Psalm 86--Great Is Your Steadfast Love

Psalm 86
English Standard Version

Great Is Your Steadfast Love
A Prayer of David.
86 Incline your ear, O LORD, and answer me,
    for I am poor and needy.
2 Preserve my life, for I am godly;
    save your servant, who trusts in you—you are my God.
3 Be gracious to me, O Lord,
    for to you do I cry all the day.
4 Gladden the soul of your servant,
    for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.
5 For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,
    abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.
6 Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer;
    listen to my plea for grace.
7 In the day of my trouble I call upon you,
    for you answer me.

8 There is none like you among the gods, O Lord,
    nor are there any works like yours.
9 All the nations you have made shall come
    and worship before you, O Lord,
    and shall glorify your name.
10 For you are great and do wondrous things;
    you alone are God.
11 Teach me your way, O LORD,
    that I may walk in your truth;
    unite my heart to fear your name.
12 I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,
    and I will glorify your name forever.
13 For great is your steadfast love toward me;
    you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

14 O God, insolent men have risen up against me;
    a band of ruthless men seeks my life,
    and they do not set you before them.
15 But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious,
    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
16 Turn to me and be gracious to me;
    give your strength to your servant,
    and save the son of your maidservant.
17 Show me a sign of your favor,
    that those who hate me may see and be put to shame
    because you, LORD, have helped me and comforted me.

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We have another psalm of David this time, and, once again, we see the steadfast love of the LORD as David's theme.  David is crying out to the LORD to hear his prayers and answer him.  His prayers seem to be for grace and forgiveness (even though he claims to be a godly man, which probably is based off of his positional justification before God and not him justifying himself by his works).

Why does David want the LORD to answer?  Because when the LORD answers our prayers, the whole world gets to see it and should respond in worship (at least God's people should see it and worship, but the whole world sees it too, even if the lost don't respond in worship).  One day, every knee will bow before Him.  Until then, it is the job of the Lord's people to praise Him and to live in such a way that brings glory to God.  Worship is not just something we do when we pray and sing, but something we do when we live our lives according to the will of the LORD.  It shows that He is worthy of worship and one of the best forms of worship we can give is our obedience.  Because there is none like Him and He is the only one worthy of worship, we will praise Him all the day long with our songs, words, and lives, and one of the greatest things we have to celebrate is how the LORD has saved our souls from eternal death and given us eternal life.

Only after David has praised the LORD for who He is and what He has done does he make any kind of request.  Once again, David asks the LORD to take care of his enemies, for David refused to take vengeance himself--he always entrusted judgment to the LORD.  David would take vengeance against those who wronged others, but he would never order anyone to take vengeance on his account (and got upset when Joab and others did so by killing Absolom).  David is concerned for these enemies of his that they do not belong to the people of God.  They neither love God, nor worship Him.  That means that the LORD might be trying to work to save them, and that might be the very reason that judgment hasn't been poured out on them.  David realizes that the mercy of the LORD extends even to those that are his enemies at this moment, but whom God may superintend to be part of His covenant family later. (We might look at Saul of Tarsus as an example of this as I'm sure many Christians were praying for God to judge, punish and deal with Saul when he was ravaging the Church, but it was God's plan to save him and make him one of His apostles).

David then asks for the LORD to be gracious to him (he is in need to forgiveness and grace too) and he needs strength for each new day.  Maybe some of that strength he needs is to live day by day watching his enemies not get the judgment that he wants them to get, and having the strength to not take vengeance on his own, but, also, he needs strength to endure the stress of being the king, bearing the cares of the people, and dealing with all the mean and nasty people that attack him with their words and stir up trouble on every side.  Only the LORD's grace and favor will shut the mouths of the slanderers and mockers (hopefully).  David hopes that no one will doubt that the LORD loves him and that he loves the LORD when the LORD once again acts on his behalf to save him from his enemies as in the days of old.  David remembers those days when he rested in the LORD's comfort and protection, and he longs for that once again.  "God is my refuge and strength, and ever-present help in the time of trouble."