Psalm 86 (1928 BCP)

Psalm 86 (1928 BCP) (Inclina, Domine) is appointed at Morning Prayer on the Seventeenth Day of the month in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer Psalter. A servant in trouble asks to be heard, grounds his plea in God’s mercy, confesses the Lord as God alone, and seeks a heart made whole for faithful praise.

Prayer Book Text

BOW down thine ear, O LORD, and hear me; * for I am poor, and in misery.
2 Preserve thou my soul, for I am holy: * my God, save thy servant that putteth his trust in thee.
3 Be merciful unto me, O Lord; * for I will call daily upon thee.
4 Comfort the soul of thy servant; * for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.
5 For thou, Lord, art good and gracious, * and of great mercy unto all them that call upon thee.
6 Give ear, LORD, unto my prayer, * and ponder the voice of my humble desires.
7 In the time of my trouble I will call upon thee; * for thou hearest me.
8 Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord; * there is not one that can do as thou doest.
9 All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship thee, O Lord; * and shall glorify thy Name.
10 For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: * thou art God alone.

11 Teach me thy way, O LORD, and I will walk in thy truth: * O knit my heart unto thee, that I may fear thy Name.
12 I will thank thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart; * and will praise thy Name for evermore.
13 For great is thy mercy toward me; * and thou hast delivered my soul from the nethermost hell.
14 O God, the proud are risen against me; * and the congregations of violent men have sought after my soul, and have not set thee before their eyes.
15 But thou, O Lord God, art full of compassion and mercy, * long-suffering, plenteous in goodness and truth.
16 O turn thee then unto me, and have mercy upon me; * give thy strength unto thy servant, and help the son of thine handmaid.
17 Show some token upon me for good; that they who hate me may see it, and be ashamed, * because thou, LORD, hast holpen me and comforted me.

The Psalm begins with poverty and trouble, yet its reason for hope is God’s own character: good, gracious, and abundant in mercy. Its horizon is not merely private. The God who alone does wondrous things is to be worshipped by all the nations he has made.

A Prayer for an Undivided Heart

“O knit my heart unto thee” asks not merely for information or escape, but for integrity of worship and obedience. Christians pray the Psalm in light of Christ’s self-description:

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Thus the Psalm’s way and truth are not an abstract religious program. They are sought in communion with Christ, who brings his people to the Father. The order is important: the worshipper asks to be taught and held together before promising praise “with all my heart.”

Alexander Maclaren’s close reading explains why a Psalm full of inherited language can nevertheless be a personal prayer:

This psalm is little more than a mosaic of quotations and familiar phrases of petition. But it is none the less individual, nor is the psalmist less heavily burdened, or less truly beseeching and trustful, because he casts his prayer into well-worn words. God does not give “originality” to every devout man; and He does not require it as a condition of accepted prayer.

This is especially apt for Prayer Book use. The Psalter gives a congregation words it may not have composed, yet enables it to make a real confession of poverty, trust, adoration, and need.

God Alone and the Nations

Psalm 86:9 looks toward the worship of “all nations whom thou hast made.” Its horizon is received in the New Testament vision of a worshipping multitude, while the Psalm’s own voice as Israel’s prayer is not erased:

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.

Both passages confess that worship belongs to God and that the nations are not outside his saving purpose. In the Daily Office, the praying community joins a petition for particular trouble to a hope large enough for the whole world.

Augustine’s early Christian exposition identifies the voice of the Psalm with Christ and his Body. This does not silence Israel’s own prayer; it describes how Christians, incorporated into Christ, can pray the Psalm with him:

No greater gift could God have given to men than in making His Word, by which He created all things, their Head, and joining them to Him as His members: that the Son of God might become also the Son of man, one God with the Father, one Man with men; so that when we speak to God in prayer for mercy, we do not separate the Son from Him; and when the Body of the Son prays, it separates not its Head from itself.

That reception gives weight to the language of servant, mercy, and deliverance. It does not authorize Christians to claim sinlessness on their own account; rather, the Church approaches God as a dependent body whose Head has taken the form of a servant.

Mercy, Trouble, and Praise

The Psalm returns to God’s revealed mercy in verse 15 and asks for strength in the face of proud and violent opponents. Maclaren observes that its requests deepen rather than stop at outward safety:

The thought of God’s sovereign power carries the psalmist beyond remembrance of his immediate outward needs, and stirs higher desires in him. Hence spring the beautiful and spiritual petitions of ver. 11, which seek for clearer insight into God’s will concerning the psalmist’s conduct, breathe aspirations after a “walk” in that God-appointed way and in “Thy troth,” and culminate in one of the sweetest and deepest prayers of the Psalter: “Unite my heart to fear Thy Name.”

The final request for a “token … for good” is not a demand for spectacle. It is a plea that God’s help and comfort be made known amid opposition, so that the servant may continue in thanksgiving. The Psalm trains both candour about affliction and a refusal to make affliction the final word.

Use in the Daily Office

Psalm 86 is appointed first at Morning Prayer on the Seventeenth Day, before Psalm 87, Psalm 88, and Psalm 89. It brings personal need into the worship of God alone and the hope of the nations’ praise. Read or sung in the Office, it gives worshippers language for daily intercession, for a heart gathered from distraction, and for praise that follows—not replaces—the honest naming of trouble.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• The Psalter (1928 BCP)
• Daily Office (1928 BCP)
• Morning Prayer (1928 BCP)
• Psalm 85 (1928 BCP)
• Psalm 87 (1928 BCP)