Love is Not a Victory March by Marie -Esther@deviantart.com
Psalm 86
<A Prayer of David.>
1 Incline your ear, O LORD, 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;
3 be 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 LORD, 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 LORD, 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, LORD, have helped me and comforted me.
Psalm 72 (and Book II of the Psalter) ends with the note that “The prayers of David son of Jesse are ended.” The notation at the beginning of Psalm 86 has led many writers to assume this is a psalm which comes from a later time which does use several themes that are a part of the psalms of David. Whether David or a later author composed this prayer asking for God’s help in their crisis, it does use well known words and themes to articulate their dependence and trust in God. This prayer uses the language of faith learned in the worshipping community to provide the words needed to speak to God and appeal for God’s intervention.
The prayer comes from a poor and needy servant of God who needs their Lord to hear their words and preserve their life.[1] Throughout the psalm the speaker is ‘your servant’ (Hebrew ‘ebed) and God is frequently referred to as Lord (Hebrew ‘adon).[2] Servant and lord are paired roles in the culture of Israel. As James Mays explains:
An ‘ebed was a person who belonged to an ‘adon, who lived and worked in the sphere of the purposes and decisions of the ‘adon and who had the right to the support and protection of the ‘adon. (Mays, 1994, p. 279)
The servant and lord dynamic in the psalm is inherited where the psalmist is the ‘child of your serving girl. ´ The dependance on their God as a faithful Lord is something that the psalmist learned from his family and has been a part of their life from the very beginning.
The characteristics of God are the characteristics of God that Israel has always relied upon. The LORD is a God of forgiveness and steadfast love (hesed), is merciful and gracious, and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love (hesed) which alludes back to the thirteen attributes of God which originates in Exodus 34: 6-7. God is also incomparable with any other gods and the psalmist trusts that in time the nations will also see and prostrate themselves before the LORD. The psalmist trusts that the God of Israel can and will help God’s faithful servant in their time of need.
The servant is ‘devoted’[3] to their Lord, while those who oppose them are insolent and a band of ruffians. The language of the servant’s plea indicates that they are facing an existential threat with enemies who threaten their life. Their deep need is matched by their deep trust in their faithful Lord who will protect and deliver them. Their life depends upon God’s steadfast love for the servant of the Lord. The sign the psalmist desires is to see their deliverance from their present danger and to see their enemies put to shame. Yet, the psalmist also asks for their Lord to grant them “an undivided heart to revere your name “. The servant desires to be shaped to be more faithful to their Lord.
The language learned in the congregation shapes the language of our prayers that we speak in the time of need. The faithful speaker does not need to find novel phrases to communicate their needs to their Lord. The language of prayer is the familiar language articulated in scripture and shared in the community of the faithful. The speaker leans into the familiar characteristics of God and into the experience they learned in both their family and the household of faith to speak to God in their moments of crisis. The experience of the faithful one and the memory of the community of the faithful give them the confidence that their Lord will incline the ear to hear the cry of the faithful servant and will deliver them in their time of need.
[1] The word used for ‘life’ in verse 2 and ‘soul’ in verse 4 is the Hebrew nephesh. The Hebrew idea of ‘nephesh’ is not the Greek idea of soul, but ‘self’ or ‘life.’
[2] When LORD is in all capital letters in the Hebrew Scriptures it refers to the Divine Name (YHWH-which the reader is given indications in the Hebrew text to say as Adonai (translated Lord). This psalm uses both LORD and Lord (‘adon or Adonai) to highlight the servant/master (lord) relationship.
[3] Hebrew hasid which is related to hesed. The speaker is living in faithfulness to the covenant God made with God’s people and in dependence on God upholding God’s hesed (steadfast love) towards the servant.
Sign of the Rose 