Psalms 51:3

For I acknowledge Lit., I know. The pronoun is emphatic. His sins have all along been known to God. They are before His eyes (Psalms 90:8). But now he has come to know them himself; they are unceasingly present to his conscience. Such consciousness of sin is the first step towards the repentance and confession which are the indispensable conditions of forgiveness. David refused to acknowledge his sin to himself and to God yet not, apparently, without sharp pangs of remorse, see Psalms 32:3-4 until Nathan's message awoke his conscience. Cp. the confession of the nation in Isaiah 59:12.