Psalm 25:7

Verse 7. Remember not the sins of my youth. It is not safe to be at odds with the "Ancient of days." John Trapp.

Verse 7. The sins of my youth. Before we come to the principal point we must first clear the text from the incumbrance of a double objection. The first is this: -- It may seem (some may say) very improbable that David should have any sins of his youth, if we consider the principals whereupon his youth was past. The first was poverty. We read that his father Jesse passed for an old man, we read not that he passed for a rich man; and probably his seven sons were the principal part of his wealth. Secondly, painfulness. David, though the youngest, was not made a darling, but a drudge; sent by his father to follow the ewes big with young; where he may seem to have learned innocence and simplicity from the sheep he kept. Thirdly, piety Psalms 71:5 , "For thou art my hope, O Lord God; thou art my trust from my youth." And again in the seventeenth verse of the same Psalm, "O God, thou hast taught me from my youth:" David began to be good betimes, a young saint, and yet crossed that pestilent proverb, was no old devil. And what is more still, he was constantly in the furnace of affliction. Psalms 88:15 . "Even from my youth up, thy terrors have I suffered with a troubled mind." The question then will be this, How could that water be corrupted which was daily clarified? How could that steel gather rust which was duly filed? How could David's soul in his youth be sooty with sin, which was constantly scoured with suffering? But the answer is easy; for though David for the main were a man after God's own heart (the best transcript of the best copy), yet he, especially in his youth, had his faults and infirmities, yea, his sins and transgressions. Though the Scripture maketh mention of no eminent sin in his youth, the business with Bathsheba being justly to be referred to David's reduced and elder age. I will not conclude that David was of a wanton constitution because of a ruddy complexion. It is as injurious an inference to conclude all bad which are beautiful, as it is a false and flattering consequence to say all are honest who are deformed. Rather we may collect David's youth guilty of wantonness from his having so many wives and concubines. But what go I about to do? Expect not that I should tell you the particular sins, when he could not tell his own. Psalm 19. "Who can tell how oft he offends?" Or, how can David's sins be known to me, which he confesseth were unknown to himself, which made him say, "O Lord, cleanse me from secret sins"? But to silence our curiosity, that our conscience may speak: -- If David's youth, which was poor, painful, and pious, was guilty of sins, what shall we say, of such whose education hath been wealthy, wanton, and wicked? And I report the rest to be acted with shame, sorrow, and silence in every man's conscience. Thomas Fuller.

Verse 7. The sins of my youth. Two aged disciples, one eighty-seven years old, one day met. "Well," enquired the younger, of his fellow pilgrim, "how long have you been interested in religion?" "Fifty years," was the old man's reply. "Well, have you ever regretted that you began when young to devote yourself to religion?" "Oh no!" said he, and the tears trickled down his furrowed cheeks; "I weep when I think of the sins of my youth; it is this which makes me weep now." From K. Arvine's "Cyclopaedia of Moral and Religious Anecdotes," 1859.

Verse 7. According to THY mercy, not mine; for I have forsaken those mercies thou madest mine own Jonah 2:8 Psalms 59:10 Psalms 59:17 , in being cruel to myself by my sin, through distrust of thy promise, and upon presumption in thy mercy; yea, let it be, for THY goodness' sake, not mine, for in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no manner of thing that is good. Let thy goodness, then, be the motive, thy mercy the rule of all that grace, and of all those blessings you vouchsafe unto my soul. Robert Mossom.

Verse 7. According to thy mercy. Moses was the first that brought up this happy expression, According to thy mercy (I know not where it is used by any other man), that is, according to the infinite mercy that is in thy heart and nature. David did next use it (Psalm 25), and in the great case of his sin and adultery Psalms 51:1 , "that he would be merciful to him, according to the multitude of his mercies." And as he needed all the mercies in God, so he confessed the sin of his nature, and hath recourse to the mercies in God's nature. But it is Psalms 25:7 , I pitch on; there he doth not content himself only with this expression, According to thy mercy, but he adds another phrase, "For thy mercy's sake," and goodness sake. Muis observes in this coherence, "Good and upright is the Lord" Psalms 25:8 , that he centres in his nature. Thou hast a merciful nature; deal with me according to that, and for the sake of that, "according to thy mercy," "for thy goodness sake." The mediation of that attribute was the foundation of his faith and prayer herein. When he has done, he refers himself to Moses: Psalms 25:11 , For thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great. He refers to that name proclaimed before Moses. Exodus 34:6 Exodus 34:7 . But you will say, how do these expressions, "for thy name's sake," "for thy goodness sake," "for thy mercy's sake," imply the same as "for himself," "for his own sake"? how do they involve the Godhead? Look to Isaiah 43:25 , "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake," that is, for myself. Isaiah 48:11 . "For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it." You have it twice in one verse; and that which is "for mercy's sake" in one place, is "for mine own sake" in another, "and behold it is I, I am he, as I am God, who doth it. What is this, but Jehovah, Jehovah, God merciful"? Thomas Goodwin.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 7. (first clause). The best Act of Oblivion. Thomas Fuller.

Verse 7. Oblivion desired and remembrance entreated. Note "my", and "thy."