Psalms 86:1-17: a reflection

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 psalm is a rich prayer, mingling pleas for mercy with praise of God's goodness. In the middle of it comes a request that reaches to the root of our need: Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name. The psalmist asks not only to be taught God's way, but for something deeper: an undivided heart, a heart united in the fear of God, rather than pulled in different directions.

Notice the prayer for a united heart. The psalmist recognizes that his heart is prone to be divided, split between God and other loves, pulled this way and that, not wholly devoted to God. And so he prays not to produce this unity by his own effort, but for God to unite his heart, to make it whole and single in its devotion, focused on fearing God's name. He knows that a divided heart is a real problem, and that only God can truly unite it.

That is a prayer we need to pray. Our hearts, too, are prone to division, torn between our love for God and our love for other things, wanting God but also wanting what competes with him, never wholly given over. A divided heart is restless and unstable, following God with one part while another part pulls away. Pray, then, as the psalmist did: unite my heart to fear your name. Ask God to heal the division in your heart, to make it whole and single in its devotion to him, so that you are not torn between him and other loves, but wholly his. Only God can unite a divided heart; ask him to unite yours, that you may love and follow him with an undivided heart.

Lord, in the midst of this psalm comes a prayer that reaches to the root of my need: teach me your way, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name. I recognize that my heart is prone to division, split between you and other loves, pulled this way and that, not wholly devoted to you. A divided heart is restless and unstable, following you with one part while another part pulls away. I cannot make my heart whole by my own effort; only you can truly unite it. So I pray as the psalmist did: unite my heart to fear your name. Heal the division in my heart; make it whole and single in its devotion to you, so that I am not torn between you and other loves, but wholly yours. Teach me your way, and give me an undivided heart, that I may love and follow you with all of me, not part. Unite my heart, Lord.