Scripture Daily

Context No. 1309 of 4322 · Psalms

Context · Reflection

Psalms 86:1-17: in context

1Hear, LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. 2Preserve my soul, for I am godly. You, my God, save your servant who trusts in you. 3Be merciful to me, Lord, for I call to you all day long. 4Bring joy to the soul of your servant, for to you, Lord, do I lift up my soul. 5For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, abundant in loving kindness to all those who call on you. 6Hear, LORD, my prayer. Listen to the voice of my petitions. 7In the day of my trouble I will call on you, for you will answer me. 8There is no one like you among the gods, Lord, nor any deeds like your deeds. 9All nations you have made will come and worship before you, Lord. They shall glorify your name. 10For you are great, and do wondrous things. You are God alone. 11Teach me your way, LORD. I will walk in your truth. Make my heart undivided to fear your name. 12I will praise you, Lord my God, with my whole heart. I will glorify your name forever more. 13For your loving kindness is great toward me. You have delivered my soul from the lowest Sheol. 14God, the proud have risen up against me. A company of violent men have sought after my soul, and they don’t hold regard for you before them. 15But you, Lord, are a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth. 16Turn to me, and have mercy on me! Give your strength to your servant. Save the son of your servant. 17Show me a sign of your goodness, that those who hate me may see it, and be shamed, because you, LORD, have helped me, and comforted me.

This is a prayer of a man who is poor and needy and knows it. He asks God to hear him, preserve him, be gracious to him, gladden his soul, because to God he lifts up his soul. He leans on who God is: good and forgiving, abundant in steadfast love to all who call. He asks God to teach him his way that he may walk in his truth, and then prays a striking request: unite my heart to fear your name. Beset by insolent and violent enemies, he rests in a God who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and asks for a sign of God's goodness that his enemies may see who has helped him.

The line to sit with is the prayer in the middle: unite my heart to fear your name. The psalmist knows his own heart is divided, pulled in many directions, part of it turned toward God and part of it scattered among a dozen other loves and fears. He does not merely resolve to do better; he asks God to do something to his heart, to gather its divided pieces and unite them around one center, the fear of God's name. It is an honest prayer, because the divided heart is the common condition, wanting God and also wanting a great many other things, never wholly given over to any of them. We cannot simply will ourselves whole; the psalmist knows that a united heart is something God must give, and so he asks for it. And the request comes right after he has asked God to teach him his way and to let him walk in his truth, as though the undivided heart and the single path belong together. The scattered life, torn between competing loyalties, is not the life God wants for us, and the way out is not first our effort but this prayer: unite my heart. Give me one center, one fear, one love, instead of the many that pull me apart.

Do I know my own heart to be divided, scattered among competing loves, and can I make the psalmist's prayer my own, asking God himself to unite my heart around the one fear of his name?

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