“You Alone Are God” Psalm 86

Turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm 86. Psalm 86. The title of this sermon is taken from the text, and that is that you are God alone, or you alone are God. That is found in verse 10 of this psalm, and I think it’s a fitting reminder for us. It’s really the middle of the psalm, and it’s where David really finds his hope and encouragement.

This is a prayer of David. And it’s a prayer that’s full of reminders of who God is, because that’s often where David has to go in order to find any sort of encouragement or hope in the midst of his circumstances. And that’s a very timely and timeless prayer, because that’s where any of us find any hope or encouragement in the life that we live. This prayer is also a lament. A lament is a complaint or a request to God to save me from whatever situation the author finds himself in. But I think, like many laments, this is a psalm that can teach us a lot, no matter what our circumstances are. Because it’s the theology that David finds, that he remembers, that he reminds himself of. that is what gets him through, and it’s truth about God that we need to know. It’s a prayer that can teach us a lot, whether we’re facing good times or bad, because prayer is important in our lives, no matter what situation we’re in.

Charles Spurgeon was preaching on prayer, and he once compared biblical prayers to arrows that we shoot toward heaven. And he was talking about reading the prayers in the Bible and using the prayers of the Bible in our own life and praying the prayers of scripture. And he said this about prayer and praying scripture. He said, faith is the bow and strong desire fits to the string, the arrow that is to be sent upward. No arrow may be shot toward heaven, but that which came down from heaven. Christians take their arrows from God’s quiver. And when they shoot them, they shoot them with this on their lips. Do as you have said. Remember your word to your servant, upon which you have caused me to hope. So, the successful prayer is the desire of a holy heart sanctioned by the promise. True prayers are like those carrier pigeons that find their way so well. They cannot fail to go to heaven, for it is from heaven that they came. They are only going home.

And when we pray the words of scripture, God’s word, we send back to God prayers that are going home, going back to the one who gave them to us. Faith is the bow and our prayers are arrows. When we pray, we send back to God the thoughts that he’s given us. And that’s what we find in the Psalms. Usually David is praying for help and then he reminds himself what he knows about God. That’s what we see here in Psalm 86. In this Psalm, David appeals to God for help against those who are oppressing him at this moment. Again, like most of the Psalms, this could have happened at any time in David’s life. David lived some tough times. He had a lot of opponents. But the particulars are not important. The prayer is what we find in Scripture, and that’s what is important.

And while David is in need and in calling for help, he shows confidence and faith in who God is and his compassion and his strength and in his willingness to help David, his servant. But he waits till the end for a sign that God will answer his prayer and be good to him. And in this Psalm, we see David’s confidence that God will hear him because of who he is as one of God’s own. And it’s with confidence that we too can pray David’s prayer, knowing that it will be heard and it will be answered. And it’s because of Christ that we can do such a thing, because of what Christ came to do. Because what Christ accomplished, David was hoping in that, looking forward, and we have faith and confidence in that, looking back.

The great church father, Augustine, commenting on this psalm, said these words and related the prayer of David to the accomplished work of Christ. And he said it this way, and I really appreciate how he brought this to light in his comments on the psalm. Augustine says this. No greater gift could God have given to men than in making His Word, which is Christ, 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 and 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. And it is one Savior of his body, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who both prays for us and prays in us and is prayed to by us. He prays for us as our priest. He prays in us as our head. And he is prayed to by us as our God.

All of these things, what we know of prayer and being able to pray to God and knowing that he hears us is because of the work of Christ. He is our mediator. He is our high priest. He intercedes for us. We have confidence to pray like David because of the son of David, Jesus Christ.

And we see four parts in this Psalm, in Psalm 86. We see verses one through seven, we see David’s despair. It’s the lengthiest part, and he describes the situation that he’s in. Then you get to verses eight through 10, and you see David’s declaration. After voicing his despair and the situation he’s in and his complaint, he declares what he believes. He cries out to God, telling of who God is. And what he’s really doing is reminding himself of the one he’s praying to. Then in verses 11 through 13, David makes a commitment. This is David’s dedication. Then lastly, we finally get to David’s request, and that’s what we’ll call David’s desire in verses 14 through 17. So David’s despair, David’s declaration, David’s dedication, and David’s desire. And that’s how we’ll see Psalm 86 this evening.

