Psalm 86 is the prayer of a poor and needy servant who lifts up his soul to the Lord. It is a cry for preservation, mercy, and strength in the day of trouble. Yet the prayer does not remain enclosed in that trouble. It widens until all nations are worshiping the God who made them.
At its center is confidence in God’s compassion. The servant asks to be heard because the Lord is kind and plenteous in mercy. At the end, the request for a token for good is a plea for God’s help and comfort.
Psalm Metadata
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| NKJV / Masoretic numbering | Psalm 86 |
| Septuagint / Coptic numbering | Psalm 85 |
| Accepted author | A Prayer of David. |
| Period in author’s life | A personal prayer in distress, expressing the heart of a servant who hopes in God. The Psalm does not identify a particular episode. |
| Christ prophecy status | Typological and Christological. The Church prays with Christ and sees in the worship of the nations and the plea for help a light cast by His saving work. |
| Coptic lectionary/service use | The cited Agpeya includes the Psalm at the Sixth Hour, in the Veil Prayer, and at the Midnight Prayer’s First Watch. Selected verses also appear in the services described below. |
| Numbering issue | This study embeds Brenton LXX Psalm 85. The dated lectionary selections described below print Psalm 86. |
Historical and Scriptural Context
The superscription attributes the Psalm to David, but gives no date or event in his life. Its language gathers familiar themes of the Psalter: poverty and need, the lifting up of the soul, the day of trouble, the greatness of God, and the hope that the nations will worship Him.
The prayer is a mosaic of trust in distress. The servant remembers that God has heard him, even while he continues to ask for help. Past mercy gives him a reason to pray again; it does not make the present danger unreal.
Geographical Significance ⛰️
No particular landscape is named. Instead, the Psalm speaks of a way in which the servant asks to walk and a depth from which he gives thanks for deliverance. These images carry us from the danger of death toward a life guided by God’s truth.
The Characters 👥
David / the praying servant. He is poor and needy, yet calls himself holy and hopes in God.
All nations. The people whom God has made are called to come and worship before Him.
God. He alone is God, great in His works, compassionate and merciful, long-suffering and true.
🕯️ Light from the Word
Psalm 85:1-7 (LXX), the cry of the poor and needy
85:1 A Prayer of David. O Lord, incline thine ear, and hearken to me; for I am poor and needy. 85:2 Preserve my soul, for I am holy; save thy servant, O God, who hopes in thee. 85:3 Pity me, O Lord: for to thee will I cry all the day. 85:4 Rejoice the soul of thy servant: for to thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul. 85:5 For thou, O Lord, art kind, and gentle; and plenteous in mercy to all that call upon thee. 85:6 Give ear to my prayer, O Lord; and attend to the voice of my supplication. 85:7 In the day of my trouble I cried to thee: for thou didst hear me.
How can the same servant say that he is needy and that he is holy? The two belong together. His holiness is not a claim to have no need of mercy; he belongs to God and hopes in Him. Dependence on the Creator is not a denial of the goodness with which God made human beings.
St Augustine of Hippo, a witness from the wider Christian tradition, hears this prayer as the voice of Christ and His Church. Christ took the form of a servant without sharing our sin. Augustine says: “He prays for us, as our Priest; He prays in us, as our Head; He is prayed to by us, as our God.” He also teaches that Christians can speak of holiness because God sanctifies them in Baptism, not because they are the source of their own holiness.1
Theodoret of Cyrus offers another image for the opening plea. He compares it to a sick person whose voice is so faint that a physician comes close to hear. He also understands the servant’s claim to holiness in relation to unjust attackers: the one who has not wronged them can still be in need of God’s mercy.2 Illness, fear, and grief are not evidence that a person lacks faith. Calling on God and receiving care from physicians and other helpers belong together.
The servant cries throughout the day, lifts up his soul, and asks God to make it glad. He remembers that God has heard him before, though he is still praying in trouble. This is not a promise that every danger will end as we wish. It is permission to bring the need before God again.
Lesson Guide
- Key phrases: the poor and needy servant; holiness and hope in God.
- Emphasize: holiness and neediness can coexist in the servant of God.
- Avoid: separating holiness from dependence on God.
Psalm 85:8-13 (LXX), there is none like to thee, O Lord
85:8 There is none like to thee, O Lord, among the gods; and there are no works like to thy works. 85:9 All nations whom thou hast made shall come, and shall worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name. 85:10 For thou art great, and doest wonders: thou art the only and the great God. 85:11 Guide me, O Lord, in thy way, and I will walk in thy truth: let my heart rejoice, that I may fear thy name. 85:12 I will give thee thanks, O Lord my God, with all my heart; and I will glorify thy name for ever. 85:13 For thy mercy is great toward me; and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.
