Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 86:2
Preserve my soul; for I [am] holy: O thou my God, save thy servant that trusteth in thee.
2. Preserve my soul ] = Psa 25:20.
for I am holy ] R.V. godly fails to bring out the connexion of the word with chesed, ‘lovingkindness’ ( Psa 86:5 ; Psa 86:13 ; Psa 86:15). Cheyne gives duteous in love. But the passive sense beloved, ‘the object of thy loving-kindness,’ is far more suitable. He pleads not his own merits, but the covenant relation into which God has brought him as an Israelite. See on Psa 50:5; Psa 85:8.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Preserve my soul – Preserve, or keep, my life; for so the word rendered soul means in this place, as it does commonly in the Scriptures.
For I am holy – Margin, One whom thou favorest. The Hebrew word – chasyd – means properly, benevolent, kind; then, good, merciful, gracious; and then pious, godly. Psa 30:4; Psa 31:23; Psa 37:28. The ground of the plea here is, that he was a friend of God; and that it was proper on that account to look to him for protection. He does not say that he was holy in such a sense that he had a claim on that account to the favor of God, or that his personal holiness was a ground of salvation; but the idea is, that he had devoted himself to God, and that it was, therefore, proper to look to him for his protection in the time of danger. A child looks to a parent for protection, because he is a child; a citizen looks to the protection of the laws, because he is a citizen; and so the people of God may look to him for protection, because they are his people. In all this there is no plea of merit, but there is the recognition of what is proper in the case, and what may he expected and hoped for.
Save thy servant – Save him from threatening danger and from death.
That trusteth in thee – Because I trust or confide in thee. I go nowhere else for protection; I rely on no one else. I look to thee alone, and I do this with entire confidence. A man who does this has a right to look to God for protection, and to expect that God will interpose in his behalf.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 2. Preserve my soul] Keep it as in a strong place.
For I am holy] ki chasid ani, for I am merciful. The spirit of this prayer is,
“The mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me!”
Save thy servant] I have long taken thee as my Master and Lord; I receive the word from thy mouth, and obey thee.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I am holy; sanctified in some measure by thy grace, and sincerely devoted to thy service. This David speaks, not in a way of vain ostentation, but partly as a powerful argument to move God to hear his prayers, because he was one of that sort of men to whom God had engaged himself by his promise and covenant; and partly by way of just and necessary vindication of himself from the censures of his enemies, who represented him to the world as a gross dissembler, and secretly a very wicked man; concerning which he here makes a solemn appeal to God, desiring audience and help from God upon no other terms than upon this supposition, that he was a holy man; which, by the way, savoureth of no more arrogancy than when he elsewhere professeth his great love to and longing after God, his sincere obedience to all Gods commands, and his hatred of every false way, and the like.
My God, by thy covenant and my own choice.
That trusteth in thee; whereby thou seemest obliged in honour and by promise to help me.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Preserve my soul,…. Or life, which Saul sought after; and this prayer was heard: David was often remarkably preserved by the Lord from his attempts upon him; and so was the soul or life of Christ preserved in his infancy from Herod’s malice; in the wilderness from wild beasts, and from perishing with hunger; and often from the designs of the Jews, to take away his life before his time; and he was supported in death, preserved from corruption in the grave, and raised from thence: instances there are of his praying for the preservation of his life, with submission to the will of God, in which he was heard,
Mt 26:39. The Lord is not only the preserver of the lives of men in a temporal sense, but he is the preserver of the souls of his people, their more noble part, whose redemption is precious; he keeps them from the evil of sin, and preserves them safe to his kingdom and glory; yea, their whole soul, body, and spirit, are preserved by him blameless, unto the coming of Christ:
for I am holy; quite innocent, as to the crime that was laid to his charge by Saul and his courtiers; or was kind, beneficent, and merciful, to others, and to such God shows himself merciful, they obtain mercy: or was favoured of God, to whom he had been bountiful, on whom he had bestowed many mercies and blessings; and therefore desires and hopes that, to the rest of favours, this of preservation might be added; or, as he was a sanctified person, and God had begun his work of grace in him, he therefore entreats the Lord would preserve him, and perfect his own work in him: some, as Aben Ezra observes, would have the sense to be,
“keep my soul until I am holy:”
so Arama interprets it,
“keep me unto the world to come, where all are holy:”
the character of an Holy One eminently and perfectly agrees with Christ, as well as the petition; see Ps 16:1.
