Be merciful to me, Lord, for I call to you all day long.
Parallel Translations
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Be merciful to me, Lord, for I call to you all day long.
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Be merciful unto me, O Lord: for I cry unto thee daily.
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Be gracious unto me, O Lord; for unto Thee do I cry all the day.
Cross-references (10)
Passages linked to Psalms 86:3 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 57:1 Be merciful to me, God, be merciful to me, for my soul takes refuge in you. Yes, in the shadow of your wings, I will take refuge, until disaster has passed.
- Psalms 88:9 My eyes are dim from grief. I have called on you daily, Yahweh. I have spread out my hands to you.
- Ephesians 6:18 with all prayer and requests, praying at all times in the Spirit, and being watchful to this end in all perseverance and requests for all the saints:
- Psalms 25:5 Guide me in your truth, and teach me, For you are the God of my salvation, I wait for you all day long.
- Psalms 4:1 Answer me when I call, God of my righteousness. Give me relief from my distress. Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer.
- Psalms 55:17 Evening, morning, and at noon, I will cry out in distress. He will hear my voice.
- Psalms 56:1 Be merciful to me, God, for man wants to swallow me up. All day long, he attacks and oppresses me.
- Luke 2:37 and she had been a widow for about eighty-four years), who didn’t depart from the temple, worshiping with fastings and petitions night and day.
- Luke 11:8-13 I tell you, although he will not rise and give it to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will get up and give him as many as he needs. “I tell you, keep asking, and it will be given you. Keep seeking, and you will find. Keep knocking, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened. “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he won’t give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he asks for an egg, he won’t give him a scorpion, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”
- Luke 18:7 Won’t God avenge his chosen ones who are crying out to him day and night, and yet he exercises patience with them?
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (10 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 3 Have mercy upon me, O Jehovah! The Psalmist…
3 Have mercy upon me, O Jehovah! The Psalmist again betakes himself to the mercy of God. The word חנן, chanan, which I have rendered have mercy, is substantially the same as to gratify, to do a pleasure. It is as if he had said, I bring no merit of my own, but humbly pray for deliverance solely on the ground of thy mercy. When he speaks of crying daily, it is a proof of his hope and confidence, of which we have spoken a little before. By the word cry, as I have already had occasion frequently to remark, is denoted vehemence and earnestness of soul. The saints do not indeed always pray with a loud voice; but their secret sighs and groanings resound and echo upwards, and, ascending from their hearts, penetrate even into heaven. The inspired suppliant not only represents himself as crying, but as persevering in doing so, to teach us that he was not discouraged at the first or second encounter, but continued in prayer with untiring earnestness. In the following verse, he expresses more definitely the end for which he besought God to be merciful to him, which was, that his sorrow might be removed. In the second clause, he declares that there was no hypocrisy in his crying; for he lifted up his soul to God, which is the chief characteristic of right prayer.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Which was a sure token that he believed that…
Which was a sure token that he believed that God would deliver him.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 86:3 Be merciful unto me, O Lord: for…
Psa 86:3 Be merciful unto me, O Lord: for I cry unto thee daily.
Ver. 3. Be merciful unto me] Lest any should, by the former words (I am holy), suspect him to be a merit monger, he beggeth mercy, with instancy and constancy of request.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Be merciful unto me, O Lord,.... In my distressed…
Be merciful unto me, O Lord,.... In my distressed and miserable condition, being an object of mercy, pity, and compassion; this petition is used by Christ in Psa 41:10.
for I cry unto thee daily; or "all the day"; every day, and several times in a day, Psa 55:17 constant and importunate prayer is the duty of saints, and available with God, Th1 5:17. Christ was much in the exercise of it, Luk 6:12.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 3. Be merciful unto me] I have no…
Verse 3. Be merciful unto me] I have no merit; I plead none, but trust in thee alone.
I cry unto thee daily.] My state deeply affects me; and I incessantly cry for thy salvation.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Be merciful unto me, O Lord - It was…
Be merciful unto me, O Lord - It was mercy after all that he relied on, and not justice. It was not because he had any claim on the ground that he was “holy,” but all that he had and hoped for was to be traced to the mercy of God.
For I cry unto thee daily - Margin, as in Hebrew, “All the day.” The meaning is, that he did this constantly, or without intermission.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 3. Be gracious unto me, O Lord;
3. Be gracious unto me, O Lord;
For unto thee do I cry all the day long.
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See Psa_57:1-2, and elsewhere (Psa_3:4; Psa_4:1; &c.).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Be merciful unto me, O Lord; for I cry…
Be merciful unto me, O Lord; for I cry unto thee daily; rather, all day long (Revised Version).
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 3. Be merciful unto me, O Lord. The…
Ver. 3. Be merciful unto me, O Lord. The best of men need mercy, and appeal to mercy, yea to nothing else but mercy; they need it for themselves, and crave it eagerly of their God as a personal requisite.
For I cry unto thee daily. Is there not a promise that importunity shall prevail? May we not, then, plead our importunity as an argument with God? He who prays every day, and all the day, for so the word may mean, may rest assured that the Lord will hear him in the day of his need. If we cried sometimes to man, or other false confidences, we might expect to be referred to them in the hour of our calamity, but if in all former times we have looked to the Lord alone, we may be sure that he will not desert us now. See how David pleaded, first that he was poor and needy, next that he was the Lