January 21
“Remember, O Lord, Your tender mercies and Your loving kindnesses, for they are from of old. Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; according to Your mercy remember me, for Your goodness’ sake, O Lord. Good and upright is the Lord; therefore He teaches sinners in the way. The humble He guides in justice, and the humble He teaches His way. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, to such as keep His covenant and His testimonies. For Your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it is great,” Psalm 25:6-11.
There are things that the psalmist asks the Lord to remember, and then there are things that he asks the Lord not to remember. How could the all-knowing God possibly forget? Read, for example, Psalm 139. The entire psalm speaks of the all-knowing God. In part, it reads, “O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether. You have hedged me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it,” Psalm 139:1-5.
The psalmist asks God to remember His tender mercies and loving kindnesses which have existed from the foundations of the world. Yes, they have existed from eternity. God has always been merciful, kind, and gracious, and the psalmist asks to be remembered according to God’s mercy and goodness.
The plea of the psalmist is that our sins not be remembered in the sense that they not be held against us. In another psalm, the psalmist asks, “If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared,” Psalm 130:3. If God would remember our sins and hold them against us, we could not be saved. In another psalm, the psalmist pleads, “Oh, do not remember former iniquities against us! Let Your tender mercies come speedily to meet us,” Psalm 79:8.
In Psalm 25:6-11, the psalmist speaks of sin twice. Once he speaks of a difficult time in life, the days of youth, “Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions,” and once he speaks of the greatness of our sins, “For Your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it is great.” Whether the days are difficult or whether the sins are great, the mercy of God is greater.
The psalmist speaks of the greatness of God’s mercy in Psalm 103: “He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us,” Psalm 103:10-12.
Our heavenly Father guides us, and teaches us the way of salvation in the Gospel, the Good News announced by the angel to the shepherds: “I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord,” Luke 2:10-11. Both Mary and Joseph were told to name the Virgin-born Child Jesus, “For He will save His people from their sins,” Matthew 1:21.
As sinners, we plead to God for His mercy and forgiveness, which is not based on something that we have done or something that we have not done. Our forgiveness is based upon what Jesus did for us. God sent His Son to live a perfect life in our place and to take all our sins upon Himself and suffer and die on Calvary’s cross to redeem all people. We are invited to believe in Him and trust Him for our salvation.
“‘Tis not by works of righteousness
Which our own hands have done,
But we are saved by God’s free grace,
Abounding thro’ His Son.” Amen.