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Psalm 90:8
You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.
6In the morning it sprouts and springs up. By evening, it is withered and dry.
7For we are consumed in your anger. We are troubled in your wrath.
8You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.
9For all our days have passed away in your wrath. We bring our years to an end as a sigh.
10The days of our years are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty years; yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for it passes quickly, and we fly away.
Notice
The light of God's presence exposes even secret sins, making this prayer a sober acknowledgment that concealment from other people cannot conceal wrongdoing from God.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
How does the phrase “in the light of your presence” affect the way you think about confession?
Write on thisWhat is hard to acknowledge about God's knowledge of what other people cannot see?
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Where else Scripture says this
12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Psalm 19:12Who can discern his errors? Forgive me from hidden errors.Both passages speak of hidden wrongdoing before God; Psalm 19 asks forgiveness for errors a person may fail to discern.
Jeremiah 23:24Can anyone hide himself in secret places so that I can’t see him?” says the LORD. “Don’t I fill heaven and earth?” says the LORD.Secret places in Jeremiah and secret sins in the psalm share a limit: neither escapes God's sight.
Hebrews 4:13There is no creature that is hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.Both texts describe exposure before God, with Hebrews stating that nothing is hidden from the one to whom people must give account.
Numbers 32:23“But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the LORD; and be sure your sin will find you out.Both texts deny that sin can remain concealed, whether described as exposed in God's presence or as finding the sinner out.
Jeremiah 16:17For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from my face. Their iniquity isn’t concealed from my eyes.Both passages state that iniquity is visible to God, even when it is hidden from others.
Psalm 50:21You have done these things, and I kept silent. You thought that I was just like you. I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes.Both psalms portray God confronting wrongdoing, setting sins before himself in Psalm 90 and accusing the wrongdoer in Psalm 50.
Ecclesiastes 12:14For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it is good, or whether it is evil.Both texts bring hidden wrongdoing before God; Ecclesiastes extends the statement to every work, whether good or evil.
Hebrews 4:12–13For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, …Both texts concern what lies beneath outward appearances: secret sins exposed before God and thoughts and intentions discerned by God's word.
2 Samuel 12:9Why have you despised the LORD’s word, to do that which is evil in his sight? You have struck Uriah the Hittite with the sword, have taken his wife to be your …Both texts identify wrongdoing as visible to God; Nathan names David's acts against Uriah as evil in God's sight.
Psalm 109:15Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off their memory from the earth;Both use the language of being before God; Psalm 109 adds a plea for someone's memory to be cut off.
Jeremiah 9:13–16The LORD says, “Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice or walked in my ways,Both passages concern wrongdoing before God, though Jeremiah specifies forsaking God's law while the psalm speaks of secret sins.
Revelation 20:12I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and they opened books. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were …Both passages bring human wrongdoing before God; Revelation describes the dead standing before the throne and being judged according to their works.
Where this verse fits
Guilt and confession.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
You do not need to make wrongdoing sound smaller before naming it in prayer. Even the secret sins named here are already in God's sight.
Now put it in your words.
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).