Psalm 86 Calling on the LORD Dennis

Mock
Sunday, August 23, 2009

Everyone believer or non-believer alike cries out for help at some point. There is a point
where we are unable to cope on our own. Ps. 86 tells us there is really only one place we
can turn, to the Lord. This is not a salvation psalm but it has a unique place in the
Psalter, which tells us where we must all go when we have no other place to turn. This is
the only Psalm in Book III (73-89) attributed to David.

Unique Contributions:
– v. 9 – All the nations will come and worship before you, Oh Lord!
○ Prophetic utterance.
– v. 11 – Give me an undivided heart that I may fear your name.

Read Psalm 86
– This psalm points us to absolute reliance on the Lord.
– Elohim is used 14 times?
– Yahweh 4 times
– Adonai 7 times

I. Why call on the Lord at all?

a. Because He alone is God and ultimately only He alone will be worshiped.
b. Calling on Him is an intentional summoning of Him for aid.
c. Presuppositions:
i. A real recognized need.
1. The nature doesn’t matter; physical, financial, spiritual, etc.
ii.Must be directed to the one and only one willing and able to respond.
d. Based on:
i.Character of God
1. He alone is God.
2. He alone is worthy of praise.
3. He is good, abounding in love, gracious, forgiving,
compassionate, absolutely trustworthy.
4. God will never act out of character.
ii.Capacity of God
1. Nothing is impossible for Him.
2. He has the capacity to forgive anything and everything that we
have ever done.
a. Remember all that David had committed! Lying, adultery,
murder.
b. Because of the Lord Jesus sacrifice on the cross.
3. Is there anything where we have unlimited capacity? NO!
e. God has answered prayer in the past and will in the future.
f. He alone is God and He is great and His deeds are marvelous.
g. He delivers from death and into eternal life.
h. There is actually no one else to whom you can pray! The other “god’s” don’t
really exist.
II. For what can a believer call on the Lord?
a. David was just as “saved” as we are yet the content of his faith was
different.
 b. Series of phrases in the text show what types of things we can pray for:
i. 2 – Guard my life
ii.3 – Have mercy
iii.4 - Bring joy
iv.6 – Hear my prayer in my distress
1. Anything that distresses us is a legitimate item for prayer.
v.16 - Grant me your strength
vi.What other type of prayer could be offered?
1. 11 - Teach me your way.
2. 17 - Show me your goodness
a. Reassurance from God.
b. Signs of His goodness can be requested.
c. Answered prayer beyond salvation are reserved for those who are saved and
in a revelation with God through Christ.
1. John 8 – We are either in Christ or Adam.
d. Prayer ought to be our first resort not our last! Unfortunately is is often our
last after we have exhausted our own strength.
e. God is willing to answer prayer!
f. APP: I may not know what is going on in your life today but I want to
encourage you today to pray specifically today about what concerns you.
Nothing is beyond His ability and willingness to deal with.
i. Don’t pray an “answer” that you want. Instead ask God to answer
as He sees fit.
ii.We don’t know how to pray as we ought.
iii.We are alive to Him in Christ Jesus and can rest in Him for all our
needs.
III. What can nonbelievers call on God for?
a. There are many people who appear not to be believers yet they pray all the
time.
i. Their lives are so unholy that there is no evidence of real belief.
ii.Their prayers get no farther than the ceiling.
b. Only one prayer from them is ever accepted:
i. Isaiah 59, Luke 18 – The prayer of “God have mercy on me a sinner”
c. When you call on the name of the Lord you must:
i. Recognize your need of forgiveness.
ii.Realize you are addressing the only one who can forgive you.
d. When an unbeliever genuinely calls on the name of the Lord for forgiveness
of sins through the blood of Jesus they will be saved.
i. Acknowledging who God is –
1. Must know to whom you are praying; Elohim, Adonai, Yahweh.
ii.Must be awareness you are helpless and hopeless and unable to save
yourself.
1. Most around the world believe in comparative/relative
righteousness.
2. If you think there is any other way to enter God’s eternal
kingdom other than God’s grace then you are in the wrong place.
3. God is holy alone and only He can forgive.
iii.You must ask for forgiveness!
1. For mercy, for grace, for forgiveness by the shed blood of Jesus.
2. There is a redeemer!
iv.An acceptance of the Gift of Grace.
 1. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God! No one is
righteous, no not one.
IV. Crucial things in terms of salvation:
a. We must call on His name, Jesus.
i. It is not about God making us happy, solving all our problems, making
us wealthy, etc.
b. We must believe Jesus is fully God.
i. Not just a servant or prophet of God.
ii.You must confess with your mouth
c. You must believe you are sinner dead in your trespasses and sin.
i. Paul takes 3 chapters in Romans establishing the lostness of all men
before presenting the gospel.
d. You must believe Jesus died bodily on the cross for your sins and that God
raised Him from the dead on the third day.
i. His resurrection completes and confirms the work of salvation.
e. If by faith we believe these things, scripture says we will be saved.

We call on God because of who He is, what only He is capable of, and because there is no
other source of salvation. Calling on the Lord because there is no other place to go. Once
we do we are saved eternally. The old has gone the new has come.

I hope that Psalm 86 has encouraged you to take whatever need you have directly to the
Lord in prayer. Beginning with your need for salvation and from there every other
legitimate need that you have.