The phrase about the gods does not set the Lord among rival deities of the same kind. The next verses confess that He alone is God. Theodoret reads this confession against the boasting of the Assyrian spokesman Rabshakeh, who treated the Lord as though He were no more able to save than the gods of other nations. That is Theodoret’s historical reading, not a date supplied by the Psalm itself.3
The servant’s personal prayer opens onto a horizon as wide as creation. Augustine recalls that God made Adam and Eve and, through them, all nations; he sees the Church spread among those nations. Theodoret, in turn, reads the nations coming to worship in the light of the apostles’ mission after Christ’s Passion. The peoples of the world are not strangers to their Maker. The one who asks God to hear me also longs for all to glorify Him.4
Brenton’s verse 11 asks, “let my heart rejoice, that I may fear thy name.” Joy and reverence are not enemies. Augustine sees joy giving strength on the journey and reverent fear guarding the heart against complacency. This is not a demand to manufacture a feeling, nor a judgment on someone living with anxiety or sorrow. It is a prayer that gladness in God may be joined to attentiveness to Him.
The thanksgiving that follows is offered with the whole heart. In verse 13, deliverance from the lowest hell speaks of danger reaching to the depths of death. The servant thanks God for rescue by His great mercy; he is not declaring that he was morally damned. Christians may hear a further echo of Christ’s descent into Hades, but the Psalm’s words are not proof that David bodily descended there.
Lesson Guide
- Key phrases: all nations worshiping God; guidance in His way and truth.
- Emphasize: the worship of the one God is the destiny of all nations.
- Avoid: limiting the Psalm to personal piety. It has a missionary horizon.
Psalm 85:14-17 (LXX), the token for good
85:14 O God, transgressors have risen up against me, and an assembly of violent men have sought my life; and have not set thee before them. 85:15 But thou, O Lord God, art compassionate and merciful, long-suffering, and abundant in mercy and true. 85:16 Look thou upon me, and have mercy upon me: give thy strength to thy servant, and save the son of thine handmaid. 85:17 Establish with me a token for good; and let them that hate me see it and be ashamed; because thou, O Lord, hast helped me, and comforted me.
The danger returns to the foreground. Violent men seek the servant’s life and do not set God before them. Against their violence stands the character of the Lord: compassionate, merciful, patient, and true. The servant asks for strength, not because the danger is imaginary, but because God is the One to whom he can turn within it.
The son of the Lord’s handmaid speaks as one who belongs to God’s household and service. The phrase need not supply a family history. It gives the plea the intimacy of someone who knows where he belongs.
The servant asks for a token for good and for his enemies to see God’s help and be ashamed. This is not a license for private vengeance or for delighting in another person’s humiliation. Augustine considers the possibility of shame that leads to repentance and healing. He identifies the sign itself with the Resurrection of Christ: “What sign, but that of the Resurrection?” He then speaks of God’s help in struggle and comfort in sorrow.5
Theodoret’s shorter commentary distinguishes a sign of salvation from signs of judgment, using the events in Egypt as an example. In the longer form transmitted with that commentary, the Cross is named as a good sign of Christ’s victory over the common enemy and the passions.6 The Cross and Resurrection belong together in the Church’s Paschal faith, while these two readings name the sign differently.
The Psalm does not require a threatened person to remain where harm is happening. Asking God for protection, seeking safety, and accepting help are compatible with bearing the Cross. Nor does the prayer guarantee immediate earthly rescue or vindication. It teaches us to ask the compassionate God for help and comfort.
Lesson Guide
- Key phrases: a token for good; God’s help and comfort.
- Emphasize: God helps and comforts. In Christian reading, the Cross and Resurrection belong together.
- Avoid: treating cross-bearing as a demand to remain in danger. Seeking safety and help is compatible with bearing the Cross.
The Church’s Voice in Worship 📖
In the Agpeya Sixth Hour, the Psalm is prayed at the hour of the Cross. Its Gospel, Matthew 5:1-16, includes Christ’s blessing of those who mourn and those who hunger for righteousness. The needy servant’s prayer stands before the Lord who meets His people in their need.7
The Veil Prayer, especially associated with monastic use, includes this Psalm as a prayer of dependence. Its Gospel, John 6:15-23, tells of Christ coming to His disciples on the sea. The Psalm’s request for guidance and its thanksgiving for mercy give words for watchfulness without making this office an obligation for every layperson.7
In the Midnight Prayer, First Watch, the cry offered throughout the day becomes part of the Church’s prayer through the night. The Gospel of the watch is Matthew 25:1-13, with its call to watch for the bridegroom.7
In the cited Friday of the third week of the Holy Fifty Days, Liturgy, and fourth Sunday of Hator, Vespers, the Psalm selection is printed as 86:12 and 86:10, in that order. The service text says, “I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, And I will glorify Your name forevermore.” It continues, “For You are great, and do wondrous things; You alone are God.” By their words, these correspond to Brenton LXX 85:12 and 85:10. The Liturgy Gospel is John 8:31-39; the Vespers Gospel is Matthew 17:14-21.8
Iconography Connection 🖼️
An icon of David with his psalter can invite us to see this prayer as words entrusted to the Church. Icons of the Crucifixion and Resurrection can place the plea for help beside Christ’s Passion and victory. These are teaching connections, not prescriptions for depicting the Psalm.
Spiritual Fruit 🍇
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Pray without pretending strength. Being poor and needy before God is not self-hatred. Bring your need to the Physician, and receive the help of others when it is needed.
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Ask for a wholehearted thanksgiving. Brenton joins a rejoicing heart to reverence for God’s name, then speaks of giving thanks with the whole heart. Together these invite us to seek an undivided life, without pretending that sorrow has disappeared.
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Turn personal prayer outward. The Psalm gives room for your own trouble and for the nations God has made. Pray for people you know and for those whose names you will never learn.
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Hold fast to Christ’s Cross and Resurrection. Ask for help, comfort, and freedom from the passions. If you are threatened, seeking safety and accepting help are not failures to bear the Cross.
Teacher's Notes
- Timing: 10 minutes for the cry of the poor, 15 minutes for the confession of God’s greatness, 15 minutes for the token for good, 10 minutes for lectionary and application.
- Where to linger: Psalm 85:9 and 85:17 (LXX).
- Where to compress: the list of attributes. Focus on the movement from distress to confidence.
- Pastoral warning: do not separate the personal prayer from the missionary vision. The Psalm holds both.
- Key phrase to say slowly: “All nations whom thou hast made shall come, and shall worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name.”
Glossary
- Poor and needy: The servant who acknowledges dependence on God, without denying the goodness of God’s creation.
- Token for good: A sign of God’s help and comfort. Augustine reads it as the Resurrection; the longer form of the commentary transmitted under Theodoret names the Cross.
- All nations: The peoples God has made, called to worship the one God.
Translation and Source Notes
The embedded Scripture is Brenton’s English Septuagint, Psalm 85. The title uses the NKJV / Masoretic number first, Psalm 86, with the LXX number in parentheses. The Agpeya and dated lectionary texts cited above use their own English wording and printed labels.
Augustine is cited here as an identified Christian exegetical witness, not as a Coptic Father or as proof of unanimous interpretation. Theodoret is likewise a historical and exegetical witness. His commentary is paraphrased here from Robert C. Hill’s English translation.
Sources
Primary sources: Brenton Septuagint, Psalm 85; Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 86 (Latin 85); Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on Psalm 86, in Robert C. Hill’s translation.
Coptic Orthodox / liturgical sources: The Agpeya and the dated CopticChurch.net readings identified below.
Footnotes
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Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 86 (Latin 85), §§1-4, New Advent English. ↩
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Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on the Psalms: Psalms 73-150, trans. Robert C. Hill, Fathers of the Church 102 (Catholic University of America Press, 2001), Psalm 86, §2, pp. 72-73. ↩
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Theodoret, Commentary on Psalm 86, §§5-6, pp. 73-74. ↩
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Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 86 (Latin 85), §§12, 14-15, New Advent English. ↩
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Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 86 (Latin 85), §§22-23, New Advent English. ↩
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Theodoret, Commentary on Psalm 86, §10, pp. 75-76. Hill’s note 8 identifies the final reference to the Cross as belonging to the longer form. ↩
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The Agpeya, Sixth Hour, Veil Prayer, and Midnight Prayer, First Watch. The Psalm appears on PDF pp. 93-94, 196-197, and 234-236, respectively; the Veil’s monastic designation appears on PDF p. 180. ↩ ↩2 ↩3
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CopticChurch.net, 8 May 2020, Friday of the third week of the Holy Fifty Days, Liturgy, and 4 December 2022, fourth Sunday of Hator, Vespers. ↩