Psalm 86- A Prayer of David.
1 Bow down Your ear, O Lord, hear me; for I am poor and needy. 2 Preserve my life, for I am holy; You are my God; save Your servant who trusts in You!
“’A Prayer of David’— Back at the end of Psalm 72, we read, ‘The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended.’ But fourteen psalms later in Psalm 86, another prayer of David appears.”(Glenda Mathes) Perhaps, here is the prayer of David, the son of God in Christ. But the words are Christ’s alone, for lo, a Greater than David is here. More distinctly than the voice of David: “We can hear in it the voice of the Son of David, our Lord, pleading in the place of humiliation.” (Arno Gaebelein)
“‘Bow down Your ear, O Lord, hear me; for I am poor and needy.’ What follows will be the result of His humiliation, as well as His obedience-> “‘Preserve My life for I am holy.’ Can anything more pointedly prove that this is Christ? David never, in any period of his life, could make use of such language: and none but He, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens, could adopt the expression.“ (Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary)
3 Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I cry to You all day long. 4 Rejoice the soul of Your servant, for to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
“Who, that recollects what is said of Christ in the days of His flesh, that ‘He offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears,’ (Heb 5:7) can fail to trace Jesus in these cries of the soul? Reader, do observe what expressions these verses contain. He calls himself Jehovah's ‘servant’; and speaks of the lifting up of His soul unto the Lord. All which correspond to the office of Christ, and the dependence which, during the whole of His ministry, He placed on the Father… While we keep a steadfast eye to the person of Christ, as thus pleading with the Father upon the holiness of His nature, for strength and comfort in the days of His flesh; we may safely, in Him, and by virtue of our union with Him, make use of similar petitions, in His name, and for the holiness of His nature, at the mercy-seat.” (Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary)
5 For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You. 6 Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications.
7 In the day of my trouble I will call upon You, for You will answer me.
“‘For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy…’ etc. The true and prevailing plea is not in our needs, desires, or dispositions, but in God’s own character, as revealed by His words and acts, and grasped by our faith. Therefore the Psalmist ends by passing from thoughts of self to thoughts of God, and builds at last on the sure foundation which underlies all his other ‘fors’ and gives them all their force-’For Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon Thee.’” (Alexander MacLaren)
8 Among the gods there is none like You, O Lord; nor are there any works like Your works.
“‘Among the gods there is none like You, O Lord;’ (8a) There are gods by delegated office, such as kings and magistrates, but they are as nothing in the presence of Jehovah; there are also gods by the nomination of superstition, but these are vanity itself, and cannot be compared with the living and true God. Even if the heathen idols were gods, none of them in power or even in character, could be likened unto the self-existent, all creating God of Israel. If every imaginary deity could start into actual existence, and become really divine, yet would we choose Jehovah to be our God, and reject all others.— ‘nor are there any works like Your works.’ (8b) What have the false gods ever made or unmade? What miracles have they wrought? When did they divide a sea, or march through a wilderness scattering bread from the skies?” (C. H. Spurgeon)- even Christ the Bread.
9 All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, and shall glorify Your name.
“It was by Christ that God made all nations, for ‘without him was not any thing made that was made,’ and therefore, through Christ, and by the power of His gospel and grace, all nations shall be brought to ‘worship before God,’ Isaiah 66:23. “ (Joseph Benson) “‘For You are great,’ oh Jesus, ‘and do wondrous things; You alone are God.’ (10)The classic expression of the doctrine of God is found in Deuteronomy 6:4. 'Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD.' This verse of Scripture has become the most distinctive and important statement of faith for the Jews. They call it the Shema, after the first word of the phrase in Hebrew, and they often quote it in English as 'Hear, O Israel, the LORD is our God, the LORD is one.' Traditionally, a devout Jew always tried to make this confession of faith just before death...Many other Old Testament verses of Scripture emphatically affirm strict monotheism. The Ten Commandments begin with, 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me' (Exod 20:3; Deut 5:7). God emphasized this command by stating that He is a jealous God (Exod 20:5). In Deuteronomy 32:39, God said there is no other god with Him. There is none like the LORD and there is no God beside Him (II Sam 7:22; I Chron 17:20). He alone is God (Ps 86:10)." (David Bernard)
11 Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your name. 12 I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify Your name forevermore.
“While we look to Christ as our glorious Head, let us see our personal interest in Him, and, by virtue of our union with Him, take up this language. John 14:26.” (Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary)-- "But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you."
13 For great is Your mercy toward me, and You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.
“This is evidently a direct reference to Christ.” (Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary) “God raised Him from the dead so that He will never be subject to decay. As God has said, I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David.’[Isaiah 55:3] So it is also stated elsewhere: ‘You will not let your Holy One see decay.’ [Psalm 16:10] Now when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed. But the One whom God raised from the dead did not see decay.” (Act 13:34-37)
14 O God, the proud have risen against me, and a mob of violent men have sought my life, and have not set You before them.
“‘O God, the proud have risen against me,’ etc. The apostles, in their prayer, point to these exercises of the blessed Jesus, Acts 4:27- ‘Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against Your Holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed;’— and Jesus Himself expresseth the same, Psalms 22:16-
‘For dogs have surrounded Me; a band of evildoers has encompassed Me; they pierced My hands and My feet.’” (Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary)
“‘But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth.’ Though the expressions be here somewhat varied from those in the fifth verse, yet the meaning is the same. And we find the blessed portion to which they refer, Exodus 34:6, and it is repeatedly used in the sacred word: Numbers 14:18; Jeremiah 32:18; Nehemiah 1:3, etc. Reader, for what are these frequent repetitions of this gracious proclamation of heaven, in the person of Christ, but to prompt the church, and every individual member of it, to make use of them by faith in Jesus? When God passed by, in the holy mount, and thus proclaimed Himself, was it not to make all His goodness pass before Moses? And what is God's goodness towards men, but God, in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them?”
(Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary)
16 Oh, turn to me, and have mercy on me! Give Your strength to Your servant, and save the son of Your maidservant.17 Show me a sign for good, that those who hate me may see it and be ashamed, because You, Lord, have helped me and comforted me.
"'Save the Son of Your maidservant.' Some think this has a special reference to Christ, who was made of a woman, called an handmaid, Luke 1:48, born of a virgin, the son of Mary.” (John Gill)
"'Show me a sign for good...' etc. Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, ‘Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.’ But He answered and said to them, 'An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.'” (Matthew 12:38–42)