O thou, my God, save thy servant that trusteth in thee; both temporally and spiritually: the arguments are taken from covenant interest in God, which is a strong one; from relation to him as a servant, not by nature only, but by grace; and from his trust and confidence in him; all which, as well as the petition, agree with Christ; see
Ps 22:1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
2. Preserve my soul, for I am meek. Here the Psalmist adduces two other arguments by which to stir up God to grant him succor, — his own gentleness towards his neighbors, and the trust which he reposed in God. In the first clause he may seem at first sight to make some pretensions to personal worth; yet he plainly shows that nothing was farther from his intention than to insinuate that by any merits of his own he had brought God under obligations to preserve him. But the particular mention made of his clemency or meekness tends to exhibit in a more odious light the wickedness of his enemies, who had treated so shamefully, and with such inhumanity, a man against whom they could bring no well-founded charge, and who had even endeavored to the utmost of his power to please them. (481) Since God then has avowed himself to be the defender both of good causes and of those who follow after righteousness, David, not without good reason, testifies that he had endeavored to exercise kindness and gentleness; that from this it may appear that he was basely requited by his enemies, when they gratuitously acted with cruelty towards a merciful man. But as it would not be enough for our lives to be characterised by kindness and righteousness, an additional qualification is subjoined — that of trust or confidence in God, which is the mother of all true religion. Some, we are aware, have been endued with so high a degree of integrity, as to have obtained among men the praise of being perfectly just, even as Aristides gloried in having never given any man cause of sorrow. But as those men, with all the excellence of their virtues, were either filled with ambition, or inflated with pride, which made them trust more to themselves than to God, it is not surprising to find them suffering the punishment of their vanity. In reading profane history, we are disposed to marvel how it came to pass that God abandoned the honest, the grave, and the temperate, to the enraged passions of a wicked multitude; but there is no reason for wondering at this when we reflect that such persons, relying on their own strength and virtue, despised the grace of God with all the superciliousness of impiety. Making an idol of their own virtue they disdained to lift up their eyes to Him. Although, therefore, we may have the testimony of an approving conscience, and although He may be the best witness of our innocence, yet if we are desirous of obtaining his assistance, it is necessary for us to commit our hopes and anxieties to him. If it is objected, that in this way the gate is shut against sinners, I answer, that when God invites to himself those who are blameless and upright in their deportment, this does not imply that he forthwith repels all who are punished on account of their sins; for they have an opportunity given them, if they will improve it, for prayer and the acknowledgement of their guilt. (482), But if those whom we have never offended unrighteously assail us, we have ground for double confidence before God.
(481) Here, and in all the verses in this psalm where אדני, Adonai, occurs, many MSS. read יהוה, Yehovah We have before observed, (volume 1, page 13, note 2, and page 195, note,) that the Jews, out of reverence to the incommunicable name Jehovah, pronounce אדני where יהוה is in the text. It is, therefore, not improbable that יהוה is the true reading in all these places.
(482) “ Veu que luy qui estoit homme innocent, voire qui s’estoit efforce de tout son pouvoir a leur faire plaisir.” — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(2) For I am holy.Rather, in order to reproduce the feeling, for I am one of the chosen ones; one of Thy saints, &c. He pleads the covenant relation as a claim to the blessing. (See, on chasid, Note, Psa. 1:5.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. Preserve David’s prayer for protection points to his danger. (Psa 86:14; Psa 86:17.)
