“Remember, Lord, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old. Do not remember the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you, Lord, are good.” Psalm 25:6-7
We are often asked about how we want to be remembered. Just yesterday I led a funeral service for a dear sister in Christ who has entered into the Lord’s presence. The service gave us an opportunity to reflect on how a person is to be remembered in life. The word, used here in Psalm 25:6-7 can mean to mark something or to mention it. How do you want the Lord to mark or speak about the life you have lived. Do you want it to be based upon what you have done, the good and the bad things which characterize any life, or do you want it to be based upon His grace?
This is the beauty of the text which is before us. David asks the Lord, Jehovah, to remember him according to His great mercy and love. This is literally the Lord’s compassion and steadfast love or grace. David is, I believe, examining the way in which the Lord has always dealt with His people. We can trace through the Bible the wonderful account of how God has dealt with His people according to the principle of His grace. He is the compassionate, gracious God who visits His people in order to redeem them from their sin. David makes his appeal to God as one who knows that he has sinned, but who has put all of his hope into the promise of the redeeming love of the Lord. In writing this it is entirely possible that David is focused upon God’s promise of a redeemer, or Messiah who come out of David’s House. The Lord is going to do something out of His own nature as our redeemer in order to reconcile His people to Himself. David’s prayer is that God will remember His grace when He thinks about David.
The alternative is that God would remember David’s sin. The youthful rebellion and ungodly behaviour that David knows marks his personal history is always before him. We know that we always take our past with us as we move through life. Even if we have done everything possible to leave it behind there will always be someone to remind us of it. More than that we instinctively know that when we come to the end of our lives and stand before God in judgment that the one who is all knowing will hold us accountable. That is unless He has chosen not to remember our sins. This is David’s hope. He cries out to God to remember not his sins. This is because God has focused His attention on grace, which has been given through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. David’s hope is the hope that each one of us stands upon.
How do you want God to remember you? Do you want God to look upon you in judgment according to all that you have done both good and bad? Or do you want Him to look upon you in grace because your King, the Lord Jesus Christ has died in your place?