Psalm 86 commentary

PSALM 86 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
A prayer of David.
I TRODUCTIO
SPURGEO , "TITLE. â€”A Prayer of David. We have here one of the five psalms
entitled Tephillahs or prayers. This psalm consists of praise as well as prayer, but it
is in all parts so directly addressed to God that it is most fitly called "a prayer." A
prayer is none the less but all the more a prayer because veins of praise run through
it. This psalm would seem to have been specially known as David's prayer; even as
the ninetieth is "the prayer of Moses." David composed it, and no doubt often
expressed himself in similar language; both the matter and the wording are suitable
to his varied circumstances and expressive of the different characteristics of his
mind. In many respects it resembles Psalms 17:1-15, which bears the same title, but
in other aspects it is very different; the prayers of a good man have a family
likeness, but they vary as much as they agree. We may learn from the present psalm
that the great saints of old were accustomed to pray very much in the same fashion
as we do; believers in all ages are of one genus. The name of God occurs very
frequently in this psalm, sometimes it is Jehovah, but more commomly Adonai,
which it is believed by many learned scholars was written by the Jewish transcribers
instead of the sublimer title, because their superstitious dread led them to do so: we,
labouring under no such tormenting fear, rejoice in Jehovah, our God. It is singular
that those who were so afraid of their God, that they dared not write his name, had
yet so little godly fear, that they dared to alter his word.
DIVISIO . â€”The psalm is irregular in its construction but may be divided into
three portions, each ending with a note of gratitude or of confidence: we shall
therefore read from Psalms 86:1-7, and then, (after another pause at the end of
Psalms 86:13), we will continue to the end.
COKE, "Title. ‫תפלה‬ ‫לדוד‬ tephiltah ledavid.— This Psalm seems to have been
composed by David during his afflictions under Saul. It was afterwards, as the Jews
relate, made use of by Hezekiah, when the Assyrians made an attempt upon
Jerusalem. The first words of it are indeed the time with Hezekiah's in 2 Kings
19:16 and the 8th and 9th verses may be very fitly accommodated to that history;
but the rest a great deal better to David; who, in this psalm, personates his great
root and offspring the man Christ Jesus, labouring in the spirit of prophesy to
express something of that earnestness and humility with which he poured out his

soul, while he dwelt here in the form of a servant, pursued by cruel men, and
bearing our iniquities. See Fenwick.
ELLICOTT, "This psalm is mainly composed of a number of sentences and verses
from older compositions, arranged not without art, and, where it suited the adapter,
so altered as to present forms of words peculiar to himself. (See otes on Psalms
86:5-6.) There is also evidence of design in the employment of the Divine names,
Adonai being repeatedly substituted for Jehovah.
1 Hear me, Lord, and answer me,
for I am poor and needy.
BAR ES, "Bow down thine ear, O Lord, hear me - See the notes at Psa_5:1.
For I am poor and needy - This is the reason here assigned why God should hear
him. It is not a plea of merit. It is not that there was any claim on God in the fact that he
was a poor and needy man - a sinner helpless and dependent, or that it would be any
injustice if God should not hear, for a sinner has no claim to favor; but it is that this was
a condition in which the aid of God was needed, and in which it was proper or
appropriate for God to hear prayer, and to render help. We may always make our
helplessness, our weakness, our poverty, our need, a ground of appeal to God; not as a
claim of justice, but as a case in which he will glorify himself by a gracious interposition.
It is also to be remarked that it is a matter of unspeakable thankfulness that the “poor
and needy” may call upon God; that they will be as welcome as any class of people; that
there is no condition of poverty and want so low that we are debarred from the privilege
of approaching One who has infinite resources, and who is as willing to help as he is
able.
CLARKE, "Bow down thine ear - Spoken after the manner of men: I am so low,
and so weak, that, unless thou stoop to me, my voice cannot reach thee.
Poor and needy - I am afflicted, and destitute of the necessaries of life.

GILL, "Bow down thine ear, O Lord, hear me,.... This is spoken of God after the
manner of men, who, when they listen and attentively hearken to what is said to them,
stoop and bow the head, and incline the ear; and it denotes condescension in the Lord,
who humbles himself as to look upon men, so to bow down the ear and hearken to them:
this favour is granted to the saints, to whom he is a God hearing and answering prayer,
and which Christ, as man and Mediator, enjoyed; see Heb_5:7,
for I am poor and needy; weak and feeble, destitute and distressed, and so wanted
help and assistance; and which carries in it an argument or reason enforcing the above
petition; for the Lord has a regard to the poor and needy; see Psa_6:2. This may be
understood literally, it being the common case of the people of God, who are generally
the poor and needy of this world, whom God chooses, calls, and makes his own; and so
was David when he fled from Saul, being often in want of temporal mercies, as appears
by his application to Ahimelech and Nabal for food; and having nothing, as Kimchi
observes, to support him, but what his friends, and the men of Judah, privately helped
him to; and the character well agrees with Christ, whose case this was; see 2Co_8:9.
Moreover, it may be taken in a spiritual sense; all men are poor and needy, though not
sensible of it; good men are poor in spirit, are sensible of their spiritual poverty, and
apply to the Lord, and to the throne of his grace, for the supply of their need; and such
an one was David, even when he was king of Israel, as well as at this time, Psa_40:17,
and may be applied to Christ; especially when destitute of his Father's gracious presence,
and was forsaken by him and all his friends, Mat_27:46.
HE RY, "This psalm was published under the title of a prayer of David; not as if
David sung all his prayers, but into some of his songs he inserted prayers; for a psalm
will admit the expressions of any pious and devout affections. But it is observable how
very plain the language of this psalm is, and how little there is in it of poetic flights or
figures, in comparison with some other psalms; for the flourishes of wit are not the
proper ornaments of prayer. Now here we may observe,
I. The petitions he puts up to God. It is true, prayer accidentally may preach, but it is
most fit that (as it is in this prayer) every passage should be directed to God, for such is
the nature of prayer as it is here described (Psa_86:4): Unto thee, O Lord! do I lift up my
soul, as he had said Psa_25:1. In all the parts of prayer the soul must ascend upon the
wings of faith and holy desire, and be lifted up to God, to meet the communications of
his grace, and in an expectation raised very high of great things from him. 1. He begs
that God would give a gracious audience to his prayers (Psa_86:1): Bow down thy ear, O
Lord! hear me. When God hears our prayers it is fitly said that he bows down his ear to
them, for it is admirable condescension in God that he is pleased to take notice of such
mean creatures as we are and such defective prayers as ours are. He repeats this again
(Psa_86:6): “Give ear, O Lord! unto my prayer, a favourable ear, though it be
whispered, though it be stammered; attend to the voice of my supplications.” Not that
God needs to have his affection stirred up by any thing that we can say; but thus we must
express our desire of his favour. The Son of David spoke it with assurance and pleasure
(Joh_11:41, Joh_11:42), Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me; and I know that
thou hearest me always.
JAMISO , "Psa_86:1-17. This is a prayer in which the writer, with deep emotion,
mingles petitions and praises, now urgent for help, and now elated with hope, in view of

former mercies. The occurrence of many terms and phrases peculiar to David’s Psalms
clearly intimates its authorship.
poor and needy — a suffering child of God, as in Psa_10:12, Psa_10:17; Psa_18:27.
I am holy — or, “godly,” as in Psa_4:3; Psa_85:8.
CALVI , "1.Incline thy ear, O Jehovah! either the inscription nor the contents of
this psalm enable us to conclude with certainty what dangers David here complains
of; but the psalm in all probability refers to that period of his life when he was
persecuted by Saul, and describes the train of thought which then occupied his
mind, although it may not have been written until after his restoration to a state of
outward peace and tranquillity, when he enjoyed greater leisure. He does not
without cause allege before God the oppressions which he endured as a plea for
obtaining the divine favor; for nothing is more suitable to the nature of God than to
succor the afflicted: and the more severely any one is oppressed, and the more
destitute he is of the resources of human aid, the more inclined is God graciously to
help him. That despair therefore may not overwhelm our minds under our greatest
afflictions, let us support ourselves from the consideration that the Holy Spirit has
dictated this prayer for the poor and the afflicted.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 1. Bow down thine ear, O Lord, hear me. In condescension to
my littleness, and in pity to my weakness, "bow down thine ear, O Lord." When our
prayers are lowly by reason of our humility, or feeble by reason of our sickness, or
without wing by reason of our despondency, the Lord will bow down to them, the
infinitely exalted Jehovah will have respect unto them. Faith, when she has the
loftiest name of God on her tongue, and calls him Jehovah, yet dares to ask from
him the most tender and condescending acts of love. Great as he is he loves his
children to be bold with him.
For I am poor and needy â€”doubly a son of poverty, because, first, poor and
without supply for my needs, and next needy, and so full of wants, though unable to
supply them. Our distress is a forcible reason for our being heard by the Lord God,
merciful, and gracious, for misery is ever the master argument with mercy. Such
reasoning as this would never be adopted by a proud man, and when we hear it
repeated in the public congregation by those great ones of the earth who count the
peasantry to be little better than the earth they tread upon, it sounds like a mockery
of the Most High. Of all despicable sinners those are the worst who use the language
of spiritual poverty while they think themselves to be rich and increased in goods.
EXPLA ATORY OTES A D QUAI T SAYI GS.
Title. â€”The prophet David has penned two psalms, which he has eminently
appropriated to himself as his own: the one is styled David's prayer, though many
other psalms are prayersâ€”it is Psalms 86:1-17; the other David's praise, Psalms
145:1-21. The first his tephilla, the latter his tehilla; in each of these he makes a
solemn rehearsal of the very words of Moses, in Exodus 34:6-7. In Psalms 86:1-17 he
brings them in as they were a support unto his faith in his distresses from sins and
miseries, to which use he puts them, Ps 86:3-4 6-7. And again, Psalms 86:16-17, he
makes a plea of these words by way of prayer. In Psalms 145:1-21, he brings them in

as they are an elogium or celebration of the glorious nature and excellencies of God,
to excite the sons of men to love and praise him. â€”Thomas Goodwin.
Title. â€”This Psalm was published under the title of A Prayer of David; not as if
David sung all his prayers, but into some of his songs he inserted prayers; for a
psalm will admit the expression of any pious and devout affections. But it is
observable how very plain the language of this psalm is, and how little there is in it
of poetical flights or figures, in comparison with some other psalms; for the
flourishes of wit are not the proper ornaments of prayer. â€”Matthew Henry.
Title. â€”There was much, very much, of God's peculiar character, his glorious
name, brought to view in the close of the last Psalm. This may account for its being
followed by another, A Prayer of David, almost equally full of the character of
Jehovah. The key note of this Psalm is Jehovah's name. â€”Andrew A. Bonar.
Whole Psalm. Christ prays throughout the whole of this Psalm. All the words are
spoken exclusively by Christ, who is both God and man. â€”Psalt. Cassiodori, 1491.
Whole Psalm. In this Psalm Christ the Son of God and Son of Man, one God with
the Father, one man with men, to whom we pray as God, prays in the form of a
servant. For he prays for us, and he prays in us, and he is prayed to by us. He prays
for us as our Priest. He prays in us as our Head. He is prayed to by us as our God. â
€”Psalt. Pet. Lombard. 1474.
Ver. 1. Bow down thine ear, O Lord. As the careful physician doth to his feeble
patient: so Basil glosseth here. â€”John Trapp.
Ver. 1-4. Poor, holy, trusteth, I cry. The petitioner is first described as poor, then
holy, next trusting, after that crying, finally, lifted up to God. And each epithet has
its fitting verb; bow down to the poor, preserve the holy, save the trusting, be
merciful to him who cries, rejoice the lifted up. It is the whole gamut of love from
the Incarnation to the Ascension; it tells us that Christ's humiliation will be our
glory and joy. â€” eale and Littledale's Commentary.
BE SO , "Psalms 86:1. Bow down thine ear, O Lord — When God hears our
prayers he is fifty said to bow down his ear to them, for it is great condescension in
him even to take notice of such mean creatures as we are, and much more to hear
our defective and unworthy prayers. For I am poor and needy — Forsaken and
persecuted by men, and utterly unable to save myself, and therefore a proper object;
in behalf of whom thy power and goodness may be exerted. Observe, reader, “All
prayer is founded on a sense of our own wants, and God’s ability to supply them. In
the sight of his Maker every sinner is poor and needy; and he must become so in his
own, that his petitions may be regarded; he must pray with the humility and
importunity of a starving beggar, at the gate of heaven, if he expect the great King
to bow down his ear and hear him.” — Horne.
COFFMA , "Verse 1
PSALM 86
A PSALM OF SUPPLICATIO A D TRUST
"This is the only Psalm of David in the Third Book of the Psalter."[1] Of course,
Kidner here was following the superscription which thus assigns it. Jones also

accepted this, stating that, "There is no sufficient grounds for disputing David's
authorship of it."[2] Rawlinson likewise affirmed that, "The Psalm contains
nothing, either in matter or style, to make the ascription unlikely."[3]
This being true, why then, do most modern commentators reject the Davidic
authorship of this Psalm? Delitzsch declared that, "It can be called `A Psalm of
David' as having grown out of Davidic and other model passages."[4] He then went
on to point out at least 30 allusions and/or quotations from other Biblical passages,
saying that, "Almost everything is an echo of the language of other Psalms or of the
Law,"[5] McCaw referred to the psalm as "A Mosaic."[6] We agree with Miller's
comment that, "It may be that others have borrowed from this Psalm."[7] othing
in our own studies has convinced us that modern scholars are actually competent to
decide such questions upon the basis of the limited information available to them. In
the very nature of the problem, they have to do a lot of "guessing"; and the guesses
of the ancient authors of the superscription are just as good as the "guesses" men
offer so generously today.
Psalms 86:1-5
GOD'S GOOD ESS A E COURAGEME T TO SEEK HIM
"Bow down thine ear, O Jehovah, and answer me;
For I am poor and needy.
Preserve my soul; for I am godly:
O thou my God save thy servant that trusteth in thee.
Be merciful unto me, O Lord;
For unto thee do I cry all the day long.
Rejoice the soul of thy servant;
For unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.
For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive,
And abundant in lovingkindness unto all them that call upon thee."
An unusual feature of this psalm is that, "Each petition is accompanied by a reason
why the petition should be granted."[8] ote the reasons given in Psalms 86:1, "I
am poor and needy"; and in Psalms 86:2, "for I am godly." etc.
"I am poor and needy" (Psalms 86:1). "These words do not necessarily reveal the
financial circumstances of the psalmist; they indicate the need of help from God, in

this case help because of the arrogant and violent men of (Psalms 86:14-17)."[9]
"For I am godly" (Psalms 86:2). We cannot allow these words in the mouth of David
in the sense of their ordinary meaning. What is meant is that he was loyal to God,
[10] that "I am devoted to you and trust you,."[11] or simply that he belonged to the
covenant people of Israel.
"Unto thee do I cry ... I lift up my soul" (Psalms 86:3-4). These are "reasons why"
the psalmist believes God should hear his petition.
"Thou, Lord, art good ... ready to forgive ... abundant in lovingkindness" (Psalms
86:5). The wonderful goodness, mercy, lovingkindness, and readiness of God to
forgive the penitent - all of these are abundant encouragements indeed for men to
seek God in prayer. With such a God, ready and willing to help us, who should
neglect to pray?
EXPOSITORS DICTIO ARY OF TEXTS, "A Pattern of Prayer
Psalm 86:1-5
The prayer that springs from a deep-felt need, and will not cease till that need is
supplied, may say the same things over a hundred times, and yet they shall not be
vain.
I. The Invocations. In general, this Psalm is remarkable for its frequent use of the
Divine names. In almost every verse they recur, and their frequency gives us a vivid
impression of earnestness, of consciousness of need, and of faith so sore pressed that
it could only sustain itself by perpetual renewal of its grasp of God. Five times in
these verses of our text does he invoke Him, and that by three several names—
Jehovah, my God, Lord. These three sacred names have each a distinct meaning
when used in prayer; they bring up various aspects of the character of God as the
basis of our confidence, and the ground of our petitions. Song of Solomon , then,
when we blend all these together, it is as if the Psalmist had said: "The ever living,
the covenant Jehovah, my God in whom I claim a personal interest, who loves me
with an individualizing love, and cares for me with a specific care, the absolute
monarch and sovereign of the whole universe is He to whom I come with my
supplication. I think of His names, I trust in them, I present them to Him, whom
they all but partially declare; and I ask Him—for His own name"s sake, because of
what He is and hath declared Himself to be, to hear my poor cry, to answer my
imperfect faith, to show Himself yet once again that which His name hath from old
proclaimed Him to be."
II. So much then for the invocation, and now a word or two in reference to the
petitions which these verses give us. As I have said, they are all substantially the
same, and yet they so vary as to suggest how familiar all the aspects of the
deliverance that the Psalmist desires were to him. The way in which God"s mercy is

to guard and save is left, with meek patience, to God"s decision. o sorrow is so
crushing and hopeless but that happiness may again visit the heart where trust and
love abide. Only let us remember that this Psalm seeks for joy, where it seeks for
help, not from earthly sources, but from God.
III. Finally, we have to consider the pleas on which these petitions are based. The
logic of prayer here is very remarkable and beautiful. Every feature of the
Psalmist"s condition and character, as well as all that he knows of God, becomes in
his life a reason with God for granting his prayer. The human side of the relation
between God and His servant is further urged in the subsequent claims which refer
to the Psalmist"s longings and efforts after fellowship with God. It is His own mercy
in Christ which we present It is the work of His own love which we bring as our
plea.
—A. Maclaren, Sermons Preached in Manchester, vol. III. p257.
EBC, "THIS psalm is little more than a mosaic of quotations and familiar phrases
of petition. But it is none the less individual, nor is the psalmist less heavily
burdened, or less truly beseeching and trustful, because he casts his prayer into
well-worn words. God does not give "originality" to every devout man; and He does
not require it as a condition of accepted prayer. Humble souls, who find in more
richly endowed men’s words the best expression of their own needs, may be
encouraged by such a psalm. Critics may think little of it, as a mere cento: but God
does not refuse to bow His ear, though He is asked to do so in borrowed words. A
prayer full of quotations may be heartfelt, and then it will be heard and answered.
This psalmist has not only shown his intimate acquaintance with earlier devotional
words, but he has woven his garland with much quiet beauty, and has blended its
flowers into a harmony of colour all his own.
There is no fully developed strophical arrangement, but there is a discernible flow
of thought, and the psalm may be regarded as falling into three parts.
The first of these (Psalms 86:1-5) is a series of petitions, each supported by a plea.
The petitions are the well-worn ones which spring from universal need, and there is
a certain sequence in them. They begin with "Bow down Thine ear," the first of a
suppliant’s desires, which, as it were, clears the way for those which follow.
Trusting that he will not ask in vain, the psalmist then prays that God would "keep"
his soul as a watchful guardian or sentry does, and that, as the result of such care,
he may be saved from impending perils. or do his desires limit themselves to
deliverance. They rise to more inward and select manifestations of God’s heart of
tenderness, for the prayer "Be gracious" asks for such, and so goes deeper into the
blessedness of the devout life than the preceding. And the crown of all these requests
is "Rejoice the soul of Thy servant," with the joy which flows from experience of
outward deliverance and of inward whispers of God’s grace, heard in the silent
depths of communion with Him. It matters not that every petition has parallels in
other psalms, which this singer is quoting. His desires are none the less his, because
they have been shared by a company of devout souls before him. His expression of

