Psalms 86

Psalm 86

1

A prayer of David.

1 LORD, listen closely to me and answer me, because I am poor and in need.

2 Guard my life because I am faithful. Save your servant who trusts in you—you! My God!

3 Have mercy on me, Lord, because I cry out to you all day long.

4 Make your servant's life happy again because, my Lord, I offer my life to you,

5 because, my Lord, you are good and forgiving, full of faithful love for all those who cry out to you.

6 Listen closely to my prayer, LORD; pay close attention to the sound of my requests for mercy.

7 Whenever I am in trouble, I cry out to you, because you will answer me.

8 My Lord! There is no one like youamong the gods! There is nothing that can compare to your works!

9 All the nations that you've made will come and bow down before you, Lord; they will glorify your name,

10 because you are awesome and a wonder-worker. You are God. Just you.

11 Teach me your way, LORD, so that I can walk in your truth. Make my heart focused only on honoring your name.

12 I give thanks to you, my Lord, my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify your name forever,

13 because your faithful love toward me is awesome and because you've rescued my life from the lowest part of hell.

14 The arrogant rise up against me, God. A gang of violent people want me dead. They don't give a thought for you.

15 But you, my Lord, are a God of compassion and mercy; you are very patient and full of faithful love.

16 Come back to me! Have mercy on me! Give your servant your strength; save this child of your servant!

17 Show me a sign of your goodness so that those who hate me will see it and be put to shame— show a sign that you, LORD, have helped me and comforted me.

Psalms 86 Commentary

Chapter 86

The psalmist pleads his earnestness, and the mercy of God, as reasons why his prayer should be heard. (1-7) He renews his requests for help and comfort. (8-17)

Verses 1-7 Our poverty and wretchedness, when felt, powerfully plead in our behalf at the throne of grace. The best self-preservation is to commit ourselves to God's keeping. I am one whom thou favourest, hast set apart for thyself, and made partaker of sanctifying grace. It is a great encouragement to prayer, to feel that we have received the converting grace of God, have learned to trust in him, and to be his servants. We may expect comfort from God, when we keep up our communion with God. God's goodness appears in two things, in giving and forgiving. Whatever others do, let us call upon God, and commit our case to him; we shall not seek in vain.

Verses 8-17 Our God alone possesses almighty power and infinite love. Christ is the way and the truth. And the believing soul will be more desirous to be taught the way and the truth. And the believing soul will be more desirous to be taught the way and the truth of God, in order to walk therein, than to be delivered out of earthly distress. Those who set not the Lord before them, seek after believers' souls; but the compassion, mercy, and truth of God, will be their refuge and consolation. And those whose parents were the servants of the Lord, may urge this as a plea why he should hear and help them. In considering David's experience, and that of the believer, we must not lose sight of Him, who though he was rich, for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or soul; also in 86:4 b, 13
• [b]. Heb Sheol

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 86

\\<>\\. The title is the same with the Seventeenth Psalm, and the subject of it is much alike: it was written by David, when in distress, and his life was sought after; very likely when he was persecuted by Saul, and fled from him; so Aben Ezra, Jarchi, and Kimchi: and as he was a type of Christ in his afflictions, as well as in his exalted state, it may not be unfitly applied to him, as it is by some interpreters. The Syriac inscription of it is, ``for David, when he built an house for the Lord; and a prophecy of the calling of the Gentiles; and moreover, a prayer of a peculiar righteous man.'' Theodoret thinks it predicts the siege of Jerusalem by the Assyrians, and Hezekiah's hope in God.