In Psalm 86, in the middle of the second collection of the Psalms of the Sons of Korah (Psalm 84-85, 87-88), there is a curious lament psalm of David that is included. The psalm is the only one of the third book of the Psalms that is attributed to David within the scriptures, as the Levites are credited with the vast majority of writings, which makes sense in the overall structure given the connection between the third book of the Psalms as well as the book of Leviticus, the third book of the Torah (which is focused on the tribe of Levi as well). The presence of a psalm of David within a section of the Psalms that is written by and about the tribe of Levi is therefore highly significant, and it is worth a bit of pondering on this fact.

The author of Hebrews faced an interesting problem in connecting David, who was of the tribe of Judah, to the priesthood of Jesus Christ, since the Bible does not directly speak of the tribe of Judah in connection with the priesthood before Jesus Christ. The solution of the author of Hebrews is to go back to Genesis 14 and Psalm 110 to demonstrate the prior existence of the Melchizedek priesthood. It is worthy of note, though, that Psalm 110 is another psalm of David that demonstrates his own interest in matters of the priesthood. The Bible records David as a court musician, dancing when the Ark of the Covenant is brought into Jerusalem, deeply involved in writing psalms, and designing and preparing for the construction of the Temple of God in Jerusalem. All of these are aspects of priestly concern, showing that David (like Jesus Christ) is an example of a member of the tribe of Judah with a deep and abiding interest and role within what was at the time a worship system dominated by the tribe of Levi. Psalm 86 is therefore a fascinating hint of the role of the House of David, through Jesus Christ, in the priesthood, a hint that has largely escaped the notice of commentators.

It should therefore come as no surprise that Psalm 86 is a somewhat complicated and nuanced psalm with a great deal of meaning and application. On its surface, Psalm 86 is both a psalm of personal lament for David, seeking the mercy and lovingkindness of God, as well as a psalm of praise for the excellence of the Eternal. However, in light of the Levitical connections of the third book of psalm and its application to the House of David, Psalm 86 can also be taken as a messianic psalm about the humility and glory of Jesus Christ as a contrast between His first and second comings. Psalm 86 is not a well known psalm at all, so it has seldom been read at depth for either of these levels of meaning, though we will attempt to do so today. The organization of Psalm 86 is a rather typical chiasm that begins with a prayer by David to God for mercy and the preservation of his life from the wicked, continues to call on God to hear David’s prayer, states that there is none like God, a request for God to teach David about Himself so that David can praise Him forever, a comparison between the attacks of the wicked and the righteous character of God, and a closing with a repeated call for God to show hesed (lovingkindness) to David in his present straits. Let us examine these six parts in turn.

Psalm 86:1-5 begins with a prayer of David to God for mercy: “Bow down Your ear, O Eternal, hear me; for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life, for I am holy; You are my God; Save your servant who trusts in You! Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I cry to You all day long. Rejoice teh soul of Your servant, for to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.” This is a curious opening, significant for many reasons. For one, David uses three different Hebrew words that relate to God in this psalm. He begins with Yahweh, the personal and covenantal name of the Eternal. He also uses Elohim, which is the general name for God as the creator of the whole earth, and he also (as in Psalm 110) uses adonai, which is Lord, a title which in Psalm 110 is specifically used to distinguish Jesus Christ from the Father at whose right hand He sits until all enemies are brought under His feet. This varied use of divine names would appear to indicate a connection between Psalm 86 and Jesus Christ. And we find that connection in several places even in the opening passage. First, like David, Jesus Christ was poor and needy, being born to a family who had to offer two turtle doves, the poorest sacrifice possible, when Jesus was presented at the temple after His birth. Later on, Jesus Christ Himself mentioned that while foxes and birds have their dens and homes that the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head. Another connection between this passage and Jesus Christ is that Jesus Christ is abundant in mercy, good, and ready to forgive those who call upon Him. What David is saying is that God is gracious, and Jesus Christ is known for grace even among the many people who do not understand what grace means.

Psalm 86:6-7 continues: “Give ear, O Eternal, to my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications. In the day of my trouble I will call upon You, for You will answer me.” David understood that He needed to call on God and He had the faith that God would hear and answer David’s call. We ought to note that while God did so with David’s call, that there is another example of an occasion where people sought the life of a Servant of God, one who bore the sins of the whole world as He was crucified, and where God did not deliver His life, so that the sins of mankind could be paid for once and for all for those who would repent of their wicked ways and seek the Eternal as the Lord and King. But this suffering Servant, who was the only human being who has ever lived or will ever live worthy of eternal life, was raised in glory from the humility of the grave, as a sign that we who believe will likewise live forever if we endure in faith until the end.

