May We Never Forget
Scripture:
Let all that I am praise the Lord;
with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.
Let all that I am praise the Lord;
may I never forget the good things he does for me.
He forgives all my sins
and heals all my diseases.
He redeems me from death
and crowns me with love and tender mercies.
He fills my life with good things.
My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!
—Psalm 103:1–5 (NLT)
David does not begin this psalm with a request. He begins with a command to himself. Let all that I am praise the Lord. With my whole heart. It is as if he has to gather every part of himself and point it in the right direction. And then, before the praise can fully take shape, he stops to do something deliberate. He makes a list. He refuses to let the goodness of God blur into the background of his life. He names it. He forgives all my sins. He heals all my diseases. He redeems me from death. He crowns me with love and tender mercies. He fills my life with good things. This is not poetry for poetry’s sake. This is a man choosing to remember, because he knows what forgetting costs.
And the list deserves to be read slowly. The forgiveness David names is total. Not partial, not conditional, not subject to review. All. The redemption he describes points straight to the heart of the gospel. We earned death, Paul tells us in Romans 6, but the gift of God is eternal life. David felt the weight of that contrast — deserving one thing and receiving the opposite — and it moved him. But then the language shifts from legal to tender. God does not simply cancel the debt and walk away. He crowns us with love and tender mercies. He fills our lives with good things. He renews our strength. This is not the language of a transaction. It is the language of a Father.
“We shall not grow weary of waiting upon God if we remember how long and how graciously He once waited for us.”¹ — Charles Spurgeon, Daily Help Devotional
Spurgeon understood what David was practicing. Memory is not passive. Choosing to remember what God has done is an act of faith that strengthens everything else. It steadies us when the waiting is long. It reorients us when circumstances pull our attention toward what we lack rather than what we have been given. David knew this. That is why he built the discipline of remembrance into the very structure of his praise. And it is why the psalm ends not with a whisper but a declaration. Let all that I am praise the Lord. When we take the time to remember clearly, that is the only place we can land.
Reflection:
- David makes a point to never forget the good things. What are three to five specific things God has done for you this week or this year that you can thank Him for right now?
- How does remembering God’s past faithfulness strengthen you for today’s challenges?
- David praises God for crowning him with love and tender mercies. How can a fresh awareness of that undeserved gift fuel both your praise to Him and your mercy toward others this week?
Prayer:
Praise God, following David’s lead. Thank Him for forgiving all your sins, for redeeming you from death, and for crowning you with love and mercy. Ask Him to help you never forget His goodness, and pray that the practice of remembering would become the ground from which your praise grows.
Footnote:
¹ Charles Spurgeon, Daily Help Devotional (Whitaker House, 2012), 81.