them is none the less his, because his very words have been uttered by others. There
is rest in thus associating oneself with an innumerable multitude who have "cried to
God and been lightened." The petition in Psalms 86:1 is like that in Psalms 55:2.
Psalms 86:2 sounds like a reminiscence of Psalms 25:20; Psalms 86:3 closely
resembles Psalms 57:1.
The pleas on which the petitions are grounded are also beautifully wreathed
together. First, the psalmist asks to be heard because he is afflicted and poor.
{compare Psalms_11:17} Our need is a valid plea with a faithful God. The sense of it
drives us to Him; and our recognition of poverty and want must underlie all faithful
appeal to Him. The second plea is capable of two interpretations. The psalmist says
that he is Chasid; and that word is by some commentators taken to mean one who
exercises, and by others one who is the subject of, Chesed-i.e., lovingkindness. As
has been already remarked on Psalms 4:3, the passive meaning-i.e., one to whom
God’s lovingkindness is shown-is preferable. Here it is distinctly better than the
other. The psalmist is not presenting his own character as a plea, but urging God’s
gracious relation to him, which, once entered on, pledges God to unchanging
continuance in manifesting His lovingkindness. But though the psalmist does not
plead his character, he does, in the subsequent pleas, present his faith, his daily and
day-long prayers, and his lifting of his desires, aspirations, and whole self above the
trivialities of earth to set them on God. These are valid pleas with Him. It cannot be
that trust fixed on Him should be disappointed, nor that cries perpetually rising to
His ears should be unanswered, nor that a soul stretching its tendrils heavenward
should fail to find the strong stay, round which it can cling and climb. God owns the
force of such appeals, and delights to be moved to answer, by the spreading before
Him of His servant’s faith and longings.
SBC, "The fulness and variety of these petitions deserve careful consideration.
Notice:—
I. The invocations. Five times in these verses of the text does the Psalmist invoke God,
and that by three several names: "Jehovah," "my God," "Lord." (1) "Jehovah." The word
implies eternal, timeless being, underived self-existence. It was given as the seal of the
covenant, as the ground of the great deliverance from Egyptian bondage. The national
existence rested upon it. The vitality of Israel was guaranteed by the eternity of Israel’s
God. (2) "My God." The word implies the abundance and fulness of power, and so may
be found, and often is found, on the lips of heathens. It contemplates the almightiness
rather than the moral attributes or covenant relations of God as the ground of our hopes.
This general conception becomes special on the Psalmist’s lips by the little word which
he prefixes to it: "my God." (3) The word "Lord" is not, as a mere English reader might
suppose, the same word as that which is rendered Lord" in the first verse. That is
"Jehovah." This means just what our English word "lord" means: it conveys the general
idea of authority and dominion.
II. The petitions which these verses give us. They are all substantially the same, and yet
they so vary as to suggest how familiar all the aspects of the deliverance that the Psalmist
desired were to him. (1) There is, first, the cry that God would hear, the basis of all that
follows. Then there is a threefold description of the process of deliverance: "preserve,"
"save," "be merciful." Then there is a longing for that which comes after the help, a

consequence of the hearing: "Make the soul of Thy servant glad."
III. The pleas on which these petitions are based. (1) The Psalmist pleads his necessities.
He is "poor and needy," borne down by the pressure of outward calamity, and destitute
of inward resources. (2) He pleads his relation to God and his longing for communion
with Him. "I am holy." The word simply means "one who is a recipient or object of
mercy." The plea is drawn, not from the righteousness of the man, but from the mercy of
God. (3) Finally, because our necessities and our desires derive their force as pleas from
God’s own character, he urges that as his last and mightiest appeal. The name of God is
the ground of all our hope, and the motive for all His mercy.
A. Maclaren, Sermons Preached in Manchester, 3rd series, p. 257.
In this passage we are looking at one of God’s saints in the holiest of all, in the
immediate presence of his God and King.
I. The first thought that strikes us is, David takes his right place. He says, "Bow down,"
as though he would say, "I am a worm, and no man." I cannot claim an audience. If Thou
wouldst hear, Thou must bow down Thine ear, as a tender Father, to catch what Thy frail
child has to say.
II. Look at the "fors" of the passage. There are five. (1) "For I am poor and needy." If we
come to God at all, we must come as beggars. There are two words in the Greek language
which indicate poverty. One indicates respectable poverty, the poverty of a man in
humble circumstances, who is working hard to get his bread. The other signifies
"beggary," the state of the man who has got nothing, who is utterly bankrupt. In
describing the particular kind of poverty-stricken people He receives, our Lord uses the
word to indicate abject bankruptcy; and unless we come into the Divine presence in the
position of paupers, we cannot get the blessing. (2) Notice the second "for:" "Preserve
my soul, for I am holy." The first "for" is the "for" of the bankrupt; the second is the "for"
of the saint. There is no contradiction here: in my own moral character a poor beggar,
grovelling in the dust; in God’s own Divine purpose something nobler than the bright
spirits that stand around His throne, heir of God and joint heir with Christ, bound to the
everlasting Deity by indissoluble bonds. (3) "Be merciful unto me, O Lord, for I cry unto
Thee daily." This third "for" points out to us what is to be the law of our life. If we want
to be kept in constant safety, we must be calling unto Him "daily." (4) "Rejoice the soul
of Thy servant, for unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul." The Psalmist begins by
asking the Lord to "bow down His ear unto him," but he goes on till he gets to such a
point of believing expectation that he dares to lift up his soul into the presence of God. It
is lifted up in order that it may become a partaker of God’s joy. God is the centre of
eternal joy. "At Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.’ (5) "For Thou, Lord,
art good and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon Thee."
We are so poor in our mercy. The richness of God’s mercy lies in this point: the Lord
never gives a mercy till He has taken care that it shall be a real mercy. His favours shall
only be received by those who will take them in His own way, and thus the blessing is
doubled.
W. Hay Aitken, Mission Sermons, 1st series, p. 220.

SIMEO , "A PRAYI G SPIRIT EXEMPLIFIED
Psalms 86:1-5. Bow down thine ear, O Lord! hear me; for I am poor and needy.
Preserve my soul; for I am holy O thou my God, save thy servant that trusteth in
thee! Be merciful unto me, O Lord! for I cry unto thee daily. Rejoice the soul of thy
servant: for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. For thou, Lord, art good, and
ready to forgive; plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.
TRUE and genuine piety cannot always be certainly known by men’s intercourse
with their fellow-creatures. Appearances may be so plausible, that they cannot,
except by Him who searcheth the heart, be distinguished from realities. But in their
intercourse with the Deity, the truth or falsehood of their profession may be clearly
discerned. The most refined hypocrite may, by examining the state of his soul in his
private devotions, obtain the certain means of discovering his proper character,
provided he have his standard rightly fixed, and his test impartially applied. To
furnish such a standard, is our object in the present discourse. We here behold the
man after God’s own heart drawing nigh to a throne of grace, and pouring out his
soul in supplications before God: and we wish to call your attention especially to the
spirit which he manifested in this sacred duty, since it will serve as an excellent
criterion whereby to try and judge ourselves.
Let us then consider,
I. The subject-matter of his prayer—
It should seem that David was now under great affliction, either from the
persecutions of Saul, or from the unnatural rebellion of his son Absalom: and his
prayers may well be understood, in the first instance, as relating to his temporal
trials. But, as it is of his soul that he chiefly speaks, we shall dwell upon his prayer
principally in that view. Let us notice then,
1. His petitions—
[St. Paul, in both his Epistles to Timothy, prays, that “grace, and mercy, and peace”
may be multiplied upon him. These three terms comprehend the substance of the
Psalmist’s petitions. He desired “grace,” to “preserve and save his soul.” He desired
“mercy;” “Be merciful unto me, O Lord!” And he desired “peace;” “Rejoice the
soul of thy servant, O Lord!” ow these are such petitions as every sinner in the
universe should offer. There are no other that can be compared with them, in point
of importance to the souls of men. As for all the objects of time and sense, they sink
into perfect insignificance before the things which appertain to our everlasting
salvation. To all therefore I would say, Seek what David sought. Cry mightily to
God to have mercy upon you, and to preserve and save your soul: and when you
have done that, you may fitly pray also for that consolation and joy, which a sense of
his pardoning love will produce in the soul.]
2. His pleas—

[These are taken, partly, from what he experienced in his own soul; and, partly,
from the character of God himself.
Observe how he urges, what he experienced in his own soul. The things which God
himself requires from us, in order to the acceptance of our prayers, are, a deep sense
of our necessities, an entire surrender of our souls to him, a reliance on him for all
needful blessings, and a continual application to him in a way of fervent and
believing prayer. Behold, these are the very things which David at this time
experienced, and which therefore he pleaded before God as evidences of the
sincerity of his prayers: “Bow down thine ear, O Lord, and hear me; for I am poor
and needy!” And who is there that must not adopt the same acknowledgment? Who
that considers, how destitute his soul is of all that is truly good, will not find these
words exactly descriptive of his state? Again, the Psalmist prays, “Preserve my soul;
for I am holy” We must not imagine that David here meant to boast of his high
attainments in holiness: the term “holy” is applied in Scripture to every thing that is
dedicated to God, though from its very nature it cannot possess any inherent
sanctity: the temple of God, the vessels of the sanctuary, and all the offerings, were
holy, because they were set apart for God. So David here speaks of himself as “set
apart for God [ ote: See Psalms 4:3.]:” and his expression is exactly equivalent to
that which he uses in another place; “I am thine; save me [ ote: Psalms 119:94.].”
This then is another plea which it becomes us all to use. As the Israelites were “a
holy nation [ ote: Exodus 19:6.],” so are we [ ote: 1 Peter 2:9.]: and if we have
given up ourselves unreservedly to God, we may well hope, that he will hear and
answer our petitions. Once more David says, “Save me; for I trust in Thee.” This
also was a most acceptable plea. If we ask with a wavering and doubtful mind, we
can never succeed [ ote: James 1:6-7.]: but the prayer of faith must of necessity
prevail [ ote: Matthew 21:22. Mark 11:24.]. The suppliant who truly and habitually
trusts in God, can never be disappointed. Lastly, David says, “I cry unto thee daily:”
“Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.” God “will be inquired of, to do for us the
things that he has promised.” “If we ask, we shall have; if we seek, we shall find; if
we knock, it shall be opened unto us [ ote: Matthew 7:7-8.]:” but, if we ask not, we
shall not, we cannot, have [ ote: James 4:2.].
But David’s chief plea is taken from the character of God himself: and this is, in
reality, the most satisfactory to the human mind, and most acceptable to the Divine
Majesty, who “will work for his own great ame’s sake,” when all other grounds of
hope are subverted and lost. Towards his creatures generally, whether rational or
irrational, God is “good;” but towards the children of men he is “ready to forgive,
and plenteous in mercy unto all that call upon him.” o mother is so tender towards
her new-born child, as God is towards his penitent and believing people. He is far
more “ready to forgive,” than they are to ask forgiveness; and will multiply his
pardons beyond all the multitude of their offences [ ote: Isaiah 55:7-9.]. “Where sin
has abounded, his grace shall much more abound [ ote: Romans 5:20.].” The
freeness and fulness of God’s grace should be clearly seen, and confidently relied
upon: but then we must never forget, that this glorious perfection shines only in the
face of Jesus Christ. It is in Christ only that God can pardon sinners in consistency

