PSALM 86 [1]

I will walk in Your truth

Plea by God’s servant for Yahweh to be gracious (vv.1-4)

1 Incline Your ear, O Yahweh, and answer me;	For I am afflicted and needy. (cf. Psalm 40:17; 69:29; 109:22)
2 Preserve my soul, for I am a godly man;	O You [2] my God, save Your servant [3] who trusts [4] in You.
3 Be gracious to me, O Lord,	For to You I cry all day long.
4 Make glad the soul of Your servant,	For to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. (cf. Psalm 25:1; 143:8)

God is abundant in lovingkindness (vv.5-7)

5 For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive,	And abundant in lovingkindness to all who call upon You.
6 Give ear, O Yahweh, to my prayer;	And give heed to the voice of my supplications!
7 In the day of my trouble I shall call upon You,	For You will answer me.

God’s Name will be glorified (vv.8-10)

8 There is no one like You among the gods, O Lord,	Nor are there any works like Yours. [5]
9 All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, [6]	And they shall glorify Your name.
10 For You are great and do wondrous deeds;	You alone are God. [7]

11 Teach me Your way, O Yahweh; (cf. Psalm 27:11)

I will walk in Your truth; [8]

Unite my heart to fear Your name.

God’s Name will be glorified (vv.11-13)

12 I will give thanks to You, O Lord my God, with all my heart,	And will glorify Your name forever.
13 For Your lovingkindness toward me is great,	And You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. [9]

God is abundant in lovingkindness (vv.14-15)

14 O God, arrogant men have risen up against me,	And a band of violent men have sought my life,		And they have not set You before them. (Psalm 54:3)
15 But You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious,		Slow to anger [10] and abundant in lovingkindness and truth. [11]

Plea by God’s servant for Yahweh to be gracious (vv.16-17)

16 Turn to me, and be gracious to me; [12]	Oh grant Your strength to Your servant,	And save the son of Your handmaid.
17 Show me a sign for good,	That those who hate me may see it and be ashamed,	Because You, O Yahweh, have helped me and comforted me.

[1] This is one of five Psalms which is called a “prayer” in the superscription: Psalm 17, 86, 90, 102, 142.

[2] Walter Brueggemann notes how it is remarkable that the nominative pronoun “you” (˒attâ) is used 6x in this Psalm (vv.2,5[2x],10,15,17) when the suffix is conventional. The use of the nominative pronoun is used for emphasis (The Message of the Psalms, 62).

[3] The word “servant” is used 3x in this Psalm (vv.2,4,5) and “Lord” (Adonai) 7x. Prayer acknowledges that Adonai is the Lord of your life. If God is not the Lord of your life then there is no reason for you to have confidence that Adonai will hear and answer (cf. Psalm 66:18).

[4] Prayer for deliverance is often accompanied by a profession of trust (cf. Psalm 22:4-5; 25:1-2; 28:7; 31:14-15).

[5] This is the language of Israel’s first song, “Who is like You among the gods, O Yahweh? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders?” (Exodus 15:11)

[6] Psalm 86:9a is echoed in the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb in Revelation 15:3-4,

And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations!
4 “Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; For all the nations will come and worship before You, For Your righteous acts have been revealed.”

The hope that all nations would worship the Lord is rooted in the Abrahamic covenant (Gen.12:3; 22:18; 26:4; Gal.3:8-9). When Jesus rose from the dead, He commissioned the church to go to all the nations (Matthew 28:19). That the Gospel is going to the ends of the earth is one of the proofs that Jesus is the Messiah.

[7] Question 190 of the Westminster Larger Catechism uses vv.10-13,15 as a proof text in answering the question, “What do we pray for in the first petition?” Answer: “In the first petition, (which is, Hallowed by thy name, (Matt. 6:9) ) acknowledging the utter inability and indisposition that is in ourselves and all men to honor God aright, (2 Cor. 3:5, Ps. 51:15) we pray, that God would by his grace enable and incline us and others to know, to acknowledge, and highly to esteem him, (Ps. 67:2–3) his titles, (Ps. 83:18) attributes, (Ps. 86:10–13,15)…”

[8] Psalm 85 ended, “Righteousness will go before Him And will make His footsteps into a way.” Now at the center of Psalm 86 the Psalmist is committing Himself to learning and walking in God’s way.

[9] “On August 20, 1608, the great scholar, Casaubon, was going with his wife to the Huguenot worship at Charenton in an open boat on the Seine, singing psalms as they went. They had finished Psalm xci., and had reached verse 7 of Psalm xcii., when a heavy barge struck the stern of his boat and threw his wife into the river. Casaubon saved her, after almost losing his own life in the effort. But, in doing so, he dropped into the river his Book of Psalms, given to him by his wife as a wedding-present, and for twenty-two years the constant companion of his travels. They reached the Temple, and were present at the services. When the chant of the Psalms began, Casaubon put his hand into his pocket for his book, and for the first time discovered his loss. He did not recover himself till the congregation had finished more than half the 86^th Psalm. The verse at which he was able to join in the singing was the end of th 13^th: “And thou has delivered my soul from the nethermost hell.” “I could not but remember,” says Casaubon in his journal, “that place of Ambrose where he says, ‘This is the peculiarity of the Psalter, that every one can use its words as if they were completely and individually his own.’”” (Prothero pp.184-185).

[10] “Literally, when the Bible says God is “longsuffering” (Ex 34:6; Num 14:18; Ps 86:15, etc.) it reads “God is long of nose.” When he is angry, his nose becomes red and burns. It may be questioned whether in the living language the idioms had not already dropped their etymological associations and did not merely mean to be longsuffering and to be angry. When he is compassionate his nose becomes long, so long in fact that it would take forever to burn completely” (Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, 72).

[11] This was how Yahweh revealed Himself to Moses,

“I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of Yahweh before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.” (Exodus 33:19)

Then Yahweh passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “Yahweh, Yahweh God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth… (Exodus 34:6)

Exodus 33:19 and 34:6 are perhaps the “most cited and echoed passages in the Old Testament and postbiblical Jewish literature” (Num 14:18; Neh 9:17; Pss 86:15; 103:8; 145:8; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2; Nah 1:3; cf. also Deut 7:9–10; 2 Kgs 13:23; 2 Chron 30:9; Neh 9:31; Pss 111:4; 112:4; 116:5; Isa 30:18; Jer 32:18; Romans 9:15; Sir 2:11; Wisd Sol 3:9; 4:15; 15:1; Pr Man 7; Psalms of Solomon 9.8–11; Testament of Judah (in T. 12 Patr.) 19.3; Testament of Zebulun (in T. 12 Patr.) 9.7; Joseph and Asenath 11.10; Ps Philo 13.1; 35.3; 4 Ezra 7.33) (James Dunn, Word Biblical Commentary: Romans 9-16, 552).

[12] This was what God promises His people in the Aaronic benediction, “Yahweh make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you” (Numbers 6:25). The plea ḥonnēnı̂, “be gracious to me,” appears nineteen times in the Psalms (Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament 302).