Isaiah 64:4-7, ESV:
From of old no one has heard
or perceived by the ear,
no eye has seen a God besides you,
who acts for those who wait for him.
You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,
those who remember you in your ways.
Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;
in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
There is no one who calls upon your name,
who rouses himself to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.
Deuteronomy 32:39:
See now that I alone am He;
there is no God but Me.
I bring death and I give life;
I wound and I heal.
No one can rescue anyone from My hand.
1 Kings 8:46 says:
When they sin against You—
for there is no one who does not sin
1 Kings 8:58 says our obedience is at God’s will:
so that He causes us to be devoted to Him, to walk in all His ways, and to keep His commands, statutes, and ordinances, which He commanded our ancestors
And indeed David says our disobedience is also at God’s will (2 Samuel 16:10, hcsb):
He curses me this way because the Lord told him, ‘Curse David!’
David also gives God full credit for David’s own righteousness (2 Samuel 22:29-37, hcsb), which David had just finished discussing earlier in this song, and then turns to discuss who gets the glory for it:
Lord, You are my lamp;
the Lord illuminates my darkness.
With You I can attack a barrier,
and with my God I can leap over a wall.
God—His way is perfect;
the word of the Lord is pure.
..
God is my strong refuge;
He makes my way perfect.
He makes my feet like the feet of a deer
and sets me securely on the heights.
He trains my hands for war;
my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
You have given me the shield of Your salvation; Your help exalts me.
You widen a place beneath me for my steps,
and my ankles do not give way.
Job speaks in Job 9:2-3,15-16,20 (hcsb):
but how can a person be justified before God?
If one wanted to take Him to court,
he could not answer God once in a thousand times.[…]
Even if I were in the right, I could not answer.
I could only beg my Judge for mercy.
If I summoned Him and He answered me,
I do not believe He would pay attention to what I said.
Even if I were in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, my mouth would declare me guilty.
And again in Job 12 (hcsb):
Wisdom and strength belong to God;
counsel and understanding are His.
14 Whatever He tears down cannot be rebuilt;
whoever He imprisons cannot be released.
15 When He withholds the waters, everything dries up,
and when He releases them, they destroy the land.
16 True wisdom and power belong to Him.
The deceived and the deceiver are His.
17 He leads counselors away barefoot
and makes judges go mad.
18 He releases the bonds put on by kings
and fastens a belt around their waists.
19 He leads priests away barefoot
and overthrows established leaders.
20 He deprives trusted advisers of speech
and takes away the elders’ good judgment.
21 He pours out contempt on nobles
and disarms[ad] the strong.
22 He reveals mysteries from the darkness
and brings the deepest darkness into the light.
23 He makes nations great, then destroys them;
He enlarges nations, then leads them away.
24 He deprives the world’s leaders of reason,
and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.
25 They grope around in darkness without light;
He makes them stagger like drunken men
Job, Job 23 (hcsb):
But He is unchangeable; who can oppose Him?
He does what He desires.
14 He will certainly accomplish what He has decreed for me,
and He has many more things like these in mind
15 Therefore I am terrified in His presence;
when I consider this, I am afraid of Him.
16 God has made my heart faint;
the Almighty has terrified me.
Elihu, Job 33 (hcsb):
For God speaks time and again,
but a person may not notice it.
15 In a dream, a vision in the night,
when deep sleep falls on people
as they slumber on their beds,
16 He uncovers their ears at that time
and terrifies them with warnings,
17 in order to turn a person from his actions
and suppress his pride
18 God spares his soul from the Pit,
his life from crossing the river of death.
19 A person may be disciplined on his bed with pain
and constant distress in his bones,
20 so that he detests bread,
and his soul despises his favorite food.
21 His flesh wastes away to nothing,
and his unseen bones stick out.
22 He draws near to the Pit,
and his life to the executioners.
23 If there is an angel on his side,
one mediator out of a thousand,
to tell a person what is right for him
24 and to be gracious to him and say,
“Spare him from going down to the Pit;
I have found a ransom,”
25 then his flesh will be healthier than in his youth,
and he will return to the days of his youthful vigor.
26 He will pray to God, and God will delight in him.
That man will see His face with a shout of joy,
and God will restore his righteousness to him.
27 He will look at men and say,
“I have sinned and perverted what was right;
yet I did not get what I deserved.
28 He redeemed my soul from going down to the Pit,
and I will continue to see the light.”
29 God certainly does all these things
two or three times to a man
30 in order to turn him back from the Pit,
so he may shine with the light of life.
Elihu, Job 35:
Do you think it is just when you say,
“I am righteous before God”?
3 For you ask, “What does it profit You,
and what benefit comes to me, if I do not sin?”
Elihu, Job 37:
Teach us what we should say to Him;
we cannot prepare our case because of our darkness.
20 Should He be told that I want to speak?
Can a man speak when he is confused?
Job, after God tells him his righteousness is unsufficient (Job 42):
I had heard rumors about You,
but now my eyes have seen You.
6 Therefore I take back my words
and repent in dust and ashes.
Psalm 14:1-3, hcsb:
The fool says in his heart, “God does not exist.”
They are corrupt; they do vile deeds.
There is no one who does good.
2 The Lord looks down from heaven on the human race
to see if there is one who is wise,
one who seeks God.
3 All have turned away;
all alike have become corrupt.
There is no one who does good,
not even one.
Psalm 25:7-14,hcsb:
Do not remember the sins of my youth
or my acts of rebellion;
in keeping with Your faithful love, remember me
because of Your goodness, Lord.
The Lord is good and upright;
therefore He shows sinners the way.
9 He leads the humble in what is right
and teaches them His way.
10 All the Lord’s ways show faithful love and truth
to those who keep His covenant and decrees.
11 Because of Your name, Yahweh,
forgive my sin, for it is great.12 Who is the man who fears the Lord?
He will show him the way he should choose.
13 He will live a good life,
and his descendants will inherit the land.[d]
14 The secret counsel of the Lord
is for those who fear Him,
and He reveals His covenant to them.
Psalm 51, hcsb:
Wash away my guilt
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I am conscious of my rebellion,
and my sin is always before me.
4 Against You—You alone—I have sinned
and done this evil in Your sight.
So You are right when You pass sentence;
You are blameless when You judge.
5 Indeed, I was guilty when I was born;
I was sinful when my mother conceived me.16 You do not want a sacrifice, or I would give it;
You are not pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifice pleasing to God is[z] a broken spirit.
God, You will not despise a broken and humbled heart.
Psalm 53, hcsb:
God looks down from heaven on the human race
to see if there is one who is wise,
one who seeks God.
3 All have turned away;
all alike have become corrupt.
There is no one who does good,
not even one.
Psalm 58:3:
The wicked go astray from the womb;
liars err from birth.
Psalm 80:19:
Restore us, Yahweh, the God of Hosts;
look on us with favor, and we will be saved.
Jeremiah 9:25-26, esv:
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in the flesh— 26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all who dwell in the desert who cut the corners of their hair, for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.”
