'For Thy name's sake.' The Psalmist does not come with any carefully
elaborated plea, grounded upon anything in himself, either on the
excuses and palliations of his evil, his corrupt nature, his many
temptations, and the like, or on the depth and reality of his
repentance. He does not say, 'Forgive me, for I weep for my evil and
loathe myself.' Nor does he say, 'Forgive me, for I could not help doing
it, or because I was tempted; or because the thing that I have done is a
very little thing after all.' He comes empty-handed, and says, 'For Thy
name's sake, O Lord!'
That means, first, the great thought that God's mercy flows from the
infinite depths of His own character. He is His own motive. The fountain
of His forgiving love wells up of itself, drawn forth by nothing that we
do, but propelled from within by the inmost nature of God. As surely as
it is the property of light to radiate and of fire to spread, so surely
is it His nature and property to have mercy. He forgives, says our text,
because He is God, and cannot but do so. Therefore our mightiest plea is
to lay hold of His own strength, and to grasp the fact of the unmotived,
uncompelled, unpurchased, and therefore unalterable and eternal
pardoning love of God.
Scientists tell us that the sun is fed and kept in splendour by the
constant impact of bodies from without falling in upon it, and that if
that supply were to cease, the furnace of the heavens would go out. But
God, who is light in Himself, needs no accession of supplies from
without to maintain His light, and no force of motives from without to
sway His will. We do not need to seek to bend Him to mercy, for He is
mercy in Himself. We do not need to stir His purpose into action, for it
has been working from of old and 'its goings forth are from
everlasting.' He is His own motive, He forgives because of what He is.
So let us dig down to that deepest of all rock foundations on which to
build our confidence, and be sure that, if I may use such an expression,
the necessity of the divine nature compels Him to pardon iniquity,
transgression, and sin.
Then there is another thought here, that the past of God is a plea with
God for present forgiveness. 'Thy name' in Scripture means the whole
revelation of the divine character, and thus the Psalmist looks back
into the past, and sees there how God has, all through the ages, been
plenteous in mercy and ready to forgive all that called upon Him; and he
pleads that past as a reason for the present and for the future.
Thousands of years have passed since David, if he was the Psalmist,
offered this prayer; and you and I can look back to the blessed old
story of _his_ forgiveness, so swift, so absolute and free, which
followed upon confession so lowly, and can remember that infinitely
pathetic and wonderful word which puts the whole history of the
resurrection and restoration of a soul into two clauses. 'David said
unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord: and Nathan said unto
David'--finishing the sentence--'And the Lord hath made to pass the
iniquity of thy sin.' What He was He is; what He is He will be. 'For Thy
name's sake, pardon mine iniquity.'
There is yet another thought that may be suggested. The divine
forgiveness is in order that men may know Him better. That is
represented in Scripture as being the great motive of the divine
actions--'for the glory of Thine own name.' That may be so put as to be
positively atrocious, or so as to be perfectly divine and lovely. It has
often been put, by hard and narrow dogmatists, in such a way as to make
God simply an Almighty selfishness, but it ought to be put as the Bible
puts it, so as to show Him as an Almighty love. For why does He desire
that His name should be known by us but for our sakes, that the light of
that great Name may come to us, 'sitting in darkness and in the shadow
of death,' and that, knowing Him for what He is, we may have peace, and
rest, and joy, and love, and purity? It is pure benevolence that makes
Him act, 'for the glory of His great name'; sweeping away the clouds
that a darkened earth may expand and rejoice, and all the leaves unfold
themselves, and every bird sing, in the restored sunshine.
And there is nothing that reveals the inmost hived sweetness and honey
of the name of God like the assurance of His pardon. 'There is
forgiveness with Thee that Thou mayest be feared.' Oh, dear brethren!
unless you know God as the God that has forgiven you, your knowledge of
Him is but shallow and incomplete, and you know not the deepest
blessings that flow to them who find that this is life eternal to know
the only true God as the all-forgiving Father.
Note the connection between the Psalmist's plea and the New Testament
plea. David said, 'For Thy name's sake, pardon,' we say, 'For Christ's
sake, forgive.' Are the two diverse? Is the fruit diverse from the bud?
Is the complete noonday diverse from the blessed morning twilight?
Christ _is_ the Name of God, the Revealer of the divine heart and mind.
When Christian men pray 'For the sake of Christ,' they are not bringing
a motive, which is to move the divine love which else lies passive and
inert, because God's love was the cause of Christ's work not Christ's
work the cause of God's love, but they are expressing their own
dependence on the Great Mediator and His work, and solemnly offering, as
the ground of all their hope, that perfect sacrifice which is the medium
by which forgiveness reaches men, and without which it is impossible
that the government of the righteous God could exist with pardon. Christ
has died; Christ, in dying, has borne the sins of the world; that is,
yours and mine. And therefore the pardon of God comes to us through that
channel, without, in the slightest degree, trenching on the awfulness of
the divine holiness or weakening the sanctities of God's righteous
retributive law. 'For Christ's sake hath forgiven us' is the daylight
which the Psalmist saw as morning dawn when he cried, 'For Thy name's
sake, pardon mine iniquity.'