The fulness and variety of these petitions deserve careful consideration.
Notice:
I. The invocations. Five times in these verses of the text does the Psalmist invoke God, and that by three several names: "Jehovah," "my God," "Lord." (1) "Jehovah." The word implies eternal, timeless being, underived self-existence. It was given as the seal of the covenant, as the ground of the great deliverance from Egyptian bondage. The national existence rested upon it. The vitality of Israel was guaranteed by the eternity of Israel's God. (2) "My God." The word implies the abundance and fulness of power, and so may be found, and often is found, on the lips of heathens. It contemplates the almightiness rather than the moral attributes or covenant relations of God as the ground of our hopes. This general conception becomes special on the Psalmist's lips by the little word which he prefixes to it: " myGod." (3) The word "Lord" is not, as a mere English reader might suppose, the same word as that which is rendered Lord" in the first verse. That is "Jehovah." This means just what our English word "lord" means: it conveys the general idea of authority and dominion.
II. The petitions which these verses give us. They are all substantially the same, and yet they so vary as to suggest how familiar all the aspects of the deliverance that the Psalmist desired were to him. (1) There is, first, the cry that God would hear, the basis of all that follows. Then there is a threefold description of the process of deliverance: "preserve," "save," "be merciful." Then there is a longing for that which comes after the help, a consequence of the hearing: "Make the soul of Thy servant glad."
III. The pleas on which these petitions are based. (1) The Psalmist pleads his necessities. He is "poor and needy," borne down by the pressure of outward calamity, and destitute of inward resources. (2) He pleads his relation to God and his longing for communion with Him. "I am holy." The word simply means "one who is a recipient or object of mercy." The plea is drawn, not from the righteousness of the man, but from the mercy of God. (3) Finally, because our necessities and our desires derive their force as pleas from God's own character, he urges that as his last and mightiest appeal. The name of God is the ground of all our hope, and the motive for all His mercy.
A. Maclaren, Sermons Preached in Manchester,3rd series, p. 257.
In this passage we are looking at one of God's saints in the holiest of all, in the immediate presence of his God and King.
I. The first thought that strikes us is, David takes his right place. He says, "Bow down," as though he would say, "I am a worm, and no man." I cannot claim an audience. If Thou wouldst hear, Thou must bow down Thine ear, as a tender Father, to catch what Thy frail child has to say.
II. Look at the "fors" of the passage. There are five. (1) "For I am poor and needy." If we come to God at all, we must come as beggars. There are two words in the Greek language which indicate poverty. One indicates respectable poverty, the poverty of a man in humble circumstances, who is working hard to get his bread. The other signifies "beggary," the state of the man who has got nothing, who is utterly bankrupt. In describing the particular kind of poverty-stricken people He receives, our Lord uses the word to indicate abject bankruptcy; and unless we come into the Divine presence in the position of paupers, we cannot get the blessing. (2) Notice the second "for:" "Preserve my soul, forI am holy." The first "for" is the "for" of the bankrupt; the second is the "for" of the saint. There is no contradiction here: in my own moral character a poor beggar, grovelling in the dust; in God's own Divine purpose something nobler than the bright spirits that stand around His throne, heir of God and joint heir with Christ, bound to the everlasting Deity by indissoluble bonds. (3) "Be merciful unto me, O Lord, forI cry unto Thee daily." This third "for" points out to us what is to be the law of our life. If we want to be kept in constant safety, we must be calling unto Him "daily." (4) "Rejoice the soul of Thy servant, forunto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul." The Psalmist begins by asking the Lord to "bow down His ear unto him," but he goes on till he gets to such a point of believing expectation that he dares to lift up his soul into the presence of God. It is lifted up in order that it may become a partaker of God's joy. God is the centre of eternal joy. "At Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.' (5) "For Thou, Lord, art good and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon Thee." We are so poor in our mercy. The richness of God's mercy lies in this point: the Lord never gives a mercy till He has taken care that it shall be a real mercy. His favours shall only be received by those who will take them in His own way, and thus the blessing is doubled.
W. Hay Aitken, Mission Sermons,1st series, p. 220.
Reference: Psalms 86:3. G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 248.