It is not only praise that the remembrance of our past calls forth: the story of the Old Testament is a story of people’s sin and God’s mercy, and ‘we have sinned like our ancestors’ (v. 6). We join with our ancestors in confessing it. To have sinned is not fatal, but to fail to acknowledge it is. This separates us from the people of God, the redeemed, the people of God’s mercy. The words of the Psalmist in verse 4 are similar to the good thief recorded in Luke 23:42, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ This is a very powerful acknowledgment that brought immediate results. It teaches us not to lose faith, even at the eleventh hour and at the very last minute. Jesus always answers our prayers now, as he did then in Luke 23:43, ‘Truly, you will be with me today in paradise.’ With this psalm, we acknowledge ourselves as sinners before God, recognizing that we, too, are sinners, and we expect to be saved by grace.