To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul; 2 in you I trust, O my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. 3 No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame, but they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse. 4 Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; 5 guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. 6 Remember, O LORD, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old. 7 Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you are good, O LORD. 8 Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways. 9 He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. 10 All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of his covenant. 11 For the sake of your name, O LORD, forgive my iniquity, though it is great. 12 Who, then, is the man that fears the LORD? He will instruct him in the way chosen for him. 13 He will spend his days in prosperity, and his descendants will inherit the land. 14 The LORD confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them. 15 My eyes are ever on the LORD, for only he will release my feet from the snare. 16 Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. 17 The troubles of my heart have multiplied; free me from my anguish. 18 Look upon my affliction and my distress and take away all my sins. 19 See how my enemies have increased and how fiercely they hate me! 20 Guard my life and rescue me; let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you. 21 May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope is in you. 22 Redeem Israel, O God, from all their troubles!
— Psalm 25
David is quite concerned about sin in Psalm 25.
David asks the LORD, “Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways…” (25:7). I’m sure we can all relate to that plea (Forget the sins of my youth? I’m actually asking God to forget my more recent ones.) David asks God to, “ forgive my iniquity, though it is great.” (25:11b). Interestingly, in what the New American Standard Bible says is the first use of the word, David plead to God: “…forgive all my sin” (25:18). Finally, in 25:22 David flat out asks God, on behalf of all faithful followers, “Redeem Israel, O God…”
Not quite sure why all this emphasis on David’s sin problem. There aren’t many clues in the psalm itself.
I have to almost chuckle though with David’s words in 25:6-7, “Remember, O LORD, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you are good, O LORD.”
All my life I have heard of selective hearing, but I’ve never heard of selective remembering. David asks God to remember and then to not remember and then again to remember. Can we actually ask God to be that divided in His memory?
David says first that God should be consistent with how He has demonstrated His mercy in the past. God has a track record of being compassionate and forgiving. David wants God to apply that character to David’s youthfulness. Then he wants God to actively demonstrate his character by applying His mercy to David’s daily walk before Him.
It is almost as if David is saying, “Remember now, O God, that you are a God who forgets sin. Look at me. Don’t forget to forget mine, too! Include me in on this forgiveness stuff.”
I don’t have a clue how God knows all things yet removes our sin from us as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). Sounds like David struggles with this same predicament, the finite man trying to understand the Infinite One.
I don’t know who I heard this from, but someone remarked that when I get to heaven, Satan (if he is allowed such access) may try to accuse me before the Father by asking Him to remember a particularly egregious sin I have committed, only to have the Father look at the Son and reply, “Oh, no. We distinctly remember forgetting that one.”
I really like the sound of that. I really hope that’s true.
Comment: (One)
In your response to Davids Psalm, you indicate that you were not quite sure why all the emphasis on Davids sin.
As I look at my life I see how utterly hopless my situation is as I try to do better, be better, act better. There is no hope as I look at myself the disappointment seems to overwhelm me at times. I have a problem of internalizing and it can eat away at me if I am not careful.
If not for Jesus Christ, my life would obviously be nothing.
It is helpful to me to know that someone like David must have struggled with a similar dilema. The Holy Spirit obviously exposes us to our sin and if we keep asking Him, He will keep exposing it. It forces me to run back to Jesus in utter hope. He is all I have. I know He’ll have mercy!