to turn · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
mercy
וְחָ֫נֵּ֥נִיve.cho.Ne.ni
H2603
properly · conjunction + verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix
give
תְּנָֽהte.nah-
H5414
to give · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular + paragogic he
strength
עֻזְּךָ֥'u.ze.Kha
H5797
strength in various applications (force · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
servant
לְעַבְדֶּ֑ךָle.'av.De.kha
H5650
a servant · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
save
וְ֝הוֹשִׁ֗יעָהve.ho.Shi.'ah
H3467
properly · conjunction + verb, hiphil imperative, 2nd person masculine singular + paragogic he
son
לְבֶןle.ven-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
handmaid
אֲמָתֶֽךָ'a.ma.Te.kha
H519
a maidservant or female slave · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Ephesians 6:10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Isaiah 40:29-31 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
Psalms 25:16 Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted.
Psalms 116:16 O LORD, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds.
Psalms 138:3 In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.
Ephesians 3:16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
Colossians 1:11 Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 86:8–end
David is here going on in his prayer.
I. He gives glory to God; for we ought in our prayers to praise him, ascribing kingdom, power, and glory, to him, with the most humble and reverent adorations. 1. As a being of unparalleled perfection, such a one that there is none like him nor any to be compared with him, Psa 86:8. Among the gods, the false gods, whom the heathens worshipped, the angels, the kings of the earth, among them all, there is none like unto thee, O Lord! none so wise, so mighty, so good; neither are there any works like unto thy works, which is an undeniable proof that there is none like him; his own works praise him, and the best way we have of praising him is by acknowledgin…
O turn unto me, and have mercy upon me,.... For it seems the Lord had turned away from him, and had hid his face, and withheld the manifestation of his grace and mercy from him, and had not yielded him the help and assistance he expected; and therefore entreats that he would turn again to him, and show him his face and favour, and be merciful to him:
give thy strength unto thy servant; spiritual strength, strength in his soul, to exercise grace, perform duty, bear the cross, and stand up against all enemies, and hold out to the end: this is God's gift; and the psalmist pleads his relation to him as his servant, not merely by creation, but by grace; this is interpreted by the Jews of the Kin…
Psalm 86:12-17
12. I will praise thee, O Lord my God! With all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for ever. 13. For thy mercy has been great towards me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lower grave. [488] 14. O God! the proud have risen up against me, and a company of mighty men have sought after my soul; and they have not set thee before them. 15. And thou, O Lord! art God, merciful, ready to forgive, long-suffering, and abundant in mercy and truth. 16. Look to me, and have pity upon me: give thy strength to thy servant, and save the son of thy handmaid. 17. Make with me a sign for good: and my adversaries will see it [489] and be ashamed; for thou, O Jehovah! hast succoured and…
The Church Fathers
If therefore You are "true," "Look upon me, and have mercy upon me: give power unto Your servant." Because You are "true," "give power unto Your servant" [Psalm 86:16]. Let the time of patience pass away, the time of judgment come. How, "give power"? The Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son. [John 5:22] He rising again will come even to earth Himself to judge: He will appear terrible who appeared despicable. He will show His power, who showed His patience; on the Cross was patience; in the judgment will be power. For He will appear as Man judging, but in glory: because "as you saw Him go," said the Angels, "so He will come." [Acts 1:11] His very form shall come to judgment; therefore the ungodly also shall see Him: for they shall not see the form of God. For blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. [Matthew 5:8] ...In the vision of the Father there is also the vision of the Son: and in the vision of the Son there is also the vision of the Father. Therefore He adds a consequence, and says: "Do you not know that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?" [John 14:10] that is, both in Me seen the Father is seen, and in the Father seen the Son too is seen. The vision of the Father and the Son cannot be separated: where nature and substance is not separated, there vision cannot be separated. For that you may know that the heart ought to be made ready for that place, to see the Divinity of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, in which though not seen we believe, and by believing cleanse the heart that there may be able to be sight: the Lord Himself says in another place, "He that has My commands and keeps them, he it is that loves Me: and he that loves Me shall be loved by My Father: and I will love him, and will manifest Myself unto him." [John 14:21] Did they not see Him, with whom He was talking? They both saw Him, and did not see Him? They saw something, they believed something: they saw Man, they believed in God. But in the Judgment they shall see the same Lord Jesus Christ as Man, together with the wicked: after the Judgment, they shall see God, apart from the wicked.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Mercy — Compassion for the miserable. Its object is misery. By the atoning sacrifice of Christ a way is open for the exercise of mercy towards the sons of men, in harmony with the demands of truth and…
Desire · SPIRITUAL — SPIRITUAL
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The situation is like that in the Psalms of the time of Saul. The writer is a persecuted one, and in constant peril of his life. He has taken Psa 86:14 out of the Elohimic Psa 54:5, and retained the Elohim as a proper name of God (cf. on the other hand Psa 86:8, Psa 86:10); he has, however, altered זרים to זרים, which here, as in Isa 13:11 (cf. however, ibid. Psa 25:5), is the alternating word to עריצים. In Psa 86:15 he supports his petition that follows by Jahve's testimony concerning Himself in Exo 34:6. The appellation given to himself by the poet in Psa 86:16 recurs in Psa 116:16 (cf. Wisd. 9:5). The poet calls himself "the son of Thy handmaid" as having been born into the relation to Hi…
God has mercy on his people (51:1); he is gracious (25:6), slow to get angry (103:8; 145:8), and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness (Hebrew khesed and ’emeth; 143:1). This verse repeats a theme first expressed in Exod 34:7; Num 14:18 (cp. Pss 103:8; 145:8; Neh 9:17; Joel 2:13; Jon 4:2).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 86:16
O turn unto me, and have mercy upon me; give thy strength unto thy servant, and save the son of thine handmaid.
O turn unto me. As though the face of God had been before averted in anger, the suppliant pleads for a return of conscious favour. One turn of God's face will turn all our darkness into day. And have mercy upon me, that is all he asks, for he is lowly in heart; that is all he wants, for mercy answereth all a sinner's needs. Give thy strength unto thy servant. Gird me with it that I may serve thee, guard me with it that I may not be overcome. When the Lord gives us his own strength we are sufficient for all emergencies, and have no cause to fear any adversaries. And save the son of…
