"... This wrestling with the problem of sin, especially by one such as David, makes the Psalms most effective for Paul’s purposes in demonstrating that sin has infected the whole human race. Paul concludes in Romans 3:20: “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight”. This allusion is to Psalm 143:2.323 There is, however, a significant difference in Paul’s quotation. Psalm 143:2 in the Hebrew refers to יִָֽח־לָכ (all living), and in the Septuagint πᾶς ζῶν (all living), but Paul uses the expression πᾶσα σὰρξ (all flesh). For Paul, ‘flesh’ “is a heavily-loaded term … humankind seen as physically corruptible and morally rebellious, heading for death in both senses”. The psalm “is not adduced as a proof for Paul’s assertion, but his assertion echoes the psalm, activating Israel’s canonical memory. A reader formed spiritually by the psalter, with or without recognizing the specific allusion, will already know that before God no one can claim to be justified”. Many of the Psalms helped re-enforce Israel’s collective memory of times of bondage, and of deliverance,326 but that same combination of psalter and history also revealed their propensity to rebellion. Other Psalms repeated the consciousness of sin on the part of the Psalmist ..."