What Does Psalm 25:7 Mean?
Do not remember the shortcomings of my youth or my rebellions. According to your faithful love, remember me, for the sake of your goodness, LORD.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O LORD.THE KEY
The prayer asks for youthful failures to stop defining what is remembered, and for faithful love to shape how the speaker is held in view.
THE MEANING
Your past misses and acts of breaking away are real, but they do not exhaust who you are. The verse asks to be held in view according to faithful love, so earlier failure is not the final account of the person.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this verse undoes is: “My worst early failures are what define me before God.”
THE ROOT
אַל־תִּזְכֹּר
al-tizkor
GROWS FROM
זכר
z-k-r
To remember, bring to mind, or keep in view.
“Remember” in this verse is al-tizkor. The verse repeats the same root: first asking that the speaker’s failures not be kept in view, then asking that the speaker be remembered. The contrast shifts what is held in memory without pretending the past never happened.
ALSO GROWS
zikkaron: Remembrance, memorial.
זִכָּרוֹן
A memorial is something deliberately kept in view, showing that remembering is active attention.
zekher: Remembrance, memorial, or reputation.
זֵכֶר
This branch connects remembering with what remains associated with a person.
חֶסֶד
chesed
GROWS FROM
חסד
Faithful, loyal love expressed through kindness.
Faithful love is the measure the speaker asks memory to follow. The request does not deny the failures; it asks that the person be held in view through a love that remains loyal.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāsad: To act loyally or show kindness.
חָסַד
This verbal branch shows faithful love as something expressed in action.
ḥāsîd: A loyal or faithful person.
חָסִיד
This branch describes a person in terms of the loyalty that marks their relationship.
פְּשָׁעַי
peshaʿai
GROWS FROM
פשע
Rebellion, breaking away.
“rebellions” in this verse is peshaʿai. This word carries the sense of rupture or rebellion, alongside the verse’s “sins,” חַטֹּאות (ḥaṭṭōʾt, misses). Together they name both missing the way and breaking away before asking that neither become the speaker’s defining memory.
ALSO GROWS
pāshaʿ: To rebel or break away.
פָּשַׁע
The verb gives the root’s action: a rupture in relationship or allegiance.
pōshēaʿ: One who rebels.
פֹּשֵׁעַ
This branch names a person through the act of breaking away, echoing the verse’s concern that past actions not define the whole person.
THE PATTERN
Divine remembering can hold a person within faithful love while releasing their wrongs from the defining account.
He remembers his faithful love and his steadiness toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth see the deliverance of our God.I, even I, I AM, the one who wipes away your rebellion for my own sake, and I will not remember your missed marks.For I will release their misalignment, and their shortcomings and their acts of living without boundary I will remember no more.THE THREAD
He remembers his faithful love and his steadiness toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth see the deliverance of our God.This verse uses the same Hebrew root זכר (z-k-r, remember) and pairs remembering with mercy. That pairing opens Psalm 25:7: the speaker asks to be held in view through faithful love.
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