Psalm 086

Introduction

It’s been a while since we’ve had a psalm of David. And that’s what this psalm is, as you can see from the title. And it’s another lament, in which David calls on the Lord for help because of the trouble he’s in. And, according to verse 14, he needs the Lord’s help because arrogant men are attacking him and a band of ruthless and godless men are seeking to take his life. But David is confident that the Lord will help him, because the Lord is compassionate and gracious and slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness; and his love towards David is great.

The psalm can be divided in the following way: there’s the lament in verses 1 to 7; and then there’s praise in verses 8 to 10. That’s then repeated in the second half of the psalm, but in reverse. So, there’s praise in verses 12 and 13; and lament in verses 14 to 17. So, there’s lament and praise followed by praise and lament. And in the middle, in verse 11, he asks the Lord to teach him God’s way and to give him an undivided heart.

Verses 1 to 7

In verse 1 he asks the Lord to hear and answer him because he is poor and needy. And he uses God’s special covenant name, which appears as LORD in capital letters in our English translations. And so, the reason David turns to the Lord like this is because he knows that the Lord has promised and covenanted to be our God and to take care of us always.

And in the next three verses — verses 2 and 3 and 4 — he appeals again and again to his relationship to the Lord. So, guard my life, because I am devoted to you. Save you servant, because you are my God. So, since I am your servant and you are my God, save me. And then he says: have mercy on me, because I call to you. That is to say, help me, because I’m relying on you and on no other god. And because I lift up my soul to you, bring joy to me.

He continues in verse 5 to say to that God is forgiving and good and abounding in love to all who call on him. And since that’s the case, he’s calls on the Lord. He says: ‘Hear my prayer, O Lord; listen to my cry for mercy.’ And he gives one more reason for calling on the Lord in verse 7. So, why should he call on the Lord in the day of trouble? It’s simple really: he should call on the Lord in the day of trouble, because God will answer him. When we call someone on the phone, or when we text them, they may not pick it up or they may not reply. Perhaps they miss our call; or perhaps they ignore it. But when we call on the Lord, he always hears and answers us. And he always hears and answers us because he is forgiving and good and abounding in love and he has bound himself with a promise to be our God and to take care of us.

Verses 8 to 10

And after calling to the Lord for help, David praises God in verses 8 to 10. Among the gods, there is none like you. So, compared to all the gods which the pagan nations worship, there’s none like you. And no deeds can compare with your deeds: the things you do are marvellous. And since our God is greater than all other gods and since his deeds are marvellous, then the day will come when all the nations will come and worship the Lord. They will glorify the Lord, and not those false gods, because the Lord is great and he does marvellous and wondrous things. In fact, he alone is God. The gods of the nations are false gods. They are only idols who cannot do anything. They are not real. But the Lord God of Israel: he is the one, true and living God.

Verse 11

And so, we come to the centre of the psalm which is verse 11 and it’s where David asks the Lord to teach him God’s way. There are many paths which we can take in life and there are many ways to live. So David wants the Lord to guide him along the right path and along the way of truth. That is to say, he wants the Lord to guide him along the way that is in accordance with God’s word, which is true.

And David is also aware that our heart and our thoughts can be divided. We can have divided loyalties. While we are meant to love, trust and worship God alone, we often put other things beside him or before him. Knowing this is the case, David asks the Lord to give him an undivided heart so that he will fear God’s name. In the Bible, the heart refers to what we are deep down inside. So, deep down inside me, at the very centre of my being, make me devoted to you so that I am not tempted to turn away from you or from your ways, but will worship you always.

Verses 12 and 13

And David turns back to praise in verses 12 and 13. I will praise you with all my heart and I will glorify your name forever. So, David will praise God with all of his heart and for all time. And he’s prepared to worship the Lord like this, because God’s love for him is great. How does he know that God’s love for him is great? He knows it because didn’t the Lord deliver him from the depths of the grave? Presumably he means that his life was once in danger. It seemed to him that he was about to die. He was about to go down to the grave. But God rescued him and kept him alive. And we know that there were many times when David’s life was in danger. Think of the times when he went into battle against the Philistines. Or there was that time when he pretended to be insane to escape from an enemy king. And then Saul was against him and wanted to kill him. And his son, Absalom, turned against him so that he had to flee from Jerusalem for safety. And so, there were plenty of times when his life was in danger. But again and again the Lord rescued him. And so, great is God’s love for David.

Verses 14 to 17

And the psalm ends with lamentation. He laments before the Lord because arrogant men are attacking him and bands of ruthless men are seeking to take his life. These are godless men who have no regard for the Lord. In contrast to those ruthless men, the Lord is compassionate and gracious and slow to anger and he’s abounding in love and faithfulness. And since that’s the case, David calls on the Lord to turn to him and to show him mercy. In other words, he’s asking for God’s help. He asks: give your strength to your servant and save the son of your maidservant. Strengthen me and save me from these arrogant and ruthless men who are seeking to take my life.

And the psalm concludes by David asking for a sign. Give me a sign of your goodness so that my enemies will see it and be ashamed. They’ll be ashamed, because they’ll see that God is on his side and their efforts to destroy David will come to nothing. Let them see how God helps and comforts him.

Conclusion

David called on the Lord for help because of the trouble he’s in. Arrogant and ruthless men have banded together and are seeking to take his life. But David trusts in the Lord to help him.

The suffering of David at the hands of these arrogant and ruthless men foreshadows the suffering of our Saviour, because arrogant and ruthless men banded together against him. Think of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who were against him and who plotted to take his life. And think of the crowd in Jerusalem who wanted Pilate to crucify him. And think of the Romans who beat him and whipped him before nailing him to the cross. And not only did they want to take his life, but they took it. They succeeded in taking his life so that he died and was buried in a grave and he remained under the power of death for a time.

And yet, great is God’s love towards him, because on the third day, God delivered him from the depths of the grave by raising him from the dead. God gave strength to the Lord Jesus Christ, his servant; and saved the son of God’s maidservant, Mary.

And just as David trusted in the Lord, so the Lord Jesus trusted his Heavenly Father throughout his life on earth, praying to him for the help he needed and depending him for all things. And when he was on the cross, he continued to pray to his Father in heaven, committing his spirit to the Lord and trusting him to restore his life when the time was right.

And raising the Lord Jesus from the dead is a sign to God’s enemies that they should give up their unbelief and rebellion and they should yield their lives to him. By raising the Lord Jesus from the dead and by exalting him to heaven, it became clear to all that the Lord Jesus Christ is indeed King over all. He is King over all; and therefore everyone should bow before him and submit to him as their Saviour-King.

And since Christ gave up his life to make a lasting peace for us with God, then we too can look to God for the help and strength we need. We can trust the Lord to hear and answer us. We can trust him to guard our life and to have mercy on us and to bring joy to us. And we can trust God to listen to our cry for mercy and to answer us. We can trust him for these things, not because we deserve his help, but because we have peace with God through Jesus Christ; and God is no longer our enemy, but our faithful Father; and he has bound himself to us through Jesus Christ to be our God and to help us.

And when an unbelieving world rises up against us, we know that we can always look to the Lord God Almighty for the help and strength we need.

And even though our life in this world will end in death, we know that he will deliver us from the grave and bring us in body and soul into his presence in the new world to come.

And in the world to come, men and women and boys and girls from every nation of the world will come and worship him and they will bring glory to his name forever and forever. They will join with the angels in heaven to praise him and to say: ‘You are great and you do marvellous deeds. You alone our God.’ And we will worship him forever and forever, giving thanks to him for Christ our King who gave up his life to bring us to God.

And while we wait for that, we can also do as David did and ask the Lord to teach us his ways and to guide us along the right path. We can ask the Lord to give us an undivided heart so that we will love and serve him with all our of heart and bring glory to his name.