Psalms 86

Bend down and listen, LORD, and answer me, because I am poor and in need.

1Bow down thine ear, O LORD, hear me: for I am poor and needy.

NoteThe King James prints two different Hebrew words as "Lord." LORD in capitals stands in for God's personal name, which Jewish readers did not pronounce aloud; "Lord" in ordinary type translates *adonai*, meaning master or owner. This psalm switches back and forth between the two deliberately. "Poor and needy" is a fixed pair of words in the Psalms for someone with no power and no protector, who has to depend on God for justice. It can include literal poverty but does not have to.

2Keep my life safe, because I am loyal to you. You are my God. Save your servant, who trusts you.

2Preserve my soul; for I am holy: O thou my God, save thy servant that trusteth in thee.

NoteThe King James "I am holy" translates the Hebrew *hasid*, a word built from *hesed*, loyal love. It describes someone who keeps faith inside a relationship (devoted, loyal, committed), rather than someone claiming to be morally spotless.

3Be merciful to me, Lord, because I call out to you all day long.

3Be merciful unto me, O Lord: for I cry unto thee daily.

4Make your servant glad, because I lift up my whole self to you, Lord.

4Rejoice the soul of thy servant: for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.

Note"Lift up my soul" is a Hebrew idiom. The word behind "soul" is *nephesh*, which means a person's life or whole self, not a spirit housed inside a body. To lift up your *nephesh* to someone is to direct your longing at them, or to put yourself in their hands.

5For you, Lord, are good and ready to forgive. Your love is rich toward everyone who calls on you.

5For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.

Note"Plenteous in mercy" translates *rav-hesed*. *Hesed* is loyal, committed love, the kind owed between people bound to each other by an agreement or a family tie, and it recurs through this psalm at verses 13 and 15.

6Listen to my prayer, LORD, and pay attention when I beg you for help.

6Give ear, O LORD, unto my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications.

7When trouble comes, I will call on you, because you will answer me.

7In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee: for thou wilt answer me.

8Among the gods there is none like you, Lord, and no works have ever been done like yours.

8Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord; neither are there any works like unto thy works.

NoteAncient Israel's neighbors each had their own gods, and this kind of line was a standard way of saying that no other god measures up. The Hebrew does not settle whether those other gods are being treated as real beings or merely as things people worship; the comparison works either way.

9All the nations you have made will come and bow down before you, Lord, and they will honor your name.

9All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name.

NoteIn Hebrew, someone's "name" stands for the person themselves, their character and reputation as others know it. To glorify God's name is to make his reputation widely known, not to say something about the word itself.

10For you are great and you do wonderful things. You alone are God.

10For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone.

11Teach me your way, LORD, and I will live by your truth. Make my heart whole and undivided, so that I will honor your name.

11Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.

NoteThe King James "fear thy name" translates a Hebrew phrase that covers awe and reverence, not fright. It describes taking someone seriously as the one you answer to. "Unite my heart" asks for a heart that is single rather than pulled in two directions; the heart in Hebrew is the seat of thinking and deciding, closer to what we mean by the mind.

12I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart, and I will honor your name forever.

12I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore.

13For your love toward me is great. You have pulled me up out of the deepest part of the place of the dead.

13For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.

Note"Hell" here is the King James rendering of *Sheol*, the Hebrew word for the underworld where everyone was thought to go at death, good and bad alike. It is not a place of punishment. Speakers in the Psalms often say they have been rescued from Sheol to mean they came close to dying and did not.

14God, proud men have risen up against me. A gang of violent men is trying to take my life, and they pay no attention to you.

14O God, the proud are risen against me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul; and have not set thee before them.

15But you, Lord, are a God who cares deeply and is kind. You are slow to get angry, and full of love and faithfulness.

15But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, long suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.

NoteThis line is a set formula. It repeats, almost word for word, what God says about himself to Moses in Exodus 34:6, and it is quoted the same way in several other places in the Hebrew scriptures. The first hearers would have recognized it as a quotation.

16Turn toward me and be merciful to me. Give your strength to your servant. Save me, the son of your servant woman.

16O turn unto me, and have mercy upon me; give thy strength unto thy servant, and save the son of thine handmaid.

Note"Son of thine handmaid" means a slave born in the household to a woman who was already a slave there. Such a person belonged to the household from birth rather than being bought into it. Used in a prayer, the phrase claims the longest and closest kind of tie to the master, and the protection that came with it.

17Show me a sign of your goodness, so that the people who hate me will see it and be ashamed, because you, LORD, have helped me and comforted me.

17Shew me a token for good; that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed: because thou, LORD, hast holpen me, and comforted me.

NoteA "token" is a sign or piece of visible evidence (something onlookers could point to and say the speaker had been vindicated.) "Holpen" is simply the old past participle of "help," meaning helped.