So let me read our text for us. Psalm 86, there’s 17 verses, and I’ll read them all this evening. This is the word of the Lord. Incline your ear, O Yahweh, and answer me, for I am afflicted and needy. Keep my soul, for I am a holy one. O you, my God, save your slave who trusts in you. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you I call all day long. Make glad the soul of your slave, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. For you, Lord, are good and by nature forgiving and abundant in loving kindness to all who call upon you. Give ear, O Yahweh, to my prayer, and give heed to the voice of my supplications. In the day of my distress, I shall call upon you, for you will answer me. There is no one like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. All nations whom you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and they shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous deeds. You alone are God. Teach me your way, O Yahweh. I will walk in your truth. Unite my heart to fear your name. I will give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with all my heart and will glorify your name forever. For your loving kindness toward me is great, and you have delivered my soul from Sheol below. Oh God, arrogant men have risen against me, and a band of ruthless men have sought my life, and they have not set you before them. But you, oh Lord, are a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness and truth. Turn to me and be gracious to me. Oh, grant your strength to your slave and save the son of your maidservant. Show me a sign for good that those who hate me may see it and be ashamed, because you, O Yahweh, have helped me and comforted me.”

This is the Psalm of David. We begin with David’s despair. David begins by crying out. He is in a tough situation, and as you would probably expect, when he begins his prayer to God, that’s the first thing on his mind. He begins in verse one, incline your ear to me, O Yahweh, and answer me, for I am afflicted and needy. David explains his condition right from the beginning. He is afflicted and needy, or in some versions you say, he is poor and needy. This is a common description in the Psalms, and it’s really the human condition. Aren’t we all poor and needy? But it’s sometimes not until we are in a desperate situation that we finally realize and remember our true state, that we are poor and needy. We sometimes think that we’re pretty good, that I’ve got this whole life thing figured out.

We’re cruising right along thinking that, well, I’m pretty well off. Things are going pretty good right now. I’m flying along the highway of life at a pretty good speed. And then smack, you take a rock right to the windshield. I use that illustration because I have to get a new windshield for our Toyota for the third time in a year. Or we had a rock come flying up from the road and smack right into the windshield again. And it still shocks me every time it happens. But isn’t that the way life is sometimes? You’re cruising right along and things are going great. We know we should expect suffering, the Bible tells us that. But when it happens, it’s hard to make sense of it. It’s hard to know what to do. And sometimes, like David, as we should, we cry out, help! I am afflicted and needy.

David continues in verse two, keep my soul, for I am a holy one. Oh you, my God, your slave who trusts in you. This is David’s leverage with God. This is his reason why God should listen to him, should hear him. He reminds God, or really reminds himself, of who he is. But he doesn’t say he deserves God’s help, or, God, you owe me one. He says, help me because I’m one of yours, and you promised. I am a holy one, as opposed to the wicked who reject God. He says, I am your slave who trusts in you. And really, it’s actually quite shocking for a king to call himself a slave. Being a slave is an insult for a king. Kings are served. They don’t serve. But David, the king, he knows that God is his master.

In fact, it’s interesting, in this Psalm, You have the name of God, Yahweh, which in many translations is translated Lord. But as you heard me, I mentioned it a few times throughout this psalm, but it’s also using the title, Lord, several times here. David is crying out to God and calling him my Lord, my master. He’s using slave language throughout this psalm. He’s saying, You are my master, I’m your slave. Don’t forget about me. And he continues in verses three and four. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you I call all day long. Make glad the soul of your slave, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. This is his initial petition. He really has a two-part request here. His first in this first seven verses is, hear me, listen to me. He asked God to give him his grace, be gracious to me. He says, make glad the soul of your slave. He calls to God all day long. God is his God. It doesn’t go to anyone else. David, in the midst of his suffering, knows where to go.

In Psalm 113, verse 7, we see that God is the one who raises the poor from the dust and he lifts the needy from the ash heap. Well, David is poor and needy. So he knows it’s God who is the one who will lift him up. No one else can. And everyone in life, no matter how high they are placed in their position, in their reputation, no matter how high you are in this life, there’s only one who can lift you up. David’s the king. In Israel, you don’t get any higher than the king, but he knows he is still below the most high, the one who will lift him up in his time of need. Verse five, he continues, for you, O Lord, are good and you’re by nature forgiving and abundant in loving kindness to all who call upon you. There’s a lot of theology in this verse. David’s hope is found in God’s nature, in who God is. David can cry out to God. He can hope in God because he’s God. And God has to be certain things in order to be God. God is by his very nature good and forgiving and abundant in loving kindness or mercy.

