Psalm 86:4-14

4 Give me happiness, O Lord, for I give myself to you.

5 O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive, so full of unfailing love for all who ask for your help.

6 Listen closely to my prayer, O LORD ; hear my urgent cry.

7 I will call to you whenever I’m in trouble, and you will answer me.

8 No pagan god is like you, O Lord. None can do what you do!

9 All the nations you made will come and bow before you, Lord; they will praise your holy name.

10 For you are great and perform wonderful deeds. You alone are God.

11 Teach me your ways, O LORD, that I may live according to your truth! Grant me purity of heart, so that I may honor you.

12 With all my heart I will praise you, O Lord my God. I will give glory to your name forever,

13 for your love for me is very great. You have rescued me from the depths of death.

14 O God, insolent people rise up against me; a violent gang is trying to kill me. You mean nothing to them.

Psalm 86:4-14 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.

Footnotes

• [a] Hebrew of Sheol.