Psalm 86 CJB
Siloam Baptist Church, Cardiff, UK
Three ways to read/pray the Psalms:
- As an individual – in your devotional time
- As a community – as we have done. The psalms are the prayer book of Israel, inherited by the wider church. You can read and pray these as a church family. You can pray these together in your individual families.
- Christologically – Hearing the voice of Jesus Messiah. Read the psalms as if Jesus is saying them, praying them to God the Father. If this is new to you, Christ-centered readings may open up the Psalms to you in a fresh way.
The psalms are Scripture. They contain prophesy, as evidenced especially by overtly messianic texts like Psalm 2, Psalm 22, Psalm 110, all referenced in the New Testament
But the first purpose in the text, as used in the Jerusalem temple, in the synagogue, and in the church, is to give us words for our emotions.
The psalms give us permission to feel and verbally express great joy, sorrow, anger to God. The psalms help us to pray, to pour out our hearts to our Creator.
When Jesus is on the cross, he feels as if God the Father has abandoned him. And – like Jews before and after him – he prays from Psalms 22: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” Sometimes we feel God has forsaken us. It’s OK to tell God that’s what we’re feeling.
David, in Psalm 86, is feeling his life is in danger. In this distress, he calls out to God.
Psalms are poems, so they have a very deliberate structure.
Structure of Psalm 86
- Request: Save your servant (86:1–4)
- Praise: God is full of unfailing love (86:5–6)
- Problem: Trouble strikes (86:7)
- Praise: They will glorify God’s name (86:8–10)
- Request: Teach me to honor your name (86:11)
- Praise: I will glorify God’s name (86:12–13)
- Praise: They will glorify God’s name (86:8–10)
- Problem: People rise up against me (86:14)
- Problem: Trouble strikes (86:7)
- Praise: God is full of unfailing love (86:15)
- Praise: God is full of unfailing love (86:5–6)
- Request: Save your servant (86:16–17) [1]
This is called a chaism, where a writer lays out thoughts then repeats them in reverse order. The thought in the middle is the main thought, the lesson, the goal.
This prayer starts because of some persecution. David praises God throughout, but his main request, more important than saving his life, is
Adonai, teach me your way,
so that I can live by your truth;
make me single-hearted,
so that I can fear your name.
We’ll come back to that. Let’s consider the thoughts leading to and from the main thought first.
REQUEST (1) Listen, Adonai, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. 2 Preserve my life, for I am faithful; save your servant, who puts his trust in you because you are my God. 3 Take pity on me, Adonai, for I cry to you all day. 4 Fill your servant’s heart with joy, for to you, Adonai, I lift my heart.
v. 1 “Listen, Adonai, and answer me…”
That’s bold.
We know – as followers of Jesus Messiah – that we can enter boldly into the throne room of God in prayer. As Hebrews 4 says: “16 let us confidently approach the throne from which God gives grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace in our time of need.”
David knows this. Jesus knows this. Let us remember that, because God’s character is to have mercy, he has made a way for us to approach him.
v. 2 Preserve my life, for I am faithful; save your servant
This verse is an example of where I’ve struggled with the Psalms, of praying them earnestly.
I know I am not faithful. The word in Hebrew expresses “covenant faithfulness,” which is what God is to us. He is faithful to us.
Am I faithful? I am not. I sin every day, in thought, word, and deed. Every day I fail to love God with all my heart and to love my neighbor as myself.
But Jesus is faithful. He is sinless. He keeps covenant with God. He agreed, before the creation of the world, to die on the cross. So reading verse 2 as if Christ is saying it, we can hear Jesus – perhaps in the midst of his torture – asking God to save his life for he is being faithful.
It is in Jesus that we can say we are faithful. Because we follow Jesus and are allowing him to teach us how to be faithful, we can pray to God, “I am faithful, save your servant.”
PRAISE 5 Adonai, you are kind and forgiving, full of grace toward all who call on you. 6 Listen, Adonai, to my prayer; pay attention to my pleading cry.
This is the first of four praise sections in this psalm.
Psalm 100 tells us, “Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!”
Jesus instructs in the Disciples’ Prayer, or the Lord’s prayer, to include praise in our prayers. “Our Father, who is in heaven. Hallowed be your name.” We open our prayer with praise of who God is, the holy Creator of the universe.
God wants to hear from us. He does want us to come to him when we’re in trouble. He delights to bless us. Our part is to approach him with praise and gratitude.
Note: This is not a transactional formula. There are no magic words we can repeat over and over to get what we want or need.
This is about relationship with our heavenly Father.
Let’s look at verse 5 again.
5 Adonai, you are kind and forgiving,
full of grace toward all who call on you.
David here is saying back to God what God said to Moses. In Exodus 34, Moses asks to see God’s glory. God puts Moses in a crevice on the mountain and passes by him. When he does he says: “Adonai. Adonai is God, merciful and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in grace and truth; showing grace to the thousandth generation, forgiving offenses, crimes and sins…”
David knows that God’s character is to have mercy. That is what makes David great. Remember that David is a murderer, an adulterer. In this time of #MeToo, some would consider him a rapist because as the king he used his power to bed Bathsheba. Paul calls himself the chief of sinners, but maybe that title really belongs to David.
David’s saving grace is that he knows he’s sinful. In Psalm 51 he prays:
God, in your grace, have mercy on me; in your great compassion, blot out my crimes. Wash me completely from my guilt, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my crimes, my sin confronts me all the time.
He knows that God’s character is to have mercy. So he prays for God’s help, knowing that God is moved by those who call on him. All who call on the name of the LORD shall be saved, the Scriptures tell us over and over. Not because they are magic words but because God’s character is to have mercy.
PROBLEM 7 On the day of my trouble I am calling on you, for you will answer me. 14 God, arrogant men are rising against me, a gang of brutes is seeking my life, and to you they pay no attention.
It’s not clear what trouble David has here. In the parallel verse (v. 14), we see that godless people are trying to kill David. Is it the Philistines? Is it King Saul’s men? We’re not sure.
What situation do you have in your life that makes you feel persecuted?
- Do you have a neighbor that hurls abuse at you every time you see them?
- Maybe an envious coworker who makes your workday miserable.
- A bitter ex? Maybe even a family member that mocks your faith in Christ.
Call on God, for he will answer you. Don’t stuff down the pain of insult. Shout it out to God! He hears you. He knows.
Jesus knows… Remember how he was mocked and insulted by the Romans as they beat him and the Jewish leaders as he hung on the cross. Jesus knows what it’s like to be rejected by his own family. He knows and hears you.
PRAISE 8 There is none like you among the gods, Adonai; no deeds compare with yours. 9 All the nations you have made will come and bow before you, Adonai; they will honor your name. 10 For you are great, and you do wonders; you alone are God.
In the middle of his pain, David praises God.
That’s not easy to do.
But he knows God is faithful. He learned that tending his father’s sheep. God protected him from the wolves and lions. Then God protected him from Goliath. Then God protected him from Saul. And after years of running for his life, David was finally crowned king.
When the insults have you down, when sickness has you discouraged, REMEMBER!
Remember how God has been faithful in your life. He will continue to be faithful. It doesn’t always look like we imagine it, but God is faithful.
- Every meal you eat is a reminder that he’s taking care of you.
- Every new sunrise is a reminder that he is on his throne and in control.
- The loved ones in our lives are a reminder that he loves us.
Those everyday faithfulnesses coupled with the big testimonies we all have of God working in our lives assure us that he is coming back! We will be resurrected with Jesus in the end!
REQUEST 11 Adonai, teach me your way, so that I can live by your truth; make me single-hearted, so that I can fear your name.
This is the central thought in the whole psalm. The rest of the psalm repeats and expands on the points we’ve already covered.
David fears for his life. He wants to be safe and protected. But when he zeros in on his need, he asks for instruction, for teaching. He also asks for focused devotion. Why?
- So I can live your truth.
- So I can fear your name. Fear there is not be afraid but to revere and respect. To honor.
I hear here echoes of Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus and his disciples have just shared the Passover meal together. Now he has taken them out to pray. Jesus is well aware of what is coming. He’s tried to tell the disciples that he will be arrested and killed, but they can’t compute.
Jesus is overburdened by the weight of his coming torture. In his anxiety and anguish, he prays: “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
He reveres the Father’s name and he lives out God’s truth.
We’re in an age that tells us to live our truth. It is like the book of Judges out there: Everyone is doing what is right in their own eyes.
Where in your life are you living your truth instead of God’s truth? What things are you doing that are right in your own eyes but stray from God’s boundaries?
It’s easy to look out at the world and see everything wrong with it. We cannot expect holiness from those who have not encountered the love and mercy of the LORD. Those of us who know God must – like David – cry out for God’s help and realize that we need God’s instruction. Only when we’ve committed to learning from Jesus can we call others to him.
We are about to share from the communion table. This meal of bread and wine is a shortened Passover meal. When we share in this meal, we eat with Jesus and start to learn from him.
Let us, like Jesus, come to the Father and say, “Not my will but yours be done”, knowing God’s will is for our good. Sometimes we have to pass through pain first, just like Jesus. But – glory hallelujah! – resurrection is on the other side.
Let us pray:
Adonai, King of the universe, teach us your ways.
Thank you for Jesus’ sacrifice that enables us to enter boldly into the throne room.
Thank you for the Holy Spirit, that enables us to know and live your truth.
Make us singularly devoted to you so we will not only revere your name
But we will also proclaim your love and mercy to those around us.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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[1] Mark D. Futato, “The Book of Psalms,” in Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, Vol 7: The Book of Psalms, The Book of Proverbs (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2009), 280.