Think of that. He is abundant in mercy. He has more mercy than he could ever need. He’s overflowing with mercy. for those who call upon you. You see, there’s a condition there. God is abundant in mercy if you are willing to humble yourself and call upon him. He has more than enough mercy for you and for me. And that’s why David goes to him. And he continues in verse six and seven, give ear, oh Yahweh, to my prayer. He’s again just saying, hear me out, listen to me. and give heed to the voice of my supplications. In the day of my distress, I shall call upon you, for you will answer me. You hear almost a bipolar attitude in David here. He’s like, hear me, please. Can’t you hear my voice? Listen to me. In verse six, it’s almost like he doesn’t know if God’s even hearing him.

But then, verse seven, I will call upon you because you will answer me. Even though I’m crying out desperately, asking you to hear me, I know you will. I know you will hear me. In the day of my distress, I shall call upon you and you will answer me. How can David be so sure? How does he know God will answer him? Well, it’s because of what he’s already reminded himself of in verse two. I am a holy one. You are my God, and I’m your slave who trusts in you. David knows as one of God’s children, as one of his, he has God’s ear. God will hear the prayers of his holy ones, his slaves, his people. Psalm 34 tells us a lot about this.

If you could flip over to Psalm 34, Keep your finger there in Psalm 86, we’ll come right back there, but Psalm 34, verses 15 through 18, give us confidence that God always hears us. Psalm 34 is an acrostic that each verse starts with a different letter of the alphabet, but we see here in verses, and we could read the whole thing, it’s really all about the same idea, but verses 15 through 18 say this, the eyes of Yahweh are toward the righteous. and his ears are open to their cry for help. The face of Yahweh is against evildoers to cut off their memory from the earth. The righteous cry and Yahweh hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. Yahweh is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” How does David know that you will hear me? Because God said so. God is, His eyes are toward the righteous. His ears are open to their cry for help. God hears His people. God hears His people.

That’s why we see in the New Testament, in James 5, verse 16, the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Why? Because God hears it. God hears the prayers of His people, the righteous. And sometimes, like David, we need to remind ourselves of that. That we’re not just talking to ourselves when we pray. Our words aren’t bouncing off the ceiling. God hears the prayers of his people. And that’s the first section of this psalm, David’s despair. And next we have David’s declaration. David has Explained to us his situation and now he has a theology lesson for us In verse 80 says there is no one like you among the gods. Oh lord, nor are there any works like yours? God is incomparable There is no one like him. There is no one that can do anything that he can do Why would we look anywhere else for help? And the Bible is full of this incomparability language.

Exodus 15, I’ll just read a few for you. Exodus 15, 11. Who is like you among the gods, O Yahweh? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, fearsome in praises, working wonders? This is the Exodus. in Egypt, the land of all these gods that God embarrassed by the wonders that he worked. Who is like you among these gods? Nobody is. 2 Samuel chapter 7 verse 22, for this reason you are great, O Lord Yahweh, for there is none like you and there is no God besides you. According to all that we have heard with our ears. Jeremiah 10.6, there is none like you, O Yahweh. You are great, and great is your name in might. And we could go to Job, and we could go to Isaiah, and we could go all over the scriptures to read about how there is no one who even begins to compare to God. And David here says in Psalm 86, there is no one like you among the gods.

And you might be thinking, well, is David acknowledging that there’s other gods? What gods is he talking about? But David is speaking about the false gods of the pagan nations around them. All these things that they worship, there is none like you. They might call them gods, but they’re not gods. All the nations around Israel Worshipped all these deities and they mocked Israel for only having one God What kind of a nation only has one God? Look at all the gods we have and you’ve got one But David knows how those nations will end up in the verse 9 he says After mentioning all the gods that are not like God, the true God, he says, all nations, so he’s referring to those who worship all these gods, all nations whom you have made, so even though they worship other people, God still made them. All nations whom you have made come and worship before you or shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and they shall glorify your name.

One way or another, every knee will bow. Every knee will bow. This is David declaring what will happen. We see this verse fulfilled and quoted in the New Testament, the very end of the New Testament, in Revelation. In the book of Revelation, Chapter 15, as the seven angels who are executing the wrath of God and they’re worshiping God and singing to Him. Revelation 15, three and four says this, and they, that is the seven angels, sang the song of Moses, the slave of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, great and marvelous are your works, O Lord God, the Almighty. Righteous and true are your ways, King of the nations, who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name. For you alone are holy, and here the angels quote Psalm 86, for all the nations will come and worship before you. for your righteous acts have been revealed. One day all nations will worship the real God. The whole world will worship the true God.

And we know from later revelation in the New Testament who it is they will be worshiping. Because Philippians 2 tells us. Philippians 2, near the end of that passage where we read about the incarnation and what Christ did by humbling himself, becoming a man, verses 9 through 11 say, therefore God also highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow. Every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and those on earth and under the earth. That’s every knee, every knee that ever was. And every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. This is every nation worshiping the true God, Jesus Christ. So when David says in verse 10, for you are great and you do wondrous deeds, you alone are God. We know he’s talking about Christ. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Jesus Christ. He alone is God.