with his justice: but in Christ, “he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness [ ote: Romans 3:24-25.].” In Christ therefore,
and in God as reconciled to us through the blood of his Son, must be all our hope. If
we rest solely on Christ’s obedience unto death, all will be well; for “in him all the
promises of God are yea, and amen [ ote: 2 Corinthians 1:20.].” But, if we look at
God in any way but as in the person of Christ, we shall surely find him “a
consuming fire [ ote: Hebrews 12:29.].”]
The prayer itself not calling for any farther elucidation, we proceed to notice,
II. The spirit manifested in it—
Here the subject is peculiarly important, because it exhibits in so striking a view the
dispositions of mind which we should invariably exercise in our approaches to the
Divine Majesty. In this example of David, then observe,
1. His meekness and modesty—
[He approaches God, as a sinner ought to do, with reverential awe. He exhibits none
of that unhallowed boldness, and indecent familiarity, which are so commonly to be
noticed in the prayers of many at this day. It is much to be lamented that many
address God almost as if he were an equal. We speak not now of that irreverence
with which people, altogether ignorant of religion, conduct themselves in the public
services of the church; (though that is deeply to be deplored;) but of the state of
mind manifested by many religious people, ministers, as well as others, in their
public and social addresses to the throne of Heaven. How different, alas! is it from
that which is inculcated, both in the Scriptures [ ote: Psalms 89:7. Ecclesiastes
5:2.], and in the Liturgy of our Church! In the Liturgy, the people are exhorted to
“accompany their minister with a pure heart and humble voice to the throne of the
heavenly grace:” and, in another place, “to make their humble confession to
Almighty God, meekly kneeling on their knees.” This is a lovely state of mind, and
as opposite to that which many religious people manifest, as light to darkness. Many
whose religious principles differ widely from the self-applauding Pharisee, resemble
him very nearly in his spirit and conduct: but let us, on the contrary, imitate the
publican, who, “not venturing so much as to lift up his eyes to heaven, smote upon
his breast, and cried, God be merciful to me a sinner.”]
2. His humility and contrition—
[He felt himself a guilty and undone creature, deserving of God’s everlasting
displeasure: and hence he cried so repeatedly for mercy and salvation, And here
again we see how the same views and dispositions are inculcated in the services of
our Church. Let any one peruse the confession which is daily offered — — — or
that which we are taught to utter at the table of the Lord — — — or let him read
the responses after every one of the Ten Commandments — — — or the repeated
cries, “Lord, have mercy upon me! Christ, have mercy upon me! Lord, have mercy
upon me!” and he will see at once, what a beautiful harmony there is between our

Liturgy and the Holy Scriptures; and what distinguished saints all her members
would be, if the Spirit of her Liturgy were transfused into their minds. This is the
state of mind which, above all, we would recommend to those who desire to find
acceptance with God: for “to this man will God look, even to him who is of a broken
and contrite spirit [ ote: Isaiah 57:15; Isaiah 65:2.]:” this is the sacrifice which,
above all, God requires, and which he has assured us “he will never despise [ ote:
Psalms 51:17.].”]
3. His faith and love—
[David did not so view his own sinfulness as to distrust the mercy of his heavenly
Father; but rather took occasion from his own sinfulness to magnify still more the
free and supera-bounding grace of God. In this, his example is especially to be
followed. othing can warrant us to limit the mercy of our God. O how “ready is he
to forgive” returning penitents! Of this, the conduct of the father towards the
repenting prodigal is a lively and instructive image. In that parable, the compassion
of God towards returning sinners is, as it were, exhibited even to the eye of sense.
Let us then, whatever be our state, bear this in mind, that unbelief is a sin which
binds all our other sins upon us. ever, under any circumstances, should we
harbour it for a moment. It is enough to have resisted God’s authority, without
proceeding further to rob him of the brightest jewels of his crown—his grace and
mercy. The goodness of God, as described in our text, and in another subsequent
part of this psalm [ ote: ver. 15.], — — — is a sufficient pledge to us, that of those
who come to him in his Son’s name, he never did, nor ever will, cast out to much as
one.]
4. His zeal and earnestness—
[The diversified petitions and pleas which we have already considered, together with
the renewed urgency of his supplications in the verse following my text [ ote: ver.
6.], shew, how determined David was not to rest, till he had obtained favour of the
Lord. And thus must we also “continue instant in prayer:” we must “watch unto it
with all perseverance;” we must “pray always, and not faint.” Alas! how are we
condemned in our own minds for our manifold neglects, and for our lukewarmness
in prayer to God! But we must not rest satisfied with confessing these neglects: we
should remedy them, and break through this supineness, and correct this
negligence, and lie at Bethesda’s pool till the angel come for our relief. This is
suggested to us in our text. What we translate, “I cry unto thee daily,” is, in the
margin, “I cry unto thee all the day.” O that there were in us such a heart! O that
our sense of need were so deep, our desire of mercy so ardent, and our faith in God
so assured, that we were drawn to God with an irresistible and abiding impulse; and
that, like Jacob of old, we “wrestled with him day and night, saying, I will not let
thee go except thou bless me [ ote: Genesis 32:24; Genesis 32:26; Genesis 32:28.
with Hosea 12:3-5.].” Such prayer could not but prevail; and such a suppliant could
not but find everlasting acceptance with God, who is so “plenteous in mercy, so
ready to forgive [ ote: Luke 18:1-8.].”]

PULPIT, "THIS is the prayer of an afflicted and humble soul in a time of
persecution (Psalms 86:14), intermixed with outbursts of praise (Psalms 86:5,
Psalms 86:8-10, Psalms 86:15) and thankfulness (Psalms 86:12, Psalms 86:13). It is
assigned in the title to David, and contains nothing, either in matter or style, to
make the ascription unlikely. Still, most modern critics regard the psalm as
probably of a later date, and consider it the work of a less gifted psalmist than
David. If not the production of a "great original mind," the psalm is nevertheless
one of singular sweetness and beauty.
Metrically, it seems to divide itself, like Psalms 85:1-13; into three strophes, two
shorter, and one longer, the former being of five verses each, and the latter of seven.
Psalms 86:1-5
Prayer, the predominant note of the entire psalm, holds almost exclusive possession
of the first strophe, only passing into praise when the last verse is reached, where
the petitioner reminds God of his loving kindness and readiness to forgive.
Psalms 86:1
Bow down thine ear, O Lord, hear me (comp. Psalms 31:2; Proverbs 22:17). For I
am poor and needy; or, "I am afflicted and in misery." Poverty in the ordinary
sense is scarcely intended.
2 Guard my life, for I am faithful to you;
save your servant who trusts in you.
You are my God;
BAR ES, "Preserve my soul - Preserve, or keep, my life; for so the word rendered
soul means in this place, as it does commonly in the Scriptures.
For I am holy - Margin, “One whom thou favorest.” The Hebrew word - ‫חסיד‬ châsıyd
- means properly, benevolent, kind; then, good, merciful, gracious; and then pious,
godly. Psa_30:4; Psa_31:23; Psa_37:28. The ground of the plea here is, that he was a
friend of God; and that it was proper on that account to look to him for protection. He
does not say that he was holy in such a sense that he had a claim on that account to the
favor of God, or that his personal holiness was a ground of salvation; but the idea is, that

he had devoted himself to God, and that it was, therefore, proper to look to him for his
protection in the time of danger. A child looks to a parent for protection, because he is a
child; a citizen looks to the protection of the laws, because he is a citizen; and so the
people of God may look to him for protection, because they are his people. In all this
there is no plea of merit, but there is the recognition of what is proper in the case, and
what may he expected and hoped for.
Save thy servant - Save him from threatening danger and from death.
That trusteth in thee - Because I trust or confide in thee. I go nowhere else for
protection; I rely on no one else. I look to thee alone, and I do this with entire
confidence. A man who does this has a right to look to God for protection, and to expect
that God will interpose in his behalf.
CLARKE, "Preserve my soul - Keep it as in a strong place.
For I am holy - ‫אני‬ ‫חשיד‬ ‫כי‬ ki chasid ani, for I am merciful. The spirit of this prayer is,
“The mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me!”
Save thy servant - I have long taken thee as my Master and Lord; I receive the word
from thy mouth, and obey thee.
GILL, "Preserve my soul,.... Or life, which Saul sought after; and this prayer was
heard: David was often remarkably preserved by the Lord from his attempts upon him;
and so was the soul or life of Christ preserved in his infancy from Herod's malice; in the
wilderness from wild beasts, and from perishing with hunger; and often from the
designs of the Jews, to take away his life before his time; and he was supported in death,
preserved from corruption in the grave, and raised from thence: instances there are of
his praying for the preservation of his life, with submission to the will of God, in which
he was heard, Mat_26:39. The Lord is not only the preserver of the lives of men in a
temporal sense, but he is the preserver of the souls of his people, their more noble part,
whose redemption is precious; he keeps them from the evil of sin, and preserves them
safe to his kingdom and glory; yea, their whole soul, body, and spirit, are preserved by
him blameless, unto the coming of Christ:
for I am holy; quite innocent, as to the crime that was laid to his charge by Saul and his
courtiers; or was kind, beneficent, and merciful, to others, and to such God shows
himself merciful, they obtain mercy: or was favoured of God, to whom he had been
bountiful, on whom he had bestowed many mercies and blessings; and therefore desires
and hopes that, to the rest of favours, this of preservation might be added; or, as he was
a sanctified person, and God had begun his work of grace in him, he therefore entreats
the Lord would preserve him, and perfect his own work in him: some, as Aben Ezra
observes, would have the sense to be,
"keep my soul until I am holy:''
so Arama interprets it,

