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Psalm 86 has a unique title amongst the *Korahite Psalms, as ‘A Prayer of David’. It is the most personal in Book Three, and is a good example of a later Davidic ‘imitation’. But again the placing does not seem to be totally accidental: there are some associations with Psalm 85, not least in the theme of God’s steadfast love (85:10; here verses 5, 13 and 15) and the combination of ‘love and faithfulness’ (ḥesed ve’emet) which are found in Pss. 85:10 and 86:15. Similarly the themes of ‘fear’ and ‘glory’ occur together in 85:9 and 86:11–12.

Psalm 86 in this Second Korahite collection corresponds to the royal Psalm 45 in the first: both focus on the king. Throughout the three strophes (verses 1–7, 8–13, 14–17) we find several motifs from other psalms. Examples include its cluster of imperatives (‘cry’; ‘hear’; ‘save’; ‘protect’); its references to ‘your servant’ (verses 2, 4, 16); and its expression ‘poor and needy’ (verse 1). One seminal example is the adaptation, in verses 5 and 15, of an ancient creedal formula found in Exod. 34:6 (‘. the Lord. merciful and gracious… slow to anger…’) and used in other biblical texts (for example, Ps 103:8, 145:8, Neh. 9:17, Joel 2:13 and Jonah 4:2). This rich intertextuality raises questions about which text ‘received’ from another.²¹⁷ Another issue of reception history is that, given the end of Psalm 72 clearly states that the prayers of David had ended, why did the editors include another Davidic psalm here, and indeed elsewhere in Books Four and Five of the Psalter? It would seem that the ongoing interest in David as the paradigmatic psalmist lived on beyond Books One and Two, even if those books contain by far the most psalms ascribed to David.

In *Targum the personal elements seem to confirm a Davidic authorship: the heading is now ‘A Prayer that David Prayed’ and the last verse (17), anticipating David’s vindication, reads: ‘Perform for me a sign of good: in the time when Solomon my son brings the Ark into the house of sanctuary, let the gates be opened on my account; and let those who hate me see that you have pardoned me…’²¹⁸ *Rashi, unsurprisingly, sees the psalm again as a reference to exile: ‘all day long’ in verse 3 is read as ‘all day during the exile’ (here following *Midrash Tehillim).²¹⁹ *Kimḥi interprets verse 9 as referring to the future, not the past: the reference to the incoming of all nations concerns the age of the Messiah, rather than referring to David.²²⁰ Finally, the creedal formula in verse 15 (‘But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness’) is used to express seven of the Thirteen Attributes of God’s mercy.

The Christian use of the psalm is very different. The emphasis is on the importance of prayer. *Augustine, for example, speaks of the importance of the heart’s becoming ‘fixed’, and God bearing our failings when we ‘lift up our soul’ to him (verse 4).²²¹ According to *Bede, Christ is the one who is praying; in the tradition of *Aquinas, the voice in the psalm is that of Christ, but it is also a prophecy about Christ, but it can also be used as a prayer addressed to Christ.²²² *Erasmus’ sermon on this psalm refers both to a mystical sense, seeing the psalm in the light of Christ, and also to a tropological sense, viewing the psalm in the life of the Church. Ignoring any philological issues which might arise from the Hebrew, Erasmus’ emphasis is essentially on what we learn about knowing God, and fighting off evil in the world.²²³ Viewing the psalm in the light of Christ is not new: it is evident as early as the New Testament, for in Rev. 15:4, parts of Ps 86:9–12 are used to illustrate the victory of faith, where all nations bow to Christ as Messiah.

This idea is also taken up in artistic representation: the theme of the right attitude in prayer is apparent in many images. The illustration alongside verse 9 in the *Khludov Psalter (fol. 85v) and the *Pantokrator Psalter (fol. 119v) depicts five ethnic groups, discerned by facial features and dress, bowing before Christ (one in the foreground being of Arab descent). In its context this is another interesting example of visual polemic against Muslims as well as Jews.²²⁴ Another example is the illustration in Khludov (fol. 86r) and *Theodore (fol. 115r) alongside verse 17 (‘Show me a sign of your favour’).²²⁵ The ‘sign’ of God’s favour is depicted as the cross, with an icon of Christ at its intersection: the inscription reads, provocatively in the *iconoclastic context of that Psalter, ‘the sign of the cross’.²²⁶

The *Stuttgart Psalter (fol. 101r) also focusses on the psalmist in prayer: he is looking up to God, and the hand from heaven is seen to be extended as an open palm.²²⁷ The same idea of the psalmist praying as one ‘poor in spirit’ is found in the *Utrecht Psalter (fol. 50r): the psalmist points with one hand to a poor and needy old man (verses 1–2) standing beside a tree, and with other to the cross-*nimbed Christ who bows his ear to listen. Behind the psalmist is a crowd—those who ‘bow down before the Lord’ (verse 9) and resist the worship of the idols set on a pedestal (verse 8). The wicked await their fate among death and the demons, in a pit set in the side of a hill (verse 13).²²⁸

One interesting musical example of this psalm is from *Mendelssohn’s Elijah (composed for the Birmingham Festival in 1846). Part 1, which concerns Elijah’s earlier years of ministry during the famine, has a recitative after the raising of the widow’s son (Movement 8) which combines 1 Kgs. 17:9 and, later, verse 21 with verses from psalms, especially 86:15–16 and 88:11.²²⁹ The emphasis here is on God’s ‘steadfast love and faithfulness’ to his servants who are poor and in need (verse 1).

Other musical arrangements have a more obvious liturgical context. They include arrangements by J. S. *Bach, for the churches in Leipzig, and by *Purcell, for the court of Charles II. de *Monte arranged several pieces from this psalm, in Latin: ‘Deduc me Domine in via tua’ was based on verse 11 and 16–17, with Ps. 88:2; ‘In die tribulationis’ was based on verses 7–10; and ‘Miserere mei Domini’, was from verses 3–5. Samuel Sebastian *Wesley also composed a piece, in English, taken from *Coverdale, on verses 5 and 9–10. *Herbert’s ‘Teach me my God and King’ (taken from The Temple [1633], there entitled ‘The Elexir’), which became a well-known hymn, was probably influenced by Ps. 86:11. This could not be more different from the rather grandiose interpretation by the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century English composer Gustav Holst; this arrangement probably dates from his time as organist at Thaxted parish church (from 1916 to 1925): ‘Bow down Thine ear, O Lord’ uses the first part of the psalm, adapting the melody by L. Bourgeois in the *Genevan Psalter, with verse 1 sung as tenor solo, verse 6 soprano, verse 2 tenor solo, and finally verses 2–3 by soprano, alto and tenor.²³⁰

Hence this is a psalm used in similar ways despite the different expressions of faith: despite its title, David is not at the centre of much interpretation. The theme shared in both Jewish and Christian reception is the importance of prayer.