Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 86

Bow down your ear, O Lord, hear me – See the notes at Psalms 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.

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 you favor.” The Hebrew word - חסיד châsı̂yd - means properly, benevolent, kind; then, good, merciful, gracious; and then pious, godly (Psalms 30:4; Psalms 31:23; Psalms 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 be expected and hoped for.

Save your servant - Save him from threatening danger and from death.

That trusts in you - Because I trust or confide in you. I go nowhere else for protection; I rely on no one else. I look to you 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.

Be merciful to 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 to you daily - Margin, as in Hebrew, “All the day.” The meaning is, that he did this constantly, or without intermission.

Rejoice the soul of thy servant - Cause me to rejoice; namely, by your gracious intervention, and by delivering me from danger and death.

For unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul - Compare the notes at Psalm 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 rouses 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.

This is not because we can obtain His favor by force or power, nor because any strength of ours will prevail of itself, but:

1. because nothing less will indicate the proper intensity of desire; and
2. because such is His appointment regarding the manner in which we are to seek His favor.

Compare Matthew 7:7-8; Luke 13:24; Luke 16:16.

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 would 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 were to 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.