"keep me unto the world to come, where all are holy:''
the character of an Holy One eminently and perfectly agrees with Christ, as well as the
petition; see Psa_16:1.
O thou, my God, save thy servant that trusteth in thee; both temporally and
spiritually: the arguments are taken from covenant interest in God, which is a strong
one; from relation to him as a servant, not by nature only, but by grace; and from his
trust and confidence in him; all which, as well as the petition, agree with Christ; see Psa_
22:1.
HE RY, "He begs that God would take him under his special protection, and so be the
author of his salvation (Psa_86:2): Preserve my soul; save thy servant. It was David's
soul that was God's servant; for those only serve God acceptably that serve him with
their spirits. David's concern is about his soul; if we understand it of his natural life, it
teaches us that the best self-preservation is to commit ourselves to God's keeping and by
faith and prayer to make our Creator our preserver. But it may be understood of his
spiritual life, the life of the soul as distinct from the body: “Preserve my soul from that
one evil and dangerous thing to souls, even from sin; preserve my soul, and so save me.”
All those whom God will save he preserves, and will preserve them to his heavenly
kingdom.
CALVI , "2.Preserve my soul, for I am meek. Here the Psalmist adduces two other
arguments by which to stir up God to grant him succor, — his own gentleness
towards his neighbors, and the trust which he reposed in God. In the first clause he
may seem at first sight to make some pretensions to personal worth; yet he plainly
shows that nothing was farther from his intention than to insinuate that by any
merits of his own he had brought God under obligations to preserve him. But the
particular mention made of his clemency or meekness tends to exhibit in a more
odious light the wickedness of his enemies, who had treated so shamefully, and with
such inhumanity, a man against whom they could bring no well-founded charge,
and who had even endeavored to the utmost of his power to please them. (481) Since
God then has avowed himself to be the defender both of good causes and of those
who follow after righteousness, David, not without good reason, testifies that he had
endeavored to exercise kindness and gentleness; that from this it may appear that he
was basely requited by his enemies, when they gratuitously acted with cruelty
towards a merciful man. But as it would not be enough for our lives to be
characterised by kindness and righteousness, an additional qualification is
subjoined — that of trust or confidence in God, which is the mother of all true
religion. Some, we are aware, have been endued with so high a degree of integrity,
as to have obtained among men the praise of being perfectly just, even as Aristides
gloried in having never given any man cause of sorrow. But as those men, with all
the excellence of their virtues, were either filled with ambition, or inflated with
pride, which made them trust more to themselves than to God, it is not surprising to
find them suffering the punishment of their vanity. In reading profane history, we
are disposed to marvel how it came to pass that God abandoned the honest, the
grave, and the temperate, to the enraged passions of a wicked multitude; but there is
no reason for wondering at this when we reflect that such persons, relying on their

own strength and virtue, despised the grace of God with all the superciliousness of
impiety. Making an idol of their own virtue they disdained to lift up their eyes to
Him. Although, therefore, we may have the testimony of an approving conscience,
and although He may be the best witness of our innocence, yet if we are desirous of
obtaining his assistance, it is necessary for us to commit our hopes and anxieties to
him. If it is objected, that in this way the gate is shut against sinners, I answer, that
when God invites to himself those who are blameless and upright in their
deportment, this does not imply that he forthwith repels all who are punished on
account of their sins; for they have an opportunity given them, if they will improve
it, for prayer and the acknowledgement of their guilt. (482), But if those whom we
have never offended unrighteously assail us, we have ground for double confidence
before God.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 2. Preserve my soul. Let my life be safe from my enemies, and
my spiritual nature be secure from their temptations. He feels himself unsafe except
he be covered by the divine protection.
For I am holy. I am set apart for holy uses, therefore do not let thine enemies
commit a sacrilege by injuring or defiling me: I am clear of the crimes laid to my
charge, and in that sense innocent; therefore, I beseech thee, do not allow me to
suffer from unjust charges: and I am inoffensive, meek, and gentle towards others,
therefore deal mercifully with me as I have dealt with my fellow men. Any of these
renderings may explain the text, perhaps all together will expound it best. It is not
self righteous in good men to plead their innocence as a reason for escaping from the
results of sins wrongfully ascribed to them; penitents do not bedaub themselves with
mire for the love of it, or make themselves out to be worse than they are out of
compliment to heaven. o, the humblest saint is not a fool, and he is as well aware of
the matters wherein he is clear as of those wherein he must cry "peccavi." To plead
guilty to offences we have never committed is as great a lie as the denial of our real
faults.
O thou my God, save thy servant that trusteth in thee. Lest any man should suppose
that David trusted in his own holiness he immediately declared his trust in the Lord,
and begged to be saved as one who was not holy in the sense of being perfect, but
was even yet in need of the very clements of salvation. How sweet is that title, "my
God", when joined to the other, "thy servant"; and how sweet is the hope that on
this ground we shall be saved; seeing that our God is not like the Amalekitish
master who left his poor sick servant to perish. ote how David's poor I am (or
rather the I repeated without the am) appeals to the great I AM with that sacred
boldness engendered by the necessity which breaks through stone walls, aided by
the faith which removes mountains.
Ver 2. Holy. The word has been variously translated: â€”Godly, De Muis,
Ainsworth and others; charitable, or beneficent, Piscator; merciful or
tenderhearted, Mariana; diligently or earnestly compassionate, Vatablus; meek,
Calvin; a beloved one, Version of American Bible Union; one whom thou lovest,
Perowne; a devoted or dedicated man, â€”Weiss.
Ver. 2. For I am Holy. Some have objected to David's pleading his own good
character; but if he did not go beyond the truth, and the occasion called for it, there

was nothing wrong in his so doing. Job, David, Peter, John and Paul all did it, Job
27:5, Psalms 116:16, John 21:15-17, Revelation 1:10, 1 Corinthians 9:1. or is it
presumptuous to ask God to show mercy to us for we show it to others; or to forgive
us for we forgive others, Mt 5:7 6:14-15. â€”William S. Plumer.
Ver. 2. I am holy...thy servant which trusteth in thee. They that are holy, yet must
not trust in themselves, or in their own righteousness, but only in God and his grace.
â€”Matthew Henry.
Ver. 2. Save thy servant that trusteth in thee. When God saves his servant, he saves
what belongs to himself; and, when he saves him that trusts in him, he shows himself
to be just and faithful, in carrying out what he promised. â€”Bellarmine.
Ver. 2-5. The aspirations after holiness which are found in this Psalm, coupled with
its earnest invocation of mercy from the God with whom there is forgiveness, render
it peculiarly applicable to those whose daily access is to a throne of needed grace.
Christians know that while their standing is the blameless perfection of the Lord
their righteouness, they are in many things offenders still. or do we ever fully
prove the preciousness of Jesus as our portion, except we are drawn to him by that
Spirit which reveals to us a nakedness and poverty within ourselves, which his
blessed fulness can alone redress.
There is a consciousness of personal sanctification through faith (Psalms 86:2)
associated with an acutely sensitive perception of intrinsic worthlessness, such as
only finds relief in the remembrance of unaltered grace (Psalms 86:5), which, to the
exercised spirit of one really growing in the knowledge of God, will address itself
with an especial acceptance. â€”Arthur Pridham.
COKE, "Psalms 86:2. For I am holy— For I am thy favoured one. Mudge. For I am
merciful. Green; which seems a very proper translation; and is as if the Psalmist
had said, "Shew that mercy to me which I am so ready and willing to shew to
others." It appears, however, from Psalms 16:10 that the same word is peculiarly
appropriated to Christ, the Holy one of God: in which sense it may well be
understood, according to what we have observed on the title.
BE SO , "Psalms 86:2. Preserve my soul, for I am holy — Sanctified in some
measure by thy grace, and sincerely devoted to thy service. Hebrew, ‫חסיד‬ ‫,אני‬ ani
chasid, I am good, merciful, or pious. Show that mercy to me which I am willing and
ready to show to others. This David mentions, not in a way of vain ostentation, but
as an argument to move God to answer his prayers, because he was one of that sort
of men whose prayers God had engaged himself, by his promise and covenant, to
hear; and partly by way of just and necessary vindication of himself from the
censures of his enemies, who represented him to the world as a dissembler, and
secretly a very wicked man; concerning which he here makes a solemn appeal to
God, desiring audience and help from him upon no other condition than that he was
truly upright and righteous before him. Which, by the way, manifests no more
arrogance than when he elsewhere professes his great love to, and longing after,
God; his sincere obedience to all God’s commands, and his hatred of every false
way, and the like.
WHEDO , "2. Preserve—David’s prayer for protection points to his danger.

(Psalms 86:14; Psalms 86:17.)
For I am holy—Dedicated to God, a God-worshipper. But the word ‫חסיד‬ is as often
used in the sense of merciful. “Keep my soul, for I am merciful;” as in Psalms 97:10,
“He preserveth the souls of his saints”—better, of his merciful ones. This suits the
connexion and scope. The issue between David and his enemies was, not that he was
irreligious, but that he had been unjust to man by superseding the house of Saul in
the dynasty, and the tribe of Ephraim in the supremacy, to which slander had added
many other false accusations. See 2 Samuel 15:2-6. The word in question is often
used to cover the great principle of the second table of the decalogue— “Thou shall
love thy neighbour as thyself.” David pleads that he had been merciful to men as a
reason for now obtaining mercy of God. See Matthew 5:7; James 2:13, and notes on
Psalms 4:3; Psalms 12:1. ‫,כי‬ (kee,) “for,” because, in the text, as a causal particle,
does not assign as a reason for acceptance good works as a ground of merit, as the
papists hold, but as a proof of moral fitness, the promise being to such. He appeals
to his works as evidence of the purity and sincerity of his intentions and heart.
Trusteth in thee—Another reason of fitness.
EXPOSITORS DICTIO ARY OF TEXTS, "Religious Concentration
Psalm 86:2
To a writer of such broad sympathies as the Psalmist, the doctrine of the Divine
unity suggests a prophetic picture of the gathering together of all nations for God"s
worship. From the north and the south, the east and the west, he sees many races
flowing together with one consent and bowing reverently before the Lord God of
Israel. And as he contemplates the glory of the coming days he longs to realize an
earnest of its peace in his own undivided consecration to God.
I. Various powers belong to us between which no true bond of coherence makes
itself felt. Our minds seem to have suffered dismemberment, and we watch ourselves
discharging God"s service with little bits of our being only. There can be no
complete oneness of character till we adopt the Psalmist"s prayer and persevere till
it is answered.
(a) That power of religious concentration for which the Psalmist prays is the just
tribute to God"s greatness. The worship and service of the Most High must absorb
us and will even then be tremendously inadequate.
(b) A religion illimitable in the range of its interests demands a service into which all
the forces of life gather themselves. Isolated acts of worship do not satisfy the spirit
of its requirements. The homage Jehovah seeks is many-sided, including praise,
faith, reverence, contemplation, obedience, philanthropy, and consuming love.
II. This united and mutually consistent action of all the powers of the soul is
necessary to religious perfecting. Some parts of the nature are more predisposed to