So earlier when David said, there is no one like you among the gods, that’s because you alone are God. There’s only one, Yahweh, the God of Israel, Jesus Christ, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. That’s who David is crying out to. And that’s David’s declaration in the midst of his suffering, He declares some of the greatest truths about who God is. He’s reminding himself of the God he’s talking to. And next we have David’s dedication. David’s dedication. Verse 11. He says, teach me your way, oh Yahweh, that I will walk in your truth, unite my heart to fear your name. So after confessing what a great God it is that he serves, all nations will worship you. They will glorify your name. Great, you are great and wondrous are your deeds. You alone are God. And because of that, teach me more. Teach me your way so that I can walk in the truth. Unite my heart to fear your name.

There’s only one logical conclusion when you realize who God is, and that’s obedience. When you know who God is, you can’t help but bow down in worship and want to obey him. This is John 14, 15, what Jesus is saying there in John 14, 15. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. There will be obedience here. If you truly love Christ, if you are one of His, if you’re a Christian, you will keep my commandments. It’s not a request. It’s not a you ought to keep my commandments. It’s the smart thing to do. It’s because you love me, you will keep my commandments. And that’s exactly what we see in David’s attitude here. Because he knows who God is, because he knows the one who should be worshipped, he says, teach me more so that I can know more of you and that I can follow your way and your truth. In verse 12, he gives thanks. Because that is the right response to a recognition of who God is.

Verse 11 is repentance. Teach me who you are. Let me know more of you. Unite my heart to fear you. That’s the result of regeneration, and that leads to thanksgiving. I will give thanks to you, verse 12. Oh Lord, my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify your name forever, for your loving kindness toward me is great, and you have delivered my soul from Sheol below. Now, you could be thinking that, well, David is predicting his deliverance from his situation here, which he does that in other Psalms. But this is salvation language. David is rejoicing in the salvation he knows that he has. You have delivered me from Sheol. My destiny is not just the grave. My destiny is not to go where the wicked go. because your loving kindness towards me is great and you have delivered me. He has salvation. He will give thanks and glorify God forever.

No matter how this situation turns out, because he hasn’t even gotten to his request yet, but he makes this dedication that I will glorify and give thanks to you forever. He still has his salvation no matter what. He still has his faith. He has confidence in who God is and what he has already done. That is believing the promises of God. And this ought to be the perspective of every believer. Now, David just doesn’t say, well, I guess I’m saved, so everything’s okay. Everything’s fine now. I guess I just didn’t understand. Now I’m happy in this situation. No, he’s still suffering. He’s still asking God to deliver him, but in the midst of his trial, in the midst of his suffering, he’s got joy because he’s got salvation. Because we have salvation, it doesn’t mean that life will be easy. It doesn’t mean we won’t have trouble. It doesn’t mean we won’t have real things in life that are awful. It doesn’t mean we can’t ask God to deliver us from them. David’s about to do that. But through it all, we have confidence. We have joy in the midst of our suffering. Why? Because we already have salvation.

And that’s David’s dedication here in the middle of this psalm. Lastly, number four, we have David’s desire. And despite all of the confidence and hope and joy that David has because of his salvation, he still wants to be delivered. And David’s desire is for this deliverance from his immediate circumstances. Verse 14, he says, oh God, arrogant men have risen up against me. and a band of ruthless men have sought my life, and they have not set you before them.” David’s threat is from unbelievers. It’s from arrogant and ruthless men who have sought to kill him, sought to take his life, and they do not follow God. They have not sent you before them. If they had, they would not be after God’s king. But the wicked are a reality in life.

There are wicked people. Satan is the God of this world, and he does everything in his power to overturn God’s good design and God’s will. That is why we see the world trying to go against everything God has designed. The world is confused. They’re confused about what is right and what is wrong. They’re confused about what a life is. Confused about what marriage is. Confused about what a boy or a girl is. Why are they so confused? Why is the world so confused about these things that God has designed? Because they do not set God before them. That’s another way to say they don’t follow God. They follow the God of this world. They don’t follow God. And don’t misunderstand, everyone who pushes these godless ideas are being influenced by the God of this world, by Satan. These ideas, like I just mentioned, everything that goes to flip God’s design on its head, those are satanic ideas. And it’s perfectly good and right to pray for deliverance from those things.

It’s good to pray for deliverance from the wicked people in our world. That’s exactly what David is doing. And sometimes we think that when we pray for unbelievers, we pray about unbelievers, the only thing we’re allowed to pray for is their salvation. And we should pray for their salvation. But we can pray to be delivered from them too. Delivered from the wicked. We can pray, yes, God, please bring our president, Joe Biden, to salvation. And we can also pray, please deliver us from Joe Biden. And I can say that because he’s the current president. But it can be said about a lot of leaders. Wicked people that seek to turn God’s design upside down. God, deliver us from this madness. Cast down all the wicked leaders so that your people can prosper. And how does God, or how does David know that these men are not following God? Because the very next verse he contrasts God with them.

So first he says, in verse 14, They’re ruthless men, they sought my life. Earlier he said they’re arrogant men, and they have not set you before them. Verse 15, but you, oh Lord. But there’s a contrast. They are like that, but you, oh Lord, are a God compassionate and gracious and slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness and truth. God, that is what you are like. So if they had set you before them, that’s what they would be like. If they were truly following God, they would do the things that God does. They would be like him. But they’re not. These ruthless men are everything that you are not. They are nothing like you. In these last two verses, we find, finally, David’s request, David’s plea to God, David’s desire. Verse 16, he says, turn to me and be gracious to me. O grant your strength to your slave, and save the son of your maidservant. Show me a sign for good, that those who hate me may see it and be ashamed. Because you, O Yahweh, have helped me and have comforted me, that they may be ashamed.” That’s David’s request.

Let these wicked people be ashamed. There’s not a lot of shame left in this world, and we could use a lot more shame in our society. People ought to see the righteous and be ashamed of their own wickedness. Because wickedness is shameful. Shame is a good thing. But, like these men in this psalm, the wicked of our day are no different. There is no shame for their wickedness. The only thing that can shame wickedness is godliness. And David asks for God’s grace. Something he doesn’t deserve. He asked for deliverance from his enemies. He asked for God to show him a sign for his good. We don’t know specifically what that is, but it’s something that’s going to bring shame upon these wicked men. Show me a sign for my good that those who hate me may see it and be ashamed. This is probably something along the lines of, God, give me a little prosperity here so that they can see that you care about your people, that they will be ashamed of what they are.

We ought to pray for God’s clear and public deliverance from our enemies, so that not only will they know we’ve been delivered, but they know that they’re in the wrong. that they’re on the wrong side here, so that many would be brought to shame for their own sin. And we should pray that the shame that they feel would cause them to repent, to turn from that wickedness that’s causing this shame, and turn to Christ. That is the story of anyone who has come to Christ. Shame was a part of it. you must feel ashamed of your sin.

If you’re here tonight and you’ve not yet turned to Christ, you ought to feel ashamed of the sin in your life. We’ve offended a holy God with our sin against him. And there is no greater reason for shame in this world than the fact that we offended the holy of holies. But the good news is that there is forgiveness in Christ. That he can take your shame and get rid of it. No matter how much shame you feel over your sin, Christ can take it from you. If you turn to him for salvation and repent of that sin, you can stand confidently before God. You can stand before God, given all that you’ve done that you feel ashamed for, you can stand before Him and feel no shame because you are hidden in Christ. His death on the cross will remove the guilt from your sin and He will give you His own righteousness. So that when one day you stand before God and the Father looks at you He sees the righteousness of his son.

So come to Christ today. And if you’re in Christ already, we can pray the words of David because of what Christ has done in us. We can pray that we are his holy ones. I am your slave. You are my Lord. So hear my prayer. And like David, we can know that he hears us when we pray because God hears the prayers of his people. And like we were reminded earlier, Christ prays for us as our priest. He prays in us as the head of the church. And he is prayed to by us because he’s God. We can pray to him to deliver us from our suffering. And we can pray that God would shame the wicked. That he would deliver us from them. And that he would show us more of himself and his grace and his mercy. All the things that David prayed for. We can pray those same words. And that is what we as his people can do. because of who Christ is.

Let’s stand and close this service in a word of prayer. Our Father in heaven, you are God alone. And we come to you because we are your holy ones and we know that you do hear our prayers. You are our Lord and we are your slaves. Lord, we pray for deliverance from the wicked people of this world who are influenced by the God of this world. We pray that you will put down all the intents and ideas that seek to turn your good and right ways upside down. We thank you, Lord, for who you are, and we thank you for the confidence we have that all nations will worship you, that every knee will bow. We thank you for revealing yourself to us in your word. We pray that that would shape and mold us more into the image of Christ, that when we go from here, we can bring Christ to the lost around us. We thank you, Lord, for who you are. We pray all of these things in the precious name of Christ. Amen.