Psalms 86:1-9

1 ¹Incline your ear, O LORD, and answer me, for I am ²poor and needy.

2 Preserve my life, for I am ³godly; save your servant, who ⁴trusts in you--you are my God.

3 ⁵Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you do I cry all the day.

4 Gladden the soul of your servant, for ⁶to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.

5 For you, O Lord, are good and ⁷forgiving, ⁸abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.

6 ⁹Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer; listen to my plea for grace.

7 In ¹⁰the day of my trouble I call upon you, ¹¹for you answer me.

8 There is ¹²none like you among the gods, O Lord, ¹³nor are there any works like yours.

9 ¹⁴All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name.

Psalms 86:1-9 Meaning and Commentary

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.

Cross References

• 1. See Psalms 31:2
• 2. Psalms 40:17
• 3. See Psalms 50:5
• 4. See Psalms 11:1
• 5. ver. 16; Psalms 56:1; Psalms 57:1; See Psalms 4:1
• 6. See Psalms 25:1
• 7. Psalms 130:4
• 8. ver. 15; Psalms 103:8; Psalms 145:8, 9; Exodus 34:6; Joel 2:13
• 9. Psalms 55:1, 2
• 10. See Psalms 77:2
• 11. Psalms 17:6
• 12. [Psalms 89:6; Exodus 15:11]
• 13. Deuteronomy 3:24
• 14. Psalms 66:4; [Psalms 22:31; Psalms 65:2; Isaiah 66:23; Zechariah 14:18; Revelation 15:4]