God and religious exercise and pursuits than others, but the goal is not reached
whilst they act in isolation.
III. What is the difficulty which hinders this unification of all the forces of the
nature in the Divine service. It is obvious that the impediment is not deficiencies of
intellectual training. The mental powers do not act together in close file at a word of
command from the hidden life, and it will be some years before that comes to pass.
And this fact has its counterpart in the processes through which the art of religious
concentration is attained. If sin had not introduced a fixed discord into man"s
nature it might still have been needful for him to acquire unity of thought and life
by a term in the school of experience.
IV. The grace for which the Psalmist prays is one and the same with the power
which sanctifies. Holiness is practical religious concentration, achieved through the
commanding motive of love to God. When the heart is united to fear God"s name all
social and secular pursuits become indirect forms of worship, binding more closely
to God and awakening delight at the thought of His presence.
V. The inevitable set of the human mind is towards concentration, and if we do not
acquire the habit for good it will master us for evil. One man"s nature specializes
itself into the pursuit of pleasure, another"s into the acquisition of power, and that
of a third into money-getting, divorced even from the satisfaction of spending. It
behoves us to see that it is the best within us which becomes dominant, and that this
supreme concentration chooses for its processes the things which are pure, lovely,
and sacred, rather than the things which are evil.
—T. G. Selby, The God of the Frail, p330.
3 have mercy on me, Lord,
for I call to you all day long.
BAR ES, "Be merciful unto me, O Lord - It was mercy after all that he relied on,
and not justice. It was not because he had any claim on the ground that he was “holy,”
but all that he had and hoped for was to be traced to the mercy of God.
For I cry unto thee daily - Margin, as in Hebrew, “All the day.” The meaning is,
that he did this constantly, or without intermission.
CLARKE, "Be merciful unto me - I have no merit; I plead none, but trust in thee

alone.
I cry unto thee daily - My state deeply affects me; and I incessantly cry for thy
salvation.
GILL, "Be merciful unto me, O Lord,.... In my distressed and miserable condition,
being an object of mercy, pity, and compassion; this petition is used by Christ in Psa_
41:10.
for I cry unto thee daily; or "all the day"; every day, and several times in a day, Psa_
55:17 constant and importunate prayer is the duty of saints, and available with God,
1Th_5:17. Christ was much in the exercise of it, Luk_6:12.
HE RY, " He begs that God would look upon him with an eye of pity and compassion
(Psa_86:3): Be merciful to me, O Lord! It is mercy in God to pardon our sins and to help
us out of our distresses; both these are included in this prayer, God be merciful to me.
“Men show no mercy; we ourselves deserve no mercy, but, Lord, for mercy-sake, be
merciful unto me.”
CALVI , "3Have mercy upon me, O Jehovah! The Psalmist again betakes himself
to the mercy of God. The word ‫,חנן‬ chanan, which I have rendered have mercy, is
substantially the same as to gratify, to do a pleasure. It is as if he had said, I bring
no merit of my own, but humbly pray for deliverance solely on the ground of thy
mercy. When he speaks of crying daily, it is a proof of his hope and confidence, of
which we have spoken a little before. By the word cry, as I have already had
occasion frequently to remark, is denoted vehemence and earnestness of soul. The
saints do not indeed always pray with a loud voice; but their secret sighs and
groanings resound and echo upwards, and, ascending from their hearts, penetrate
even into heaven. The inspired suppliant not only represents himself as crying, but
as persevering in doing so, to teach us that he was not discouraged at the first or
second encounter, but continued in prayer with untiring earnestness. In the
following verse, he expresses more definitely the end for which he besought God to
be merciful to him, which was, that his sorrow might be removed. In the second
clause, he declares that there was no hypocrisy in his crying; for he lifted up his soul
to God, which is the chief characteristic of right prayer.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 3. Be merciful unto me, O Lord. The best of men need mercy,
and appeal to mercy, yea to nothing else but mercy; they need it for themselves, and
crave it eagerly of their God as a personal requisite.
For I cry unto thee daily. Is there not a promise that importunity shall prevail? May
we not, then, plead our importunity as an argument with God? He who prays every
day, and all the day, for so the word may mean, may rest assured that the Lord will
hear him in the day of his need. If we cried sometimes to man, or other false
confidences, we might expect to be referred to them in the hour of our calamity, but
if in all former times we have looked to the Lord alone, we may be sure that he will
not desert us now. See how David pleaded, first that he was poor and needy, next
that he was the Lord's set apart one, then that he was God's servant and had

learned to trust in the Lord, and lastly that he had been taught to pray daily; surely
these are such holy pleadings as any tried believer may employ when wrestling with
a prayer hearing God, and with such weapons the most trembling suppliant may
hope to win the day.
Ver. 3. Be merciful unto me. Lest any should by the former words, ("I am holy", )
suspect him to be a merit monger, he beggeth mercy with instancy and constancy of
request. â€”John Trapp.
Ver. 3. I cry unto thee daily. A great difference between saints and sinners in prayer
is that sinners who pray at all, pray only when they are in trouble, whereas saints
cry daily unto God. Compare Job 27:10. â€”William S. Plumer.
ISBET, "DAILY PRAYER
‘I cry unto Thee daily.’
Psalms 86:3
I. This is the only psalm in the third book ascribed to David.—It sounds like his.
There is a lyric beauty and pathos about it which are so characteristic of his work.
He speaks of himself in the second verse as ‘godly,’ not that he arrogated some
special saintliness as his portion, but that he was conscious that his life was
distinctly Godward and dependent on the supplies that God communicated.
II. It is remarkable to contrast his statement that he prayed all the day long with the
frequent statements scattered through Bramwell’s letters. ‘My dear brother,’ he
says, ‘my life is prayer. I assure you that I am just in heaven. It is the Lord.’ Again,
‘I never lived with God as at present. I can say, my life is prayer, and much in
agony. It is continual prayer that brings the soul into all the glory.’ And yet again, ‘I
see more than ever that those who are given up to God in continual prayer are men
of business, both for earth and heaven. They go through the world with composure,
are resigned to every cross, and make the greatest glory of the greatest cross.’
But in order to have this life of prayer we must know the character of God, and base
our prayers upon our knowledge. otice that the Psalmist says in the fifth verse,
‘Thou, Lord, art good’; in the tenth verse, ‘Thou art great’; and in the fifteenth
verse, ‘Thou art full.’ Meditate on these qualities of the Divine ature, and you will
not find it difficult to pray or praise with your whole heart.
Illustration
‘This psalm is called in the superscription “A Prayer of David.” Whether it is by
David or not we need scarcely take the trouble to inquire; but it is a prayer, and
conveys a valuable lesson in the art of praying. We are in the habit of making a
distinction between prayer and praise, and, of course, it is quite easy to distinguish
them in a definition; but, in fact, the limits between them are of a very fluid
description. There is no prayer without elements of praise, and, as a rule, the
greater the amount of praise in a prayer the better. On the other hand, praise is full
of prayer; the Psalms would be reckoned the praises of God, but there are very few
of them in which there is no prayer, and in many instances this is the predominating

element. In the present case it is clearly predominant.’
4 Bring joy to your servant, Lord,
for I put my trust in you.
BAR ES, "Rejoice the soul of thy servant - Cause me to rejoice; to wit, by thy
gracious interposition, and by delivering me from danger and death.
For unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul - Compare the notes at Psa_24:4. The
idea is that of arousing himself, or exerting himself, as one does who makes strenuous
efforts to obtain an object. He was not languid, or indifferent; he did not put forth
merely weak and fitful efforts to find God, but he bent his whole powers to that end; he
arouses himself thoroughly to seek the divine help. Languid and feeble efforts in seeking
after God will be attended with no success. In so great a matter - when so much depends
on the divine favor - when such great interests are at stake - the whole soul should be
roused to one great and strenuous effort; not that we can obtain his favor by force or
power, and not that any strength of ours will prevail of itself, but
(a) because nothing less will indicate the proper intensity of desire; and
(b) because such is his appointment in regard to the manner in which we are to seek
his favor.
Compare Mat_7:7-8; Luk_13:24; Luk_16:16.
CLARKE, "Rejoice the soul of thy servant - I want spiritual blessings; I want
such consolations as thou dost impart to them that love thee; I present that soul to thee
which I wish thee to console.
GILL, "Rejoice the soul of thy servant,.... With the discoveries of love, of
pardoning grace, and mercy, before made sad with sin or sufferings; and with the light of
God's countenance, before troubled with the hidings of his face: this may be applied to
Christ, in sorrowful circumstances, who was made full of joy with his Father's
countenance, Mat_26:37.
for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul: in prayer, as the Targum adds; and it
denotes the devotion, fervency, heartiness, and sincerity, of his prayer; the doing of it
with a true heart, the lifting up of the heart with the hands unto God, Lam_3:41 or by
way of offering unto the Lord, not the body only, but the soul or heart also; or as a
depositum committed into his hands; so Christ lifted up his eyes, and his heart and soul,

to his divine Father; and also made his soul an offering for sin, and at death commended
his spirit into his hands, Joh_17:1; see Gill on Psa_25:1.
HE RY, " He begs that God would fill him with inward comfort (Psa_86:4): Rejoice
the soul of thy servant. It is God only that can put gladness into the heart and make the
soul to rejoice, and then, and not till then, the joy is full; and, as it is the duty of those
who are God's servants to serve him with gladness, so it is their privilege to be filled
with joy and peace in believing, and they may in faith pray, not only that God will
preserve their souls, but that he will rejoice their souls, and the joy of the Lord will be
their strength. Observe, When he prays, Rejoice my soul, he adds, For unto thee do I lift
up my soul. Then we may expect comfort from God when we take care to keep up our
communion with God: prayer is the nurse of spiritual joy.
JAMISO , "lift up my soul — with strong desire (Psa_25:1).
SPURGEO , "Ver. 4. Rejoice the soul of thy servant. Make my heart glad, O my
Maker, for I count it my honour to call myself again and again thy servant, and I
reckon thy favour to be all the wages I could desire. I look for all my happiness in
thee only, and therefore
unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. As the heliotrope looks to the sun for its
smile, so turn I my heart to thee. Thou art as the brazen serpent to my sick nature,
and I lift up my soul's eye to thee that I may live. I know that the nearer I am to thee
the greater is my joy, therefore be pleased to draw me nearer while I am labouring
to draw near. It is not easy to lift a soul at all; it needs a strong shoulder at the wheel
when a heart sticks in the miry clay of despondency: it is less easy to lift a soul up to
the Lord, for the height is great as well as the weight oppressive; but the Lord will
take the will for the deed, and come in with a hand of almighty grace to raise his
poor servant out of the earth and up to heaven.
Ver. 4. Rejoice the soul of thy servant, etc. As I have not found rest in anything
created, I have raised up my soul on the wings of thought and desire to thee my
Creator. Love bears one's soul up; and it has been truly said, that the soul is more
where it loves, than where it actually is. Thought and desire are the wings of love;
for he that loves is borne on to, and abides in, what he loves, by thinking constantly
on, and longing for, the object of his love. Whoever truly, and from his heart, loves
God, by thinking on him and longing for him lifts up his soul to God; while, on the
contrary, whoever loves the earth, by thinking on and coveting the things of the
earth, lets his soul down to its level. â€”Bellarmine.
Ver. 4. Unto thee, Lord, do I lift my soul. If thou hadst corn in thy rooms below,
thou wouldest take it up higher, lest it should grow rotten. Wouldest thou remove
thy corn, and dost thou suffer thy heart to rot on the earth? Thou wouldest take thy
corn up higher: lift up thy heart to heaven. And how can I, dost thou say? What
ropes are needed? What machines? What ladders? Thy affections are the steps; thy
will the way. By loving thou mountest, by neglect thou descendest. Standing on the
earth thou art in heaven, if thou lovest God. For the heart is not so raised as the

