Psalm 86: “A Prayer of David” 1. The Plea of David Psalm 86:1-5

Text: “Bow down Thine ear, O Lord, hear me: for I am poor and needy.  Preserve my soul; for I am holy: O Thou my God, save Thy servant that trusteth (trusts, and continues to trust) in Thee.”

Psalm 86:1-2.

Good morning, prayerful Christian!  When we say we love someone, it naturally follows that we desire deeply to be in the presence of that person continually – to share that love with them; to give and receive love with them; to admire, share fellowship, and adore the person we love.

Should this not also be true when we say we love the Lord God Who has saved us by bearing our vile sins upon His sinless Self; hanging with our sins attached to Him on a cruel Roman Cross; suffering the penal sufferings that you and I justly deserved for our sins against God and our fellow man; and redeeming us by the shedding of His own sinless Blood to grant us a covering for the disgrace of our sins?  I think we should be in constant worship and adoration of, and with, this wonderful Saviour Lord, and to constantly seek to be near Him.

“If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the Blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” (1 John 1:6-7)

Our love for Christ is proven by the personal desire we have to worship Him in prayerful fellowship, and share such Spiritual love constantly.  Have you got this deep desire?  David had, and expresses his love for the Lord prayerfully in Psalm 86.

“Title: “A Prayer of David”.  We have here one of the five Psalms entitled Tephillahs, or prayers. This Psalm consists of praise as well as prayer, but it is in all parts so directly addressed to God that it is most fitly called “a prayer”.  A prayer is none the less but all the more a prayer because veins of praise run through it. This Psalm would seem to have been specially known as David’s prayer; even as the Ninetieth is “the prayer of Moses”. (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 363)

In the opening verses of Psalm 86, we find David making a heartfelt plea to the Living Lord God Whom He loves and seeks to serve.  What an example this should be for you and me, as redeemed Christians.  Too often we neglect the place and the position of prayer to God.  Too often we seek our worldly comforts, the arm-chair and, perhaps, a television programme, instead of settling our minds on the Lord God in prayer, and praising Him for all He is and has provided for us as ‘His people’. (Matthew 1:21)

“But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now unto God and our Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”  (Philippians 4:19)

Verse 1. “Bow down Thine ear, O Lord, hear me. In condescension to my littleness, and in pity to my weakness, “bow down Thine ear, O Lord.”  When our prayers are lowly by reason of our humility, or feeble by reason of our sickness, or without wing by reason of our despondency, the Lord will bow down to them, the infinitely exalted Jehovah will have respect unto them.” (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 363)

Verse 1. “…For I am poor and needy. Poverty of Spirituality is infinitely worse than scarcity of temporal provision. Some think themselves self-sufficient if their bank accounts are healthy; or the crop in their field is in full bloom, or church-career prospering. However, we do well to assess all things in Spiritual mode, for many today who think they are rich, are known as debtors in the eyes of our all-knowing Lord God.  It is, perhaps, time for us all to weigh ourselves in His balance, and make sure we are actually ‘in the faith’ at all!

“Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove (test) your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?”  (2 Corinthians 13:5)

“Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” (Revelation 3:17)

If ever ‘the church’, international and universal, needed to make personal and National pleas to the Lord God – for forgiveness, cleansing, and restoration to Bible-believing Christianity, it is NOW.

Being ‘politically correct’, seeking to ‘offend no one’; is NOT Bible-believing Christianity.  Dead religion can never save a soul from our sin.  God’s Word is truth!

Earnestly contending for the faith once delivered unto the saints, is what God requires of us, ‘His people’.  Repent, so-called ‘progressive Christian’!  (Jude 3)

Many today have ‘progressed’ right out of the genuine Protestant Christianity under which many of them have been formally ordained, taking the vows of The Westminster Confession of Faith. Many today reading this urgent Christian message, do not even know what the Westminster Confession of Faith is!  The world’s views have crept into ‘the church’, as predicted in the Book of Jude – and woe betide those be-frocked charlatans with split fish-mouthed hats of ‘the established churches’ who have opened the door to all sorts of sodomy, perversion, and doctrinal error, and sin in the name of the ‘politically correct’ god of Hell!

“For there are certain men/women crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Jude 4)

Verse 3. “Be merciful unto me, O Lord: for I cry unto Thee daily. When God the Spirit indwells a true Christian believer, He cannot abide any sin committed, and we feel profoundly, the grief of our indwelling Holy Lord God.  No conviction of sin – no Salvation!

“And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4:30)

Genuine conversion to Christ always produces a deep inner grief when we sin, fact. This brings forth, therefore, a deep longing to be recleansed in our daily state, forgiven by the Lord, and that besetting sin forsaken. The evidence of our Spiritual condition, brings forth a sincere plea to God for restoration: “For Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive…” (V.5)

Thought: David’s prayer should inspire and inform our personal prayers to the Lord. There are none as ‘poor and needy’ as professing Christians today.  Time to get real!