"Do not turn to the stubbornness of this people" (Devarim 9:27)
How can one say to the King, "Do not turn..."? Does it not say "For [His] eyes are upon man's ways"? Hashem oversees everything, observes all mankind and judges each one, for the good or bad.
The Holy Zohar (Kedoshim 83:1) writes that Rabbi Chiya expounds on the extent to which a person must be careful not to sin, so as not to transgress before the Holy King. Come and see, if one performs a mitzvah, that mitzvah ascends, stands before Hashem and says, I am from so and so who created me. Hashem stands the mitzvah before Him so He can look at it daily and thereby benefit the person on account of it. But if a person transgresses a Torah command, the sin ascends before Him and says, I am from so and so who created me. Hashem then stands the sin before Him and looks at it to punish the sinner. If he repents, it says about him "So too, Hashem has commuted your sin; you will not die." Hashem removes the sin from before Himself so as not to look at it, to benefit the person.
That is why it says, "Do not turn to the stubbornness of this people, and to its wickedness and to its sin."
