Psalm 86:1-13 - "For I Am Poor and Needy"

Bow down Your ear, O LORD, 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 the 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. Give ear, O LORD, 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. 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.”   Psalm 86 has the title: “A Prayer of David.” I have often thought as I read this Psalm that I should write next to David’s name my own name. “A Prayer of Michael”.  I believe one of the best ways to pray is to personalize the Scripture passage the Lord puts on your heart and make it your heart’s desire as you cry out to Him!   As you read through the Bible and especially study the subject of prayer you can’t help but notice that many of the saints of old prayed back to God His Word and His promises. I’m not sure God needs to be reminded of His Word or promises, but as we pray them out loud, they strengthen our faith and trust that God will hear our prayers and answer them.   Psalm 86 is one of those prayers in the Bible that I would suggest that you place a bookmark next to in your Bible. This is a prayer that teaches us that we need God’s grace, mercy, and help every day! One of the greatest lessons we can learn in our spiritual journey through life is that we are always desperately needy! Not only when things are falling apart around us and we might be suffering physically, emotionally, or even mentally, but when things are as good as they can be, with the blessings of God surrounding us, we are just as needy for God’s mercy, grace and strength!   I will never forget reading years ago that real prayer is a sense of helplessness! My friend, the truth is that we are always totally hopeless and helpless without God! On one occasion David told his friend Jonathan that, “There is but a step between me and death.” (1 Samuel 20:3).  Honestly, whether we realize it or not, every moment in our lives, day or night, “there is but a step between us and trouble, temptation, disaster, and death!” That is why we desperately need God!   No doubt, that is why David prayed in this Psalm, “Unite my heart to fear your name”. In other words, he was praying, “give me an undivided heart that is totally dependent upon God’s name”.  God’s name represents His character, His attributes and all that He is!   We should make this our prayer today as we worship the Lord on this first day of the week!  “For You are great, and do wondrous things; You alone are God. 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.”   Our salvation and deliverance from “Sheol”, which in the Old Testament was “the place of the dead” or “the grave”, is totally based on our faith and trust in the finish work of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary! Because of the grace and mercy extended to us by God through Christ we can experience this wonderful salvation! David looked forward by faith to the Christ and today we are able by faith to look back to Christ and His resurrection from the grave!   Today is a wonderful day to now “praise the Lord our God with all of our heart” for His salvation and deliverance.   God bless!