We know our hearts are easily divided, going our own way, away from the Lord. David is praying that God would keep him from being two-faced and double-minded, and that God would give him a single, steady aim, unmoved by the threats and pressures, only looking to God and His great name.
My father-in-law has challenged us as a family to learn Psalm 86:10–13 this year. It’s a wonderful psalm full of rich encouragement of how to live when under pressure. At the end of the psalm, David even fears for his existence, and the main message of the psalm is how to lay hold of God in times of personal need. The key to the whole psalm is the last phrase of verse 11: “Unite my heart to fear your name.” There is nothing like pressure to show how divided our hearts are. It is as if the circumstantial pressure exposes the spiritual fault lines of our hearts.
The structure of the psalm is like a sandwich; verses 1–7 and verses 14–17 are a cry for help, and in between, in verses 8–13, is the meat with a section on the praise of God.
The psalm begins with David pleading for God to answer him: “Incline your ear . . . answer me . . . be gracious . . . gladden my soul” (Ps. 86:1, 3, 4). He addresses himself to the “LORD,” using the name that God revealed to His covenant people. David recognizes that he is in a relationship with God. It is as if he is saying: “This is who I am, and this is who You are, so Lord, be all that You are to me.”
As we move into verses 8–13, God, and not David’s circumstances, dominates. You’ll notice the Lord is spelled without the small capital letters—it’s a different name in the Hebrew from “LORD.” The “Lord” (without small capital letters) focuses attention on God’s might and power. God is immeasurably great. There is nowhere else to go when dealing with life’s difficulties. The majestic power of God marks Him out as unique. There is no alternative deity that can demand universal worship, and that is the big reason that he prays, “Unite my heart to fear your name” (Ps. 86:11). God is One, there is no other. In Deuteronomy 6, Moses tells the people: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
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