Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, O LORD.
Ver. 7. Remember not the sins of my youth] Which, though long since committed, must not be remembered without remorse; since for them God often punisheth men in their age, Job 13:26 Jeremiah 3:25. It is not the last sand that emptieth the hour glass, nor the last blow that throweth down the oak. Sin may sleep a long time, like a sleeping debt, not called for of many years; as Saul's sin in slaying the Gibeonites, not punished till forty years after; as Joab's killing of Abner slept all David's days, &c. It is not safe to be at odds with the Ancient of days. This David knew, and, therefore, was willing to clear all old scores, to get pardon for youthful lusts, lest they should put a sting into his present sufferings. And that being thoroughly done, as he could expect mercy and direction from God, so if any should maliciously upbraid him with his bygone iniquities he could answer, as Austin did in like case, Quae tu reprehendis, ego damnavi, What thou reprehendest in me I have long since condemned in myself. And as reverend Beza, when a spiteful Papist hit him in the teeth with his wanton poems set forth in his youth, and long before repented of, Hic homo invidet mihi gratiam Christi, This fellow, said he, envieth me the grace of Jesus Christ.
Nor my transgressions] Or, prevarications, in personam Uriae, in the matter of Uriah, saith R. Obadiah; the sins of mine age, saith Kimchi; all my faults of former and later time, saith another. David was well in years when he defiled himself with Bathsheba. In many young men the rose is cankered in the bud. And again, as the canker soonest entereth into the white rose, so doth corruption easily creep into the white head. David prayeth God to forgive him his sins, both of former and of latter time; and not to forgive them only, but to forget them too; "Remember not the sins," &c. And as he fitly joineth memory of mercies and forgetfulness of sins, so he forgetteth not to subjoin,
According to thy mercy remember thou me, for thy goodness' sake, O Lord] Do all of free grace, not for any motive or merit of mine. Lorinus, a Jesuit, here bringeth in sundry passages (as well he may), Psalms 6:8; Psalms 51:3; Psalms 69:14; Psalms 86:5; Psalms 86:15; Psalms 106:45; Psalms 119:156; Psalms 136:7; Daniel 9:18; Isaiah 55:7, to prove that all is of mercy, and not of merits.