body is raised: the body to be lifted up changes its place: the heart to be lifted up
changes its will. â€”Augstine.
Ver. 4. Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift my soul, intimates that he had brought himself to
the Lord as a living sacrifice, even as the heave offering in the tabernacleâ€”to show
that it belonged to God and to his altar, and, that man had no part in itâ€”was lifted
up by the hands of the priests. â€”Benjamin Weiss.
Ver. 4. â€”I lift up my soul. It denotes the devotion, fervency, heartiness, and
sincerity of his prayer; the doing of it with a true heart, the lifting up of the heart
with the hands unto God, La 3:41; or by way of offering unto the Lord, not the body
only, but the soul or heart also; or as a deposition committed into is hands. â€”John
Gill.
Ver. 4. Lord. Here, and in all the verses in this psalm where ynda Adonai, occurs,
many MSS read hwhy, Yehovah. The Jews, out of reverence to the incommunicable
name Jehovah pronounce ynda where hwhy is in the text. It is, therefore, not
improbable that hwhy is in the true reading in all these places. â€” ote to Calvin in
loc.
BE SO , "Psalms 86:4-5. Rejoice the soul of thy servant — It is God only that can
put gladness into the heart, and make the soul rejoice; and it is the privilege of his
servants to have joy, as well as peace, in believing: and they may pray in faith, not
only that God would preserve their souls, but that he would rejoice their souls, and
then the joy of the Lord will be their strength. For unto thee do I lift up my soul —
Then we may expect comfort from God, when we take care to keep up our
communion with him: prayer is the nurse of spiritual joy. For thou, Lord, art good
— o less bountiful than I am indigent, which is a great encouragement to me in
calling upon thee; and ready to forgive — Those that have offended thee; and
plenteous in mercy unto all that call upon thee — Always prepared to show
abundant kindness to them in their distresses, when with sincere desire, and true
faith, they call upon thee.
PULPIT, "Rejoice the soul of thy servant. The prayer rises from mere entreaties for
relief and recovery from a state of suffering, into an earnest request for that which
the heart of man is ever longing for and seeking after—gladness and joy. The
faithful are promised that they shall come ultimately to a condition of exceeding
great joy; but even saints are sometimes impatient, and want their joy in this world
and at once. For unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul (comp. Psalms 25:1, entitled,
like this, "a Psalm of David"). There is no more likely way of attaining to spiritual
joy than to be always lifting up the soul to God.
5 You, Lord, are forgiving and good,
abounding in love to all who call to you.

BAR ES, "For thou, Lord, art good ... - This is another reason why God should
hear his prayer; and it is a reason which may be properly urged at all times, and by all
classes of persons. It is founded on the benevolence of God; on the fullness of his mercy
to all that invoke his name. We should call in vain on a God who was not merciful and
ready to forgive; but in the divine character there is the most ample foundation for such
an appeal. In his benevolence; in his readiness to forgive; in the plenitude of his mercy,
God is all that a penitent sinner could wish him to be. For if such a sinner should
endeavor to describe what he would desire to find in God as a ground of appeal in his
prayers, he could not express his feelings in language more full and free than God has
himself employed about his own readiness to pardon and save. The language of the Bible
on this subject would express, better than any language which he could himself employ,
what in those circumstances he would wish to find God to be.
CLARKE, "For thou, Lord, art good - I found my expectations of help on thy own
goodness through which thou art always ready to forgive. And I found it also on thy well-
known character, to which all thy followers bear testimony, viz., that “thou art plenteous
in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.”
GILL, "For thou, Lord, art good,.... Essentially and independently good, from
whom every good and perfect gift comes; good in himself, and good to others; good to
all, in a providential way; and good to his own special people in a way of grace: this is
asserted by Christ, Mat_19:17.
and ready to forgive; there is forgiveness with him, and it is to be had without
difficulty; he has largely provided for it; he is forward unto it, he freely giving it; it is
according to the riches of his grace; he does abundantly pardon; no sooner is it asked but
it is had; this David knew by experience, Psa_32:5,
and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee; in truth, in sincerity,
in a right way, through Christ, and faith in him; to such not only the Lord shows himself
merciful, but is rich and abundant in mercy; he has a multitude of tender mercies, and
abounds in his grace and goodness, and in the donation of it to his people; all which
encourage their faith and hope in their petitions to him.
HE RY, "The pleas with which he enforces these petitions. 1. He pleads his relation to
God and interest in him: “Thou art my God, to whom I have devoted myself, and on
whom I depend, and I am thy servant (Psa_86:2), in subjection to thee, and therefore
looking for protection from thee.” 2. He pleads his distress: “Hear me, for I am poor and
needy, therefore I want thy help, therefore none else will hear me.” God is the poor
man's King, whose glory it is to save the souls of the needy; those who are poor in spirit,
who see themselves empty and necessitous, are most welcome to the God of all grace. 3.
He pleads God's good will towards all that seek him (Psa_86:5): “To thee do I lift up my

soul in desire and expectation; for thou, Lord, art good;” and whither should beggars go
but to the door of the good house-keeper? The goodness of God's nature is a great
encouragement to us in all our addresses to him. His goodness appears in two things,
giving and forgiving. (1.) He is a sin-pardoning God; not only he can forgive, but he is
ready to forgive, more ready to forgive than we are to repent. I said, I will confess, and
thou forgavest, Psa_32:5.
JAMISO , "unto all ... that call upon thee — or, “worship Thee” (Psa_50:15;
Psa_91:15) however undeserving (Exo_34:6; Lev_11:9-13).
CALVI , "5For thou, O Lord! art good and propitious. (483) We have here a
confirmation of the whole preceding doctrine, derived from the nature of God. It
would avail the afflicted nothing to have recourse to him, and to lift up their desires
and prayers to heaven, were they not persuaded that he is a faithful rewarder of all
who call upon him. The point upon which David now insists is, that God is bountiful
and inclined to compassion, and that his mercy is so great, as to render it impossible
for him to reject any who implore his aid. He calls God propitious, or ascribes to
him the attribute of pardoning sin, which is a modification of his goodness. It were
not enough for God to be good in general, did he not also extend to sinners his
forgiving mercy, which is the meaning of the word ‫,סלה‬ salach. Farther, although
David magnifies the plenteousness of God’s mercy, yet he immediately after
represents this plenteousness as restricted to the faithful who call upon him, to teach
us that those who, making no account of God, obstinately chafe upon the bit,
deservedly perish in their calamities. At the same time, he uses the term all, that
every man, without exception, from the greatest to the least, may be encouraged
confidently to betake himself to the goodness and mercy of God.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 5. For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive. Good at
giving and forgiving; supplying us with his good, and removing our evil. Here was
the great reason why the Psalmist looked to the Lord alone for his joy, because
every joy creating attribute is to be found in perfection in Jehovah alone. Some men
who would be considered good are so self exultingly indignant at the injuries done
them by others, that they cannot forgive; but we may rest assured that the better a
being is, the more willing he is to forgive, and the best and highest of all is ever
ready to blot out the transgressions of his creatures.
And plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. God does not dispense his
mercy from a slender store which perchance may be so impoverished as to give out
altogether, but out of a cornucopiae he pours forth the infinite riches of his mercy:
his goodness flows forth in abounding streams towards those who pray and in
adoring worship make mention of his name. David seems to have stood in the cleft of
the rock with Moses, and to have heard the name of the Lord proclaimed even as the
great lawgiver did, for in two places in this psalm he almost quotes verbatim the
passage in Exodus 34:6 â€”"The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering,
and abundant in goodness and truth."
Ver. 5. For thou, Lord, art good, and whither should beggars go but to the door of

the good house keeper? â€”Matthew Henry.
Ver. 5. Ready to forgive. The mercy of God is a ready mercy, and his pardons are
ready for his people; his pardons and mercies are not to seek, he hath them at hand,
he is good and ready to forgive. Whereas most men, though they will forgive, yet
they are not ready to forgive, they are hardly brought to it, though they do it at last.
But God is "ready to forgive"; he hath, as it were, pardons ready drawn (as a man
who would be ready to do a business, he will have such writings as concern the
passing of it ready); there is nothing to do but to put in the date and the name; yea
indeed, the date and the name are put in from all eternity. Thus the Scripture
speaks to show how forward God is to do good; he needs not set his heart to it; his
heart is ever in the exactest fitness. â€”Joseph Caryl.
Ver. 5. Plenteous in mercy. It is a thing marvellously satisfactory and pleasing to the
heart of a man to be still taking from a great heap; and upon this ground are those
proverbial sayings, There is no fishing like to a fishing in the sea; no service like the
service of a king: because in one there is the greatest plenty and abundance of that
kind of pleasure that fishers look after; and for them that serve, and must live by
their service, there is none like that of princes, because they have abundance of
reward and opportunity whereby to recompense the services of those that do wait
and attend upon them...
And upon the same ground is it that the Scriptures, in several places, do not only
assert and testify that God is merciful and gracious, but abundant in mercy and full
of grace; and not simply that there is redemption in him, but plenteousness of
redemption: Ps 103:8 130:7 Isaiah 55:7; "Let the wicked forsake his way", etc.;
"Let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy; and unto our God, for lie
will abundantly pardon." The commodity which we stand in need of is mercy and
the pardon of our sins, in case we have been unholy and ungodly creatures; this
commodity is abundantly in God. There it is treasured up as waters are in the store
house of the sea; there is no end of the treasures of his grace, mercy, pardon, and
compassion. There is no man, being in want, but had ten times rather go to a rich
man's door to be relieved, than to the door of a poor man, if he knoweth the rich
man to be as liberal and bountifully disposed as the poor man can be. â€”John
Goodwin.
ELLICOTT, "(5) For thou.—Up to this time the psalmist has only put forward his
needs in various aspects as a plea for God’s compassion. ow, not without art, he
clenches his petition by an appeal to the nature itself of the Divine Being. The
originals of the expressions in this verse will be found in Exodus 20:6; Exodus 34:6-
9; umbers 14:18-19.
Ready to forgive.—The Hebrew word occurs nowhere else in the form found here.
Etymologically it means remitting. The LXX. have ἐπιεικὴς, a word for which
perhaps our considerate is the nearest equivalent, implying that legal right is
overlooked and suspended in consideration of human weakness. Wisdom of
Solomon 12:18 gives a good description of this Divine attribute.
EBC, "But all the psalmist’s other pleas are merged at last in that one contained in
Psalms 86:5, where he gazes on the revealed ame of God, and thinks of Him as He

