Psalm 51:4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil din your sight...

Pretty Tense...From Past tense to present...

" Against Thee only do I sin...."

AELW 12:337-341

"What the translator rendered in the past tense ought to be in the present tense: “Against Thee only do I sin.” That is: “I acknowledge that in Thy sight I am nothing but a sinner.” And again: “I always do that which is evil in Thy sight.” That is: “My whole life is evil and corrupt because of sin. In Thy sight I cannot boast of my merit or righteousness, but I am completely evil. Before Thee this is my name, that I do evil, that I have sinned, that I am sinning, that I shall sin forever.” In this way the change of past tense into present takes us from the actual sin to universal sin.

The issue here is not the essence of sin or sin metaphysically considered, but the knowledge of sin, that it is recognized and felt when the voice and sentences of God come and say in our heart, “You are a sinner, you are under the wrath of God and death.” When this happens, then at last there begins that battle in which David admits he succumbed and was defeated. In the battle human nature struggles with God over whether this Word is true which declares that all men are under sin but God alone is righteous. Human nature rejects this statement and will not agree to it, that all its works are evil and sinful in the judgment of God. Thus the scholastics bitterly defend the statement that man has the right light of reason and his natural powers intact. This means not only a denial of sin, which has been divinely revealed, but also a denial that God alone is righteous when He declares that we are sinners."