For I am holy Dedicated to God, a God-worshipper. But the word is as often used in the sense of merciful. “Keep my soul, for I am merciful;” as in Psa 97:10, “He preserveth the souls of his saints” better, of his merciful ones. This suits the connexion and scope. The issue between David and his enemies was, not that he was irreligious, but that he had been unjust to man by superseding the house of Saul in the dynasty, and the tribe of Ephraim in the supremacy, to which slander had added many other false accusations. See 2Sa 15:2-6. The word in question is often used to cover the great principle of the second table of the decalogue “Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself.” David pleads that he had been merciful to men as a reason for now obtaining mercy of God. See Mat 5:7; Jas 2:13, and notes on Psa 4:3; Psa 12:1. , ( kee,) “for,” because, in the text, as a causal particle, does not assign as a reason for acceptance good works as a ground of merit, as the papists hold, but as a proof of moral fitness, the promise being to such. He appeals to his works as evidence of the purity and sincerity of his intentions and heart.
Trusteth in thee Another reason of fitness.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 86:2. For I am holy For I am thy favoured one. Mudge. For I am merciful. Green; which seems a very proper translation; and is as if the Psalmist had said, “Shew that mercy to me which I am so ready and willing to shew to others.” It appears, however, from Psa 16:10 that the same word is peculiarly appropriated to Christ, the Holy one of God: in which sense it may well be understood, according to what we have observed on the title.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 86:2 Preserve my soul; for I [am] holy: O thou my God, save thy servant that trusteth in thee.
Ver. 2. Preserve my soul, for I am holy ] Or, a favourite, a saint, merciful, such a one as upon whose heart the tender mercies of the Almighty, shed forth abundantly, do leave a compassionate frame. David had the Divine nature transfused into him; he was holy as God is holy; and merciful as God is merciful (in quality though not in equality), but all of free grace; and this he pleadeth for his own safety.
Save thy servant
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
soul. Hebrew. nephesh. App-13.
holy = one whom Thou favourest.
God. Hebrew. Elohim. App-4.
trusteth = confideth. Hebrew. batah, App-69.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
trusteth
(See Scofield “Psa 2:12”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Preserve: Psa 4:3, Psa 37:28, Psa 119:94, 1Sa 2:9, Joh 10:27-29, Joh 17:11, 1Pe 5:3-5
holy: or, one whom thou favourest, Psa 18:19, Deu 7:7, Deu 7:8, Rom 9:18, Rom 9:23, Rom 9:24
save: Psa 119:124, Psa 119:125, Psa 143:12, Joh 12:26
trusteth: Psa 13:5, Psa 16:1, Psa 31:1, Isa 26:3, Isa 26:4, Rom 15:12, Rom 15:13, Eph 1:12, Eph 1:13
Reciprocal: Rom 6:22 – become
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 86:2. Preserve my soul, for I am holy Sanctified in some measure by thy grace, and sincerely devoted to thy service. Hebrew, , ani chasid, I am good, merciful, or pious. Show that mercy to me which I am willing and ready to show to others. This David mentions, not in a way of vain ostentation, but as an argument to move God to answer his prayers, because he was one of that sort of men whose prayers God had engaged himself, by his promise and covenant, to hear; and partly by way of just and necessary vindication of himself from the censures of his enemies, who represented him to the world as a dissembler, and secretly a very wicked man; concerning which he here makes a solemn appeal to God, desiring audience and help from him upon no other condition than that he was truly upright and righteous before him. Which, by the way, manifests no more arrogance than when he elsewhere professes his great love to, and longing after, God; his sincere obedience to all Gods commands, and his hatred of every false way, and the like.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
86:2 Preserve my soul; for I [am] {b} holy: O thou my God, save thy servant that trusteth in thee.
(b) I am not an enemy to them, but I pity them even though they are cruel to me.