had been described of old, and as this suppliant delights to set to his seal that he has
found. Him to be-good and placable, and rich in lovingkindness. God is His own
motive, and Faith can find nothing mightier to urge with God, nor any surer answer
to its own doubts to urge with itself, than the unfolding of all that lies in the ame of
the Lord. These pleas, like the petitions which they support, are largely echoes of
older words. "Afflicted and poor" comes, as just noticed, from Psalms 40:17. The
designation of "one whom God favours" is from Psalms 4:3, "Unto Thee do I lift up
my soul" is taken verbatim from Psalms 25:1. The explication of the contents of the
ame of the Lord, like the fuller one in Psalms 86:15, is based upon Exodus 34:6.
PULPIT, "For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive. The word translated
"ready to forgive," ‫ָח‬‫ל‬ַ‫ס‬, occurs here only; but the context sufficiently fixes its
meaning, which is well expressed by the ἐπιεικὴς of the LXX. As God was "good"
and "forgiving," he would be likely to grant the petitions just addressed to him. And
plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee (comp. Exodus 34:6; Joel 2:13).
SBC, "In this passage we are looking at one of God’s saints in the holiest of all, in the
immediate presence of his God and King.
I. The first thought that strikes us is, David takes his right place. He says, "Bow down,"
as though he would say, "I am a worm, and no man." I cannot claim an audience. If Thou
wouldst hear, Thou must bow down Thine ear, as a tender Father, to catch what Thy frail
child has to say.
II. Look at the "fors" of the passage. There are five. (1) "For I am poor and needy." If we
come to God at all, we must come as beggars. There are two words in the Greek language
which indicate poverty. One indicates respectable poverty, the poverty of a man in
humble circumstances, who is working hard to get his bread. The other signifies
"beggary," the state of the man who has got nothing, who is utterly bankrupt. In
describing the particular kind of poverty-stricken people He receives, our Lord uses the
word to indicate abject bankruptcy; and unless we come into the Divine presence in the
position of paupers, we cannot get the blessing. (2) Notice the second "for:" "Preserve
my soul, for I am holy." The first "for" is the "for" of the bankrupt; the second is the "for"
of the saint. There is no contradiction here: in my own moral character a poor beggar,
grovelling in the dust; in God’s own Divine purpose something nobler than the bright
spirits that stand around His throne, heir of God and joint heir with Christ, bound to the
everlasting Deity by indissoluble bonds. (3) "Be merciful unto me, O Lord, for I cry unto
Thee daily." This third "for" points out to us what is to be the law of our life. If we want
to be kept in constant safety, we must be calling unto Him "daily." (4) "Rejoice the soul
of Thy servant, for unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul." The Psalmist begins by
asking the Lord to "bow down His ear unto him," but he goes on till he gets to such a
point of believing expectation that he dares to lift up his soul into the presence of God. It
is lifted up in order that it may become a partaker of God’s joy. God is the centre of
eternal joy. "At Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.’ (5) "For Thou, Lord,
art good and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon Thee."
We are so poor in our mercy. The richness of God’s mercy lies in this point: the Lord
never gives a mercy till He has taken care that it shall be a real mercy. His favours shall
only be received by those who will take them in His own way, and thus the blessing is
doubled.
W. Hay Aitken, Mission Sermons, 1st series, p. 220.

MACLARE , "A SHEAF OF PRAYER ARROWS
Psalms 86:1 - Psalms 86:5.
We have here a sheaf of arrows out of a good man’s quiver, shot into heaven. This
series of supplications is remarkable in more than one respect. They all mean
substantially the same thing, but the Psalmist turns the one blessing round in all
sorts of ways, so great does it seem to him, and so earnest is his desire to possess it.
They are almost all quotations from earlier psalms, just as our prayers are often
words of Scripture, hallowed by many associations, and uniting us with the men of
old who cried unto God and were answered.
The structure of the petitions is remarkably uniform. In each there are a prayer and
a plea, and in most of them a direct invocation of God. So I have thought that, if we
put them all together now, we may get some lessons as to the invocations, the
petitions, and the pleas of true prayer; or, in other words, we may be taught how to
lay hold of God, what to ask from Him, and how to be sure of an answer.
I. First, the lesson as to how to lay hold upon God.
The divine names in this psalm are very frequent and significant, and the order in
which they are used is evidently intentional. We have the great covenant name of
Jehovah set in the very first verse, and in the last verse; as if to bind the whole
together with a golden circlet. And then, in addition, it appears once in each of the
other two sections of the psalm, with which we have nothing to do at present. Then
we have, further, the name of God employed in each of the sections; and further, the
name of Lord, which is not the same as Jehovah, but implies the simple idea of
superiority and authority. In each portion of the psalm, then, we see the writer
laying his hand, as it were, upon these three names-’Jehovah,’ ‘my God,’ ‘Lord’-and
in all of them finding grounds for his confidence and reasons for his cry.
othing in our prayers is often more hollow and unreal than the formal repetitions
of the syllables of that divine name, often but to fill a pause in our thoughts. But to
‘call upon the ame of the Lord’ means, first and foremost, to bring before our
minds the aspects of His great and infinite character, which are gathered together
into the ame by which we address Him. So when we say ‘Jehovah!’ ‘Lord!’ what
we ought to mean is this, that we are gazing upon that majestic, glorious thought of
Being, self-derived, self-motived, self-ruled, the being of Him whose ame can only
be, ‘I am that I am.’ Of all other creatures the name is, ‘I am that I have been
made,’ or ‘I am that I became,’ but of Him the ame is, ‘I am that I am.’ owhere
outside of Himself is the reason for His being, nor the law that shapes it, nor the aim
to which it tends. And this infinite, changeless Rock is laid for our confidence,
Jehovah the Eternal, the Self-subsisting, Self-sufficing One.
There is more than that thought in this wondrous ame, for it not only expresses the
timeless, unlimited, and changeless being of God, but also the truth that He has
entered into what He deigns to call a Covenant with us men. The name Jehovah is
the seal of that ancient Covenant, of which, though the form has vanished, the
essence abides for ever, and God has thereby bound Himself to us by promises that
cannot be abrogated. So that when we say, ‘O Lord!’ we summon up before
ourselves, and grasp as the grounds of our confidence, and we humbly present

before Him as the motives, if we may so call them, for His action, His own infinite
being and His covenanted grace.
Then, further, our psalm invokes ‘my God.’ That names implies in itself, simply, the
notion of power to be reverenced. But when we add to it that little word ‘my,’ we
rise to the wonderful thought that the creature can claim an individual relation to
Him, and in some profound sense a possession there. The tiny mica flake claims
kindred with the Alpine peak from which it fell. The poor, puny hand, that can
grasp so little of the material and temporal, can grasp all of God that it needs.
Then, there is the other name, ‘Lord,’ which simply expresses illimitable
sovereignty, power over all circumstances, creatures, orders of being, worlds, and
cycles of ages. Wherever He is He rules, and therefore my prayer can be answered
by Him. When a child cries ‘Mother!’ it is more than all other petitions. A dear
name may be a caress when it comes from loving lips. If we are the kind of
Christians that we ought to be, there will be nothing sweeter to us than to whisper to
ourselves, and to say to Him, ‘Abba! Father!’ See to it that your calling on the ame
of the Lord is not formal, but the true apprehension, by a believing mind and a
loving heart, of the ineffable and manifold sweetnesses which are hived in His
manifold names.
II. ow, secondly, we have here a lesson as to what we should ask.
The petitions of our text, of course, only cover a part of the whole field of prayer.
The Psalmist is praying in the midst of some unknown trouble, and his petitions are
manifold in form, though in substance, as I have said, they may all be reduced to
one. Let me run over them very briefly. ‘Bow down Thine ear and hear me.’ That is
not simply the invocation of the omniscience of a God, but an appeal for loving,
attentive regard to the desires of His poor servant. The hearing is not merely the
perception in the divine mind of what the creature desires, but it is the answer in
fact, or the granting of the petition. The best illustration of what the Psalmist desires
here may be found in another psalm, where another Psalmist tells us his experience
and says, ‘My cry came unto His ears, and the earth shook and trembled.’ You put a
spoonful of water into a hydraulic press at the one end, and you get a force that
squeezes tons together at the other. Here there is a poor, thin stream of the voice of a
sorrowful man at the one end, and there is an earthquake at the other. That is what
‘hearing’ and ‘bowing down the ear’ means.
Then the prayers go on to three petitions, which may be all regarded as diverse acts
of deliverance or of help. ‘Preserve my soul.’ The word expresses the guardianship
with which a garrison keeps a fortress. It is the Hebrew equivalent of the word
employed by Paul-’The peace of God shall keep your hearts and minds in Christ
Jesus.’ The thought is that of a defenceless man or thing round which some strong
protection is cast. And the desire expressed by it is that in the midst of sorrow,
whatever it is, the soul may be guarded from evil. Then, the next petition-’Save Thy
servant’-goes a step further, and not only asks to be kept safe in the midst of
sorrows, but to be delivered out of them. And then the next petition-’Be merciful
unto me, O Lord!’-craves that the favour which comes down to inferiors, and is
bestowed upon those who might deserve something far otherwise, may manifest
itself, in such acts of strengthening, or help, or deliverance, as divine wisdom may
see fit. And then the last petition is-’Rejoice the soul of Thy servant.’ The series
begins with ‘hearing,’ passes through ‘preserving,’ ‘saving,’ showing ‘mercy,’ and

Psalm 86 commentary

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to Psalm 86 commentary

Similar to Psalm 86 commentary (20)

More from GLENN PEASE

More from GLENN PEASE (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Psalm 86 commentary