Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love,
for they have been from of old.
Psalm 25:6
The problem with living out the gospel is not that God forgets us, but that we so often forget him. When David says “remember your mercy,” he is not accusing God of forgetting his love, akin to us forgetting our spouse’s anniversary or our child’s birthday. Instead, he is calling God to specifically apply the truths of his mercy and covenant love afresh to David’s soul. Asking God to remember his character is to beg him once again to flood our hearts with an experience of his grace. It is not that his grace changes—on the contrary, it is that we need to experience it anew.
That David expresses this truth is clear when he says God’s mercy and covenant love “have been from old.” As long as God has existed—which has been from eternity past, something we cannot fathom—so long has he been merciful and gracious. David is trying to awaken his soul to this truth: God’s character, which is the very essence of his being, the expression of what makes God “God,” is that he is merciful and gracious. He cannot go against himself. God’s mercy is his unyielding disposition to forgive guilty sinners. David knows this by experience. God’s steadfast love is his unyielding vow to love, save, redeem, sanctify and preserve sinners who come to him by faith in the promise of the gospel, fulfilled in the person and work of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. David, though a saint of old, looked ahead by faith to these realities. The question before us today is this: have we, like David, truly experienced the character of God on our behalf? In other words, have we tasted and seen his eternal mercy and steadfast love?
There will doubtless be times in your Christian walk when you are doubtful of your standing with God. This is exactly when this petition is needed. Call out to God from the depth of your soul: Father, remember your unending mercies to me! I know you have saved me through Jesus: the cross is the proof of your eternal love. But right now, I need assurance of this in my soul. So remember me, pour afresh your grace, and flood my soul again with these truths.
This prayer of faith will surely please the One who has pledged himself to us in covenant grace. When the spiritual drought of our souls does not match what we know to be true about God, we must beg him—sometimes with tears—to remember us. Again, it is not that he has forgotten. How could he ever forget an adopted child in whom he has placed his Spirit? How could he ever forget the scars in his hands and the thorny crown on his head—bloody seals of his saving work? Oh child of God, it is not your Savior who has forgotten his grace toward you. It is you who have forgotten the wonders of his grace!
It is an old, old grace, from eternity past, but oh! how it is ever fresh, new every day, steady for your soul and suited to your needs.
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