Lord, I Need Some Help

For the most part this summer we have preached from the Book of Psalms and we have been reminded that there are different kinds of psalms: songs of praise or prayers of thanksgiving are common types. The most common psalms are laments: cries for help by either an individual or the community of faith. There are also wisdom psalms, liturgical psalms, and royal psalms.

Today we are going to reflect on Psalm 86. Most scholars agree that Psalm 86 is the lament of an individual, but not just any individual.[1] For this psalm is the lament of a king. In fact, you’ll notice that the superscription on this psalm says “a prayer of David.” Now we know that not everything in the psalter with David’s name on it was written by him. But King David was ancient Israel’s great patron of music and poetry. So many of the psalms are connected by name to him whether or not he actually wrote or helped write them.

The royal character of this psalm is obvious in a couple ways. First, it implies that if God will deliver the psalmist, all the nations will worship God. Such large-scale effects would not be likely if God saved only a private citizen but they are at least conceivable if God were to deliver a king. Second, the troubles and dangers besetting the psalmist seem to be those of a public person.[2] So we have in this psalm the heart-cry of an individual, a king — a believer — who needs help from God. Let’s read it in Psalm 86.

For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,
abounding in steadfast love to all who call on you.

There is none like you among the gods, O Lord,
nor are there any works like yours.

All the nations you have made shall come
and bow down before you, O Lord,
and shall glorify your name.

Teach me your way, O Lord,
that I may walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart to revere your name.

I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,
and I will glorify your name forever.

For great is your steadfast love toward me;
you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

O God, the insolent rise up against me;
a band of ruffians seeks my life,
and they do not set you before them.

But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

Turn to me and be gracious to me;
give your strength to your servant;
save the child of your serving girl.

Show me a sign of your favor,
so that those who hate me may see it and be put to shame,
because you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me.

At first hearing Psalm 86 can sound like a very selfish prayer. In verse after verse, the psalmist says to God, “help me!” At least ten times the psalmist makes incessant, strong demands upon God.

• Save the child of your serving girl (that is, child of his mother who served God, namely the psalmist!).

This guy, whether King David or some other royal person, certainly wasn’t bashful. Nor was he afraid of being forthright with God. Admittedly the residue of centuries of Christian piety dilutes for us this distinctly Hebrew way of living before God and I think we are the poorer for it. But the psalmist wants everyone and especially God to know that he needs help and he needs it in a big way.

I think this is refreshingly honest. We often find it hard to admit any need, let alone that we need God. The American creed, the North American atmosphere, is self-sufficiency. As a popular song expressed it a generation ago, “I’m all I need.”[3] Well, the psalmist will have none of that. He is needy and the need is large, urgent, important.

But is it selfish? I said a moment ago that at first hearing Psalm 86, like many laments, can sound selfish. Is it?

Answering this question may help us observe something quite important in this psalm. While the verses are filed with personal concern and need, they are also filled with God. In the psalm’s 17 verses there are at least 20 references to God using, in the original Hebrew, nine different words for God.[4] In other words, Psalm 86 expresses great need but it does so by witnessing to great faith in God.

Now we don’t know the nature of the crisis faced by the psalmist. It appears to have been a public problem but we don’t know much more than that. That’s one of the characteristics of the psalms. They were often written in very specific circumstances but, for the most part, we cannot recover many historical details. Yet this is actually an advantage for us because it lets the psalms speak to our hearts in all kinds of situations whether or not they actually correspond to the original circumstances. And so the psalmist witnesses to faith in God, saying that our real need is always for God, no matter the particular situation.

The psalmist cries out to God, “Lord, I need some help.” He tells God all the reasons God should help him. Many times he demands that God listen and answer. But what is the psalmist really asking God to do? We could answer that if we could find the one key verse in this psalm and that turns out to be quite easy. For one of the characteristics of Hebrew poetry is that it tends to put the most important thought in the middle. We write and speak differently. We put the important thought first and then reflect on the implications. Or we state the arguments and build up to the important thought at the end. Hebrew poetry puts emphasis on the middle.

In fact, many Hebrew poems contain an interesting parallelism. The first verse or thought parallels that last verse or thought. The second verse parallels the next to the last. The third verse parallels the next to the next to the last and so forth. So you can work your way into the middle of a Hebrew poem and discover the central thought.[5] So where does that take us in Psalm 86? It takes us to verse 11:

Teach me your way, O Lord,
that I may walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart to revere your name.

That’s why the psalmist is really crying out to God. He wants to learn God’s way. He wants to walk in God’s truth. He wants an undivided heart so he can honor the name of God. That’s the real cry of this psalm: an undivided heart that honors God’s name.

Oh, do we need that. I know it’s the cry of my heart. I think it may be the cry of your heart too. We live and breath in the atmosphere of a consumerist and consuming society. So many things pull at us demanding our money, our energy, and our time. Our hearts are divided. We run after everything and are satisfied by nothing because the real longing of our hearts is for God.

What does it mean to revere or honor God’s name? It’s an important question because there’s power in a name. Remember that interesting verse in the creation story? “So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.” (Genesis 2.19) The human creature named all the other creatures because that acknowledges human control over the rest of created world. In the ancient world, if you knew the name, then you had control and power. There’s power in a name.

We don’t think of names quite that way but we still have power words and names. If you find my bank card, you can’t do much damage. But if you find my bank card and know my password — if you know the right name — then you have power. (Though based on the balance of my checking account, not much power.) If you know my computer password, you have the power to connect to the Internet in my name, send messages in my name, research a lot of things about me, even order stuff in my name. Doctors ask who referred us to them. Sometimes knowing the right name can get you a dinner reservation at a fancy restaurant or permission to enter a private club or party. And we’re all asked our “mother’s maiden name” as a handy, reasonably reliable way to prove that we’re who we say we are. So names still have power for us.

We sell stuff with names. Much research goes in to finding just the right name for a new product. Then we use celebrity names to sell. I find it strangely amazing, for example, that Hanes still uses Michael Jordan to pitch its underwear. It has been nearly 8 years since Jordan retired from playing basketball the first time and nearly 4 years since he retired that last time. Of course, now the ads have Kevin Bacon in them too. I don’t know why anyone would buy underwear because of Michael Jordan or Kevin Bacon. But celebrity names sell.

“New” or “improved” are two names that always sell more of something. Sometimes a product is “new AND improved” at the same time! Those names have a power that gets people to buy.

Sometimes we feel better when a doctor calls our bellyaches gastritis, which is just the Greek word for bellyache. It sounds more important and official when someone a little crazy is said to have schizophrenia which is just Greek for someone a little crazy.[6] Ministers play that game too. Preachers talk about words in the original Greek or Hebrew. I’ve already done that today. Knowing the right name makes us feel more important and gives us a kind of power.

But the psalmist isn’t praying for power. He’s praying to honor God’s name which is to know God’s way and walk in God’s truth. I’m reminded of when Jesus said, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” (Matthew 18.20) To honor God’s name is to bear God’s name and to be in God’s presence.

What does it mean to be called by God’s name in Christ, to live, as it were, in the name of God? You can go many places — work places, factories, bars, locker rooms, clubs, backyard barbecues, school yards, beauty and barber shops, health clubs, beaches, parks, malls — and listen as two or three men or women or kids gather together. Listen to their conversation and you’ll hear “Jesus,” “Christ,” and “God” more frequently than you’ll hear them in a whole hour of worship in this sanctuary. You will hear many pleadings “for Christ’s sake” and many “I swear to Gods” just before the most enormous and solemn lies are told. Are those gatherings of two and three which so frequently use Jesus’ name, gathered in the name of Christ? Are they revering God’s name and walking in God’s truth?

Obviously not. But let’s not just moralize here and wag our fingers at others. You see, revering the name of God means more than just the words we say or don’t say. Honoring and living under God’s name points to how we live. We are called by Christ’s name. So what do our lives say about the name of Jesus? Maybe our words are never words of cursing. But do we laugh at crude, racial jokes and stereotypes? Then we are abusing the name in which we live. Perhaps our words are always pure. But do integrity and honesty always mark our business dealings and the work we do? If not, we are dishonoring the name in which we live. Perhaps we speak kindly of all people. But do we enjoy petty gossip and take every opportunity to vent our petty jealousies? Then our lives are not walking in God’s way or truth.

Do you need God? Do you need God to help you? Of course, you do, just as I do. Then let the cry of your heart be the psalmist’s cry:

Teach me your way, O Lord,
that I may walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart to revere your name.

May it be so in us, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

[1] Mitchell Dahood, Psalms II: 51-100, The Anchor Bible (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1968) 292.

[2] Dahood, 292.

[3] It was from a stage play or movie and recorded by Anthony Newley, I believe.

[4] Dahood, 296.

[5] See J. Clinton McCann, Jr., “The Book of Psalms” The New Interpreter’s Bible, vol. IV (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996) 1020.

[6] Joy Davidman, Smoke on the Mountain: An Interpretation of the Ten Commandments (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1954) 42.