Psalm Chapter 86 - A Prayer of David

Psalm 86: The Undivided Heart

David asks for many things in this prayer — mercy, preservation, joy, a listening ear — but buried in the middle is the request that gives the whole psalm its center of gravity: "Unite my heart to fear thy name." It is a staggeringly honest admission. The heart, David knows, is not a single thing but a committee, a parliament of competing desires that pulls in six directions at once. We want God and we want everything else, and the wanting tears us apart. What David asks for is not more willpower but integration — that all the scattered pieces of his affection might be gathered into one. And the confidence behind the prayer is not David's own consistency but God's character: "thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, long suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth." David stacks up adjectives the way a man might pile stones to build an altar, each one a reason to keep praying. The psalm ends not with victory but with something better — a request to be shown "a token for good," some small sign that God is still at work. Sometimes faith does not need a miracle. It needs a hint.

00:00 A Cry from the Poor and Needy
01:00 Among the Gods None Like Thee
02:00 Unite My Heart