Psalms 86

A Prayer for Help against Ruthless Men

1

A prayer of David.

1 Incline, O Yahweh, your ear [and] answer me, because I [am] poor and needy.

2 Watch over my life because I [am] faithful. You [are] my God; save your servant. [I am] the one who trusts you.

3 Be gracious to me, O Lord, because I call to you {all day long}.

4 Make glad the soul of your servant, because {I desire you}, O Lord.

5 For you, O Lord, [are] good and forgiving, and abundant in loyal love for all who call to you.

6 Heed, O Yahweh, my prayer, and attend to the voice of my supplications.

7 In the day of my trouble I call to you, because you answer me.

8 There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, and there are no works like yours.

9 All [the] nations that you have made will come and bow down before you, O Lord, and glorify your name.

10 For you [are] great and doing wondrous things; you alone [are] God.

11 Teach me, O Yahweh, your way, [that] I may walk in your truth. Unite my heart to fear your name.

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

13 because your loyal love [is] great toward me, and you will have delivered my life from Sheol below.

14 O God, arrogant men have risen up against me, even a gang of ruthless men seek my life, but they do not set you before them.

15 But you, O Lord, [are] a compassionate and gracious God, {slow to anger} and abundant in loyal love and faithfulness.

16 Turn to me and be gracious to me. Give your strength to your servant, and grant victory to the son of your maidservant.

17 Do a sign [that] benefits me, that those who hate me may see and be put to shame, because you, O Yahweh, 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]. The Hebrew Bible counts the superscription as the first verse of the psalm
• [b]. Literally "all the day"
• [c]. Literally "I lift up my soul to you"
• [d]. Hebrew "and great with respect to loyal love"
• [e]. Or "worship"
• [f]. That is, give singleness of heart
• [g]. The nether world, the place of departed spirits.
• [h]. That is, they do not factor God into their actions
• [i]. Literally "long of nostrils"
• [j]. Or "Save the son"

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.