Psalms 86

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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.

10 For ¹⁵you are great and ¹⁶do wondrous things; ¹⁷you alone are God.

11 ¹⁸Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may ¹⁹walk in your truth; ²⁰unite my heart to fear your name.

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

13 ²¹For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have ²²delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

14 O God, insolent men have ²³risen up against me; a band of ruthless men seeks my life, and they do not set you before them.

15 But you, O Lord, are a God ²⁴merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

16 ²⁵Turn to me and be gracious to me; give your strength to ²⁶your servant, and save ²⁷the son of your maidservant.

17 ²⁸Show me a sign of your ²⁹favor, that those who hate me may see and be put to shame because you, LORD, have helped me and comforted me.

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A Morning Prayer by Lysa Terkeurst

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.

Taken from Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise)

Cross References 29

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]
15. Psalms 77:13
16. See Psalms 72:18
17. Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 37:16; Isaiah 44:6, 8; 1 Corinthians 8:4, 6
18. See Psalms 25:4
19. Psalms 26:3
20. [Jeremiah 32:39]
21. [ver. 5]
22. Psalms 30:3; [Psalms 88:6; Ezekiel 26:20]
23. Psalms 54:3
24. ver. 5; Psalms 111:4; Psalms 112:4; Numbers 14:18; Nehemiah 9:17; Jonah 4:2; See Psalms 62:12
25. See Psalms 25:16
26. See Psalms 116:16
27. See Psalms 116:16
28. [Judges 6:17]
29. Nehemiah 5:19; Nehemiah 13:31

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.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible