Learning What to Pray For though Psalm 86:8-17

     God has impressed upon me the content of Psalm 86 through recent bible studies and sermons. I see the almighty attributes of God proclaimed in every sermon, while the prayer for wisdom sits at the heart of a Bible study on proverbs. Moreover, without the guidance of the scripture, my prayers mainly contain earthly requests: Lord, please heal this person, help me pass that test, etc. It is not wrong or improper to lay up these requests, yet the prayers in the Bible have a strikingly different overall focus. Specifically in Psalm 86, David praises and gives glory to God throughout by making predominantly spiritual requests. These prayers that David offers up are so pervasive and recurring throughout the Bible that Psalm 86 can probably be considered a model prayer. The scope does not quite cover that of the Lord’s Prayer, but I find Psalm 86 very helpful when coming before God in times of need and daily meditation.

 8 Among the gods there is none like You, O Lord;

Nor are there any works like Your works.

9 All nations whom You have made

Shall come and worship before You, O Lord,
    10 And shall glorify Your name.

For You are great, and do wondrous things;

You alone are God.

    David launches into pure adoration of God without any petitions. We often give God praise for the things He has done for us, but is God only great because of His mercy shown to us individually? On the contrary, David proclaims that God is great in His very being and goes on to praise God for revealing His power through mighty works and establishing a sure kingdom.

1)   God is alone in His omnipotence; there is no one that compares to Him.

2)   God’s works are great and wondrous, and He alone does great things.

3)   All nations will bow before Him, for He has made them. We can also see with absolute confidence that God will expand His kingdom.

We can often praise God Himself without acknowledging His works and vice versa. These three verses taught me to praise God for simply being God and to then acknowledge His works and kingdom.

11 Teach me Your way, O Lord;

I will walk in Your truth;

Unite my heart to fear Your name.

   David here asks God for spiritual wisdom. Three important aspects of wisdom are prayed for; wisdom is only from God, results in a lifestyle after God, and originates from the fear of the Lord.

17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to

you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,

Ephesians 1:17

18 But the path of the just is like the shining sun,

That shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.

19 The way of the wicked is like darkness;

They do not know what makes them stumble.

Proverbs 4:18-19

10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,

And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Proverbs 9:10

The understanding of God’s truths, which leads to obedience throughout life and the fear of Him, is the wisdom given by God. This longing for wisdom is an excellent God-centered prayer since our obedience brings glory to God. I pray that God will help me obey Him more faithfully every day, and this Psalm reminds me that wisdom/obedience is only from God and not from my own strength.

12 I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart,

And I will glorify Your name forevermore.

13 For great is Your mercy toward me,

And You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

   Again we see the recurring pattern of praising God and praying with faith and boldness. Right after praying for spiritual wisdom, David praises God recognizing that God has already graced him with a measure of spiritual wisdom. “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life,” (Proverbs 14:27) David recognizes that he has already obtained wisdom and salvation from God. Without wisdom, which gives a new understanding and direction in life, we do not inherit salvation. Thus all of us who have obtained salvation through Christ have the same prerogative to praise God, for we must always strive to acknowledge and thank God for what He has already done.

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.

15 But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious,

Longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth.

   Sometimes our shortsighted minds discover what to be thankful for with difficulty. In such times, it is often helpful to compare things relative to each other, and David composes the most extreme comparison possible, comparing evil men to God. David’s enemies were proud, violent, and most importantly, ungodly. God on the other hand is reiterated to be full of compassion and abundant in truth, attributes that David himself testifies from experience.

I have learned to implement comparison in order to gain proper perspective of my life through prayer. In my personal prayers, I try to compare what I know of God, to myself, opponents of God, and worldly goals. Can I claim that I have been longsuffering toward other people as God has been to me? Do the enemies of God appear to be abundant in mercy and truth? Can the benefits of worldly gain compare to an eternity in heaven? Any Christian should know the answer to these questions, but without God’s help through prayer, we often forget the majesty of God and the consequences of sin.  

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 comfort me.

The comparison indeed seems to have cleared David’s mind. After meditating on God’s goodness, David again cries out for mercy. After recognizing that his own enemies are also against God, David asks God to make them ashamed.

Psalm 86 is a powerful prayer, since it rests in and focuses on the omnipotent God. Many of the requests and praises of David have become an integral part of my own private prayers, and I hope God continues to edify my prayer life through the examples given in the Bible.

Psalm 86:1-7 "Learning How to Pray through Psalm 86"

Through the Psalms, God has recently been teaching me how to pray according to His will and not my own. When praying according to my own will, I always focus on my own concerns and pursuits through my own perspective of the world, namely that of a weak human being. However, the Bible, as the revealed will of God, provides both the concerns and pursuits we are to have as His servants, and also the manner in which we are to petition God.

Psalm 86 is a personal prayer of David, the type of prayer that he probably prayed all the time. Yet even David’s personal prayer exhibits an utter lack of worldly or trivial requests, and in the first seven verses of Psalm 86, David prays for mercy on his soul with a spirit of humility and dependence on God. What strikes me most about David’s prayer is that he prays humbly yet boldly, dependently yet with confidence that God will answer.

1 Bow down Your ear, O Lord, hear me;
For I am poor and needy.

David does not appear to be thinking of any particular persecution while writing these first few verses. Instead, David is crying out for God to be merciful on his poor and needy soul, and we must always come before God humbly recognizing the sad condition of our souls without the Lord’s grace. The imagery evoked is that of God stooping down to us, and other Psalms such as Psalm 104 and 139 expound the greatness of God through His creative works and omniscience. The thought of coming before such a great God sometimes fills me with misgiving, but the next verse demonstrates that we do not pray in vain.

2 Preserve my life, for I am holy;
You are my God;
Save Your servant who trusts in You!

Psalm 86 is a prayer with hope, for David immediately turns to God for salvation after admitting his helplessness. We receive Christ’s righteousness through believing, trusting, and embracing Christ as our God, and through Christ we pursue and receive preservation unto eternal life. This verse reminds me that all of my prayers are based on my salvation in Christ, and thus all of my prayers are to be poor and needy and with hope. “the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,” Ephesians 1:18

3 Be merciful to me, O Lord,
For I cry to You all day long.

We should pray with perseverance. How often do you cry out to God for mercy? Once a week? Never? David felt the need to plead mercy “all day long”. Our prayers for mercy concerning our souls should be so persistent, that we can say to God, “Lord, I am grieved by my sin and lack of spiritual growth. I think on and pray about my soul constantly. You are the only one able to answer my prayer, so I will call upon you all day long.”

4 Rejoice the soul of Your servant,
For to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

5 For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive,
And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.

David asks for mercy, and then praises God for being abundantly merciful to His people. He asks for forgiveness, and then extols God’s goodness and readiness to forgive. We do not pray to a harsh and unforgiving God but to an abundantly merciful and good God. Our prayers can thus be made in faith, and I have experienced, as David certainly had, that God is truly good to His prayerful servants.

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.

Praying confidently means that we can know that God will answer our prayers. If this prayer was anywhere else but in the Bible, we would say the prayer to be presumptuous. Yet Jesus commands us to pray in the same way.

12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. 13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”

John 14:12-14

We can learn from the first seven verses of Psalm 86 that God will not ignore our humble cries for forgiveness and mercy on our souls since He cannot deny Himself. Psalm 86 clearly shows that the state of our souls, and thus our ability to glorify God on earth, is a request made in Christ’s name. David understood that he was praying God’s will which allowed him to pray in a humble yet confident manner, a manner of prayer we all should strive to achieve. 

Resource: Ryle, J.C. Practical Religion