Verse 16. — You indeed have numbered my steps, but you spare my sins. 20. Our faults, that God may not punish them, must be chastised by penitence. — God numbers our steps when he marks each single one of our works with a view to recompense. For what is designated by 'steps' but each one of our actions? Almighty God therefore both numbers our steps and spares our sins, because he both subtly considers our deeds and yet mercifully remits them to the penitent. He also beholds hardness in sinners, yet, by preventing grace, softens it unto penitence. He numbers our faults, therefore, when he turns us to bewail each thing we have done.
Which he mercifully remits, because, while we ourselves punish them, he by no means judges them in the final examination — Paul bearing witness, who says: If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged (1 Corinthians xi, 31). Hence it is further added: