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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
86:8-13 Praise to the Faithful and Majestic God. In the second section, the singer offers up praise to the magnificent God he has petitioned for help and forgiveness. The praise comes in two parts; first, he praises the Lord, who alone is God (vv. 8-10); second, he praises the Lord who has shown his covenant kindness (steadfast love, v. 13). In between is a prayer for his own moral growth (v. 11).
86:8-10 These verses move from there is none like you who is worthy of worship among the gods (i.e., the angels and other heavenly beings), to you alone are God. This is why all the nations you have made shall come and worship before you: all human beings (Gen. 12:3) were made to know and love the one true God. God called Abraham so that his family would be the vehicle of bringing this knowledge to the rest of mankind; the OT looks forward to an era in which this will actually happen, and the NT authors claim that this era has begun with the resurrection of Jesus. The words of Ps. 86:9 are incorporated into a song in Rev. 15:4.
86:11 Teach me your way. Cf. 25:8, 12; 27:11; 32:8 (and note on 25:4-5). The Bible regularly pictures the moral course of one's life as a "way" or path, and one's conduct as a "walk" or journey. A faithful person seeks instruction in the ways that please God in order to learn how better to walk in God's truth. Unite my heart, i.e., make it "one" (cf. Jer. 32:39), undivided in its loyalty (so that all of it can give thanks, Ps. 86:12).
