds may be revealed, as they are accomplished through God. The sin that you now detest would not have become an abomination to you had God not shone His light upon it, nor would His truth have uncovered it for you. Yet, anyone who continues to cherish his transgressions, even after being admonished, despises the illuminating Light and retreats from it, fearing that his beloved wickedness will be brought to light. Conversely, the one who walks in truth acknowledges his wrongdoings without self-pity or self-forgiveness in order that God may extend His mercy.
This individual understands clearly what he seeks forgiveness for and approaches the light, expressing gratitude to God for unveiling the very aspects of himself he ought to abhor. He pleads with God, "Turn away Thy face from my sins" (Psalm 50:11). What confidence would he possess to voice this if he did not immediately follow with, "For my iniquities I am conscious of, and my sin is always before me" (Psalms 50:5)? Let what you wish to conceal from yourself remain hidden from God. If you push your sin behind you, God will place it before you. He will do so when repentance is no longer fruitful.
Now, the bones of the humble are filled with joy, having been cleansed by hyssop; I have lowered myself. Do not turn Your gaze away from me, but from my transgressions. For elsewhere, in prayer, it is said, Do not hide Your face from me. He who desires to keep the face of God from being turned away from him must ensure that God's gaze is diverted from his sins. For when God does not turn away from sin, He gives a warning; if He warns, He brings judgment. And all my iniquities will be erased. He is preoccupied with this serious sin: he hopes for more; he longs for all his wrongs to be erased, relying on the hand of the Healer and the abundant mercy he seeks in the opening of the Psalm: All my iniquities shall be blotted out.
God turns His face away, and in doing so, He removes the sins; by turning away His gaze, He erases them. When He turns His face, He writes them away. You have heard of sins being erased by God's turning away; you have also heard of His attention being turned towards what? Yet the gaze of the Lord is upon those who commit wicked deeds, that He may erase all memory of them from the earth: He will remove their remembrance while still acknowledging their sins. Here, he implores, what? Turn Your face from my sins. This is a sincere plea. For he himself does not divert his gaze from his sins, stating, 'For my sin I acknowledge.' It is not unwise for you to ask, and to ask rightly, for God to turn away from your sin, if you do not also turn your gaze away; but if you revisit your sin, the Lord will likewise turn His gaze in response. Divert your sin from before your eyes, if you wish for God to turn away His face; then approach boldly, and He will hear you.
Conceal Your gaze from my transgressions and purify all my wrongdoings. Consider, the prophet expresses, not the wrongs I have done, but rather the one who laments for them.
He expresses that all his transgressions are exposed and visible before Your all-seeing gaze; yet You will take them away from Yourself and erase all his offenses from the record within him, obliterating them completely.
A redemptive paradox When He sees transgressions, He adjudicates; when He gazes upon humanity, He shows mercy. As expressed in Psalm 50, “Turn away Thy face from my sins,” and elsewhere, “Turn not Thy face from me” (Psalm 142:7). Thus, we grasp and embrace this redemptive paradox.
In this passage, the psalmist first petitions the Lord to erase his transgressions from His memory. He implores, "Turn away, saith he, Thy face from my sins," seeking that God not gaze upon his wrongdoings but rather forget them entirely, echoing the sentiment of another holy figure who prayed, "Remember not, O Lord, my iniquities" (Tob. 3:3). These expressions carry a divine nuance; for it is beyond comprehension that God, to whom all is revealed, could actually look away from sin or allow it to slip His mind. However, Scripture implies that God refrains from considering our sins when He chooses to forgive them out of His paternal love.
Following this, he requests, "And cleanse all my iniquities." In this plea, he desires that the Lord not only overlook his sins but completely erase them. For instance, a person turning away from a text can easily recall what was written; yet one who has erased the writing can no longer access its contents. Thus, David ardently asks the Lord to obliterate the record of his sins.
Ultimately, throughout all ages, this psalm, which was divinely inspired for David, serves as a poignant anthem of repentance for all who sin, for through true contrition, individuals can find refuge from the harshness of God’s judgment. Furthermore, this psalm foreshadows the Incarnation of Christ, the Redeemer of sinners, whom the prophet, yearning for His presence in accordance with God’s promise, implores, "Give me the joy of Thy salvation." God's original design was that humanity should come into being without the union of marriage and the fallibility that accompanies it. However, the disobedience of Adam and Eve led to the introduction of marital ties, resulting in all descendants of Adam being born into sin.
The prophet does not cast blame upon marriage itself, but rather unveils the wrongdoing of the ancestors. Due to their sinfulness, they became susceptible to decay, and in their corruptible state, they produced offspring born into wickedness, which then became inherent in them. In Eden, the earth yielded fruit effortlessly, animals coexisted peacefully without consuming one another, and harmony prevailed. Adam, destined for divinity, was to extend the bliss of paradise to all creation. The new Adam—Christ, both divine and human—came to accomplish the restoration of the world.
Passages read together with this verse.
THEOSIS