Isaiah 43:26 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Put me in remembrance Of thy good deeds and merits. Let us plead together I give thee free liberty to urge all thou canst in thy own behalf. Declare thou, that thou mayest be justified Bring forward all thou canst, in order to thy justification, and declare on what ground thou expectest to be acquitted, and continued in my favour. But perhaps the words are not to be considered as spoken ironically, and intended as a rebuke to such as were proud and self-righteous; but are rather to be understood as a direction to penitent sinners, showing them how they might obtain the pardon offered in the preceding verse. Is God thus ready to pardon sin; and, when he pardons it, will he remember it no more? Let us then put him in remembrance, mention before him those sins which he forgives; for they must be ever before us, to humble us, even though he pardons them, Psalms 51:3. We must put him in remembrance of the promises he has made to the penitent, and of the satisfaction his Son has made for them. We must plead these with him when we implore a pardon, and declare these things, in order that we may be justified freely by his grace. This is the only way, and it is a sure way, to pardon and peace.