John Calvin Commentary Psalms 86:2

"Preserve my soul; for I am godly: O thou my God, save thy servant that trusteth in thee." — Psalms 86:2 (ASV)

Preserve my soul, for I am meek. Here the Psalmist presents two other arguments by which to stir up God to grant him help: his own gentleness towards his neighbors, and the trust which he placed in God. In the first clause, he may seem at first glance to make some claim to personal worth; yet he plainly shows that it was far from his intention to suggest that by any merits of his own he had obligated God to preserve him.

But the particular mention made of his clemency or meekness tends to show in a more hateful light the wickedness of his enemies, who had treated so shamefully and inhumanely a man against whom they could bring no well-founded charge, and who had even tried his best to please them.

Since God then has declared Himself to be the defender both of good causes and of those who pursue righteousness, David, with good reason, testifies that he had tried to exercise kindness and gentleness, so that from this it may be clear that he was wickedly repaid by his enemies when they acted with unprovoked cruelty towards a merciful man.

But as it would not be enough for our lives to be characterized by kindness and righteousness, an additional qualification is added: that of trust or confidence in God, which is the mother of all true religion. Some, we know, have been endowed with such a high degree of integrity that they obtained among people the praise of being perfectly just, just as Aristides boasted of never having given anyone cause for sorrow.

But since those men, despite all the excellence of their virtues, were either filled with ambition or inflated with pride, which caused them to trust more in themselves than in God, it is not surprising to find them suffering the punishment for their vanity. In reading secular history, we are inclined to wonder how it happened that God abandoned the honest, the serious, and the temperate to the enraged passions of a wicked crowd; but there is no reason to wonder at this when we consider that such people, relying on their own strength and virtue, despised God's grace with all the arrogance of impiety.

Making an idol of their own virtue, they disdained to lift their eyes to Him. Therefore, even if we have the testimony of an approving conscience, and even if He is the best witness of our innocence, yet if we desire to obtain His assistance, we must commit our hopes and anxieties to Him.

If it is objected that in this way the gate is shut against sinners, I answer this: when God invites to Himself those who are blameless and upright in their conduct, this does not mean He immediately repels all who are punished for their sins. They are given an opportunity, if they will use it, for prayer and the acknowledgment of their guilt.

But if those whom we have never offended unjustly attack us, we have reason for double confidence before God.