Psalm 86:8-10 reads: “Among the gods there is none like You, O Lord; nor are there any works like Your works. All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, and shall glorify Your name. For You are great, and do wondrous things; You alone are God.” Here we see a classic statement of the sort of exclusive worship that has always been demanded of the people of God. In contrast to a tolerant multiculturalism that assumes that all worldviews are valid, David here states that the Eternal alone is God and that all nations will worship God. God is the creator of all the world, which means that worship of Him is not exclusive by ethnicity, but He demands the exclusive worship of all. Every knee will (eventually) bow before Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, whether in humble adoration and worship or as a defeated rebel against His rightful rule. Here we see that genuine believers have always believed in the evangelistic mission to preach God’s ways to the heathen peoples of the world (see also Psalm 87 [1]).

Psalm 86:11-13 continues the petition of David for instruction in God’s ways, similar in many ways to David’s similar request in Psalm 51: “Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your name. I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, And I will glorify your name forevermore. For great is Your mercy toward me, and You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.” David, as a believer in God, had the rightful expectation of receiving eternal life, a reward for which he still waits along with all of the other blessed believers from times past (Acts 2:29, Hebrews 11:39-40) who await the resurrection of the righteous. Nonetheless, He was delivered in this situation from the threat of death, even though he eventually did die and was buried in his grave and remains in the depths of Sheol to this day. Nonetheless, insofar as this passage is referring to Jesus Christ, He was delivered from the grave into life eternal and He does remain to praise the Father with all His heart forevermore, and teach all nations of His ways through His disciples.

Psalm 86:14-15 comments on the threat of death more specifically and from whom it comes: “O God, the proud have risen up against me, and a mob of violent men have sought my life, and have not set You before them. But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth.” There is nothing here that has not been said by many a Christian about the longsuffering and patient and gracious nature of God and Jesus Christ. In fact, this is a prayer that I myself have made, albeit silently, as I too singlehandedly faced a mob of violent and ungodly and proud people when my roommate foolishly and prematurely glorified in a political victory when I was a college student and then fled the scene when the mob showed up, leaving me to hold off the mob by myself. The proud and arrogant have always been hostile to God’s ways, and those who have followed God have always been humble and appreciative, regardless of their circumstances. At any rate, many believers have had to face the violence of the proud and ungodly, and have trusted in God to provide mercy and deliverance. Sometimes God has let His people suffer for righteousness sake and sometimes He has delivered them from trouble. Whichever choice God has made, the judgments of the Eternal are just and altogether righteous.

Psalm 86:16-17 closes the psalm with a renewed call for God’s mercy: “Oh, turn to me, and have mercy on me! Give Your strength to Your servant, and save the son of Your maidservant. Show me a sign for good, that those who hate me may see it and be ashamed, because You, Eternal, have helped me and comforted me.” The psalm ends, just as it begins, with a prayer for God to deliver His humble servant, using the covenantal name Yahweh to show His closeness to God (and to implicitly show the distance from God of the proud enemies of David). David has a righteous desire to see the proud humbled, to hope that their shame in seeing God’s favor to the righteous would lead to their embarrassment and their repentance, and the desire of David for salvation is one that is shared by all believers. Likewise, the sign of Jesus Christ’s resurrection, the divine favor granted to the Son of God who was also the son of the maidservant Mary, also has ashamed and confounded the proud enemies of God’s people who have fancied themselves closer to God than they really are. God is the source of our strength, not we ourselves, and like David (and Jesus Christ) we should always be sensitive to this fact and not glory in our own might or wisdom as if we were anything special on our own.

Psalm 86 is not a particularly well known psalm, but it presents both a picture of David and Jesus Christ as loyal servants of God seeking the glory of our Heavenly Father as well as a timeless message for all believers who face the same struggles and the same threat of death from the machinations of the proud and who likewise are poor and needy and humble and who recognize our dependence on Him. There are a lot of people in that particular state, and many who are fully aware of it, and therefore Psalm 86 is a comforting prayer of lament that ought to be as well known as it deserves, even if its contents have been prayed (often unknowingly) by many believers in times past as well as our present age. God’s mercy has never changed, and neither has the hostility of the wicked for the ways of the Eternal.

[1] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/03/12/psalm-87-this-one-was-born-there-glorious-things-of-thee-are-spoken/