Psalm 25:7 Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to your mercy remember you me for your goodness' sake, O LORD. The Psalm belongs to the later days of David. In youth we live in the present; in age we live in the past. I. YOUTHFUL SINS ARE REMEMBERED WHEN THE SINNER ATTAINS TO AN ADVANCED AGE. Generally speaking, the youthful sinner is a thoughtless sinner. He does not trouble about the sin or its consequences. There is a fallacy about, that the sins of youth are not actual sins. If youthful follies gradually developed themselves into manly virtues, then all hail, 'youthful follies! But if sin always remains sin, and wild oats sown will only grow up wild oats, then this is a fallacy indeed. There comes a time when youthful sins rise up to remembrance, both with the sinner and with the saint. The saint may know that his sins are forgiven, but that does not alter the grief with which he remembers them. How much more sadly true this is of the sinner, who does not know of sin forgiven. There comes a time when old iniquities, long forgotten, shall rise again from the dead, and like spectres haunt the man. There will come a time when the sins of the past will march before you and demand judgment; and what then? II. WHEN IN ADVANCED AGE THE SINS OF YOUTH ARE REMEMBERED, THE CRY OF THE SOUL IS, O GOD FORGET WHAT I MUST REMEMBER. David does not ask that he might forget his sins, but that God would forget them. It would not be well for us to forget them, even when they are forgiven. Arc your sins in God's memory as well as in your own? There are those who have their sins in the memory of God, but not in their own. Others have their sins in their own memory and in the memory of God too. And others have their sins in their own memory, but not in God's. (Archibald G. Brown.) Parallel Verses KJV: Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, O LORD. |
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