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Psalm 86

Supplication for Help against Enemies

A Prayer of David.

1

Incline your ear, O L ord, and answer me,

for I am poor and needy.

2

Preserve my life, for I am devoted to you;

save your servant who trusts in you.

You are my God; 3be gracious to me, O Lord,

for to you do I cry all day long.

4

Gladden the soul of your servant,

for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

5

For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,

abounding in steadfast love to all who call on you.

6

Give ear, O L ord, to my prayer;

listen to my cry of supplication.

7

In the day of my trouble I call on you,

for you will 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 bow down 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 L ord,

that I may walk in your truth;

give me an undivided heart to revere 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, the insolent rise up against me;

a band of ruffians 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;

save the child of your serving girl.

17

Show me a sign of your favor,

so that those who hate me may see it and be put to shame,

because you, L ord, have helped me and comforted me.


10. For thou art great, and thou alone, O God! doest wondrous things. In this verse there is again repeated the cause which will bring all nations to worship before the Lord, namely, the discovery made of his glory by the greatness of his works. The contemplation of God’s glory in his works is the true way of acquiring genuine godliness. The pride of the flesh would always lead it to wing its way into heaven; but, as our understandings fail us in such an extended investigation, our most profitable course is, according to the small measure of our feeble capacity, to seek God in his works, which bear witness of him. Let us therefore learn to awaken our understandings to contemplate the divine works, and let us leave the presumptuous to wander in their own intricate mazes, which, in the end, will invariably land them in an abyss from which they will be unable to extricate themselves. To incline our hearts to exercise this modesty, David magnificently extols the works of God, calling them wondrous things, although to the blind, and those who have no taste for them, they are destitute of attraction. In the meantime, we ought carefully to attend to this truth, That the glory of Godhead belongs exclusively to the one true God; for in no other being is it possible to find the wisdom, or the power, or the righteousness, or any of the numerous marks of divinity which shine forth in his wonderful works. Whence it follows, that the Papists are chargeable with rendering, as much as in them lies, his title to true Godhead nugatory, when despoiling him of his attributes they leave him almost nothing but the bare name.


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