Psalm 86:3

Be merciful unto me, O Lord: for I cry unto thee daily.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

86:1-7 Our poverty and wretchedness, when felt, powerfully plead in our behalf at the throne of grace. The best self-preservation is to commit ourselves to God's keeping. I am one whom thou favourest, hast set apart for thyself, and made partaker of sanctifying grace. It is a great encouragement to prayer, to feel that we have received the converting grace of God, have learned to trust in him, and to be his servants. We may expect comfort from God, when we keep up our communion with God. God's goodness appears in two things, in giving and forgiving. Whatever others do, let us call upon God, and commit our case to him; we shall not seek in vain.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Be merciful unto me, O Lord - It was mercy after all that he relied on, and not justice. It was not because he had any claim on the ground that he was "holy," but all that he had and hoped for was to be traced to the mercy of God.

For I cry unto thee daily - Margin, as in Hebrew, "All the day." The meaning is, that he did this constantly, or without intermission.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

PSALM 86

Ps 86:1-17. This is a prayer in which the writer, with deep emotion, mingles petitions and praises, now urgent for help, and now elated with hope, in view of former mercies. The occurrence of many terms and phrases peculiar to David's Psalms clearly intimates its authorship.

1, 2. poor and needy—a suffering child of God, as in Ps 10:12, 17; 18:27.

I am holy—or, "godly," as in Ps 4:3; 85:8.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Be merciful unto me, O Lord,.... In my distressed and miserable condition, being an object of mercy, pity, and compassion; this petition is used by Christ in Psalm 41:10.

for I cry unto thee daily; or "all the day"; every day, and several times in a day, Psalm 55:17 constant and importunate prayer is the duty of saints, and available with God, 1 Thessalonians 5:17. Christ was much in the exercise of it, Luke 6:12.

Geneva Study Bible

Be merciful unto me, O Lord: for I {c} cry unto thee daily.

(c) Which was a fair token that he believed that God would deliver him.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

3. Be gracious unto me, O Lord;

For unto thee do I cry all the day long.

See Psalm 57:1-2, and elsewhere (Psalm 3:4; Psalm 4:1; &c.).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - Be merciful unto me, O Lord; for I cry unto thee daily; rather, all day long (Revised Version). Psalm 86:3

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The prayer to be heard runs like Psalm 55:3; and the statement of the ground on which it is based, Psalm 86:1, word for word like Psalm 40:18. It is then particularly expressed as a prayer for preservation (שׁמרה, as in Psalm 119:167, although imperative, to be read shāmerah; cf. Psalm 30:4 מיּרדי, Psalm 38:21 רדפי or רדפי, and what we have already observed on Psalm 16:1 שׁמרני); for he is not only in need of God's help, but also because חסיד (Psalm 4:4; Psalm 16:10), i.e., united to Him in the bond of affection (חסד, Hosea 6:4; Jeremiah 2:2), not unworthy of it. In Psalm 86:2 we hear the strains of Psalm 25:20; Psalm 31:7; in Psalm 86:3, of Psalm 57:2.: the confirmation in Psalm 86:4 is taken verbally from Psalm 25:1, cf. also Psalm 130:6. Here, what is said in Psalm 86:4 of this shorter Adonajic Psalm, Psalm 130:1-8, is abbreviated in the ἅπαξ γεγραμ. סלּח (root סל, של, to allow to hang loose, χαλᾶν, to give up, remittere). The Lord is good (טּוב), i.e., altogether love, and for this very reason also ready to forgive, and great and rich in mercy for all who call upon Him as such. The beginning of the following group also accords with Psalm 130:1-8 in Psalm 86:2.