Remember, Lord, your great mercy and love,
for they are from of old.
Do not remember the sins of my youth
and my rebellious ways;
according to your love remember me,
for you, Lord, are good. Psalm 25:6-7

Our memories are interesting, aren’t they? Two days ago I recalled an incident (students and teachers watching a Russian movie) that happened 30 years ago. What did I have for lunch that day? Not a clue. It wasn’t meaningful. The event in the theater was; what I had for lunch wasn’t.

We also hold bad memories as if they were yesterday. Most of the time they no longer occupy our thoughts but occasionally at just the right time, they’ll resurface. A number of years ago while preparing for a missions journey, we were required to talk to psychologists to make sure there was nothing in our past that would hinder present or future performance. I was asked what the earliest recollection I had of anything. Getting a shiny red bike with hard wheels when I was three or four was one memory. The other memory (at about the same time) that stood out was knocking over my father’s coffee mug while he sat in the living room. It was a small white Esso mug with a picture of an orange tiger on it. Forty-five years later and the memory of the event is still razor sharp.

King David seemed to be pleading for God NOT to remember his sins, and instead to remember His own great mercy and love. If we had our druthers, we’d rather forget some of the memories we have of the past (not necessarily the one above), hoping beyond hope that God would also forget them.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17

“as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” Psalm 103:12

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21