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86. Psalm 86

1 Hear me, LORD, and answer me,
   for I am poor and needy.

2 Guard my life, for I am faithful to you;
   save your servant who trusts in you.
You are my God;
3 have mercy on me, Lord,
   for I call to you all day long.

4 Bring joy to your servant, Lord,
   for I put my trust in you.

    5 You, Lord, are forgiving and good,
   abounding in love to all who call to you.

6 Hear my prayer, LORD;
   listen to my cry for mercy.

7 When I am in distress, I call to you,
   because you answer me.

    8 Among the gods there is none like you, Lord;
   no deeds can compare with yours.

9 All the nations you have made
   will come and worship before you, Lord;
   they will bring glory to your name.

10 For you are great and do marvelous deeds;
   you alone are God.

    11 Teach me your way, LORD,
   that I may rely on your faithfulness;
give me an undivided heart,
   that I may fear your name.

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

13 For great is your love toward me;
   you have delivered me from the depths,
   from the realm of the dead.

    14 Arrogant foes are attacking me, O God;
   ruthless people are trying to kill me—
   they have no regard for you.

15 But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God,
   slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.

16 Turn to me and have mercy on me;
   show your strength in behalf of your servant;
save me, because I serve you
   just as my mother did.

17 Give me a sign of your goodness,
   that my enemies may see it and be put to shame,
   for you, LORD, have helped me and comforted me.


In the 13th verse, he sets forth the reason of this, which is, because, in delivering him, God had given a singular and remarkable proof of his mercy. To place in a stronger light the greatness of this benefit, he describes the dangers from which he had been delivered, by the expression, the lower grave; as if he had said, I have not been held down by one death only, but have been thrust down into the lowest depths of the grave, so that my circumstances required the hand of God to be stretched out to me in a wonderful manner. By the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we are delivered from a still deeper abyss of death; and such being the case, our ingratitude will be inexcusable, unless each of us exercise himself to the utmost of his power in celebrating this deliverance. If David so highly magnified the name of God merely on account of the prolongation of his life for a short time, what praises are due for this unparalleled redemption by which we are drawn from the depths of hell and elevated to heaven? The Papists attempt to found an argument on this passage in support of their doctrine of Purgatory, as if that were an upper hell, while there was another lower; 490490     Street reads, “That those who hate me may fear. The word יראו,” he observes, “if considered without the points, may be the third person plural of ירא, to fear; but the authors of all the versions seem to have derived it from ראה, to see I read לטובך instead of לטובה.” but this argument is too rotten to stand in need of refutation.


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