PSALM 86

In my earlier post titled “Psalms: Introduction to the Literary Structure,” I demonstrated that the central psalm of the arrangement of five central psalms found in the five books of Psalms is Ps. 86. This psalm is also found at the exact center of the 171 psalms in the Psalter (counting Ps. 119 as 22 separate psalms). At first glance this poem seems to be a very poor choice to be given such a position of honor. It has been dismissed as “something of a mosaic of quotations and reminiscences of other psalms.” (M'Caw and Motyer) A. A. Anderson says of Psalm 86, “The author of this Psalm draws heavily upon the liturgical language of his times, and this accounts for most of the parallels with other Psalms and elsewhere.” Childs cites this psalm as a prime example of those that “are actually only compilations of other psalms” in which “almost every line has picked up a phrase from another portion of scripture and fashioned it into a poem.” In fact, there are at least fifty quotations from other psalms in this short poem of 17 verses. By contrast, Tanner defends the psalm by noting, “Later scholars do not consider originality as the only mark of a good Hebrew poem.”

Psalm 86 thus incorporates features drawn from the entire Psalter to form an anthology of psalms or, in other words, the model psalm It also embodies the book of Psalms in two other significant ways. In the first place, many individual psalms begin in lament and end in praise. This same movement has been detected in the Psalter as a whole with Lament Psalms predominating in the first half of the book and Praise Psalms in the last. (P.D. Miller) Appropriately, Psalm 86 is usually characterized as a “mixed type” which (almost uniquely) begins and ends with petitions while having a center of thanksgiving and praise.

Secondly, this key psalm has been analyzed into the following subsections: vv. 1-4, 5-7, 8-10, 11-13, and 14-17. These five units can be arranged thematically as a chiasm in perfect analogy with the Five Books of the Psalter:

A. “Have mercy on me” (vv. 1-4)

B. Confidence in God’s help (vv. 5-7)

C. God’s greatness (vv. 8-10)

B'. Confidence in God’s help (vv. 11-13)

A'. “Have mercy on me” (vv. 14-17)

Packed into the central Section C is a wealth of theology in which the Psalmist “comprehends His creative power and ultimate purpose, His essential goodness and continuous activity, His sovereignty over all and His accessibility to man,” as McCaw and Motyer put it. Viewed structurally, Section C can in itself be viewed as a five-membered chiasm:

1. “Among the gods there is none like you” (v. 8a)

2. “No deeds can compare with yours” (v. 8b)

3. Center (v. 9)

2'. “You do marvelous deeds” (v. 10a)

1'. “You alone are God” (v. 10b)

If the above analysis is accurate (and it does differ somewhat from that of Dorsey, who sees Section C as a seven-part chiasm centered at verse 11, and from Tanner, who places the center section at verses 8-13), then the central verse to the whole Psalter can be identified as 86:9, which universalizes the call for all humanity to worship God: “All the nations thou hast made shall come and bow down before thee, O Lord, and shall glorify thy name.” Thus, this center verse of the center section of the center psalm of the center book in the Psalter can be seen to emphasize that our proper response to God's revelation is to bow down in obedience to His commands and praise His name. Parenthetically, Klouda highlights the neighboring Ps. 87 as almost unique in departing from the usual exclusionary view of the Psalmists and envisioning an eschatological turning of the nations to God. The same observation can be easily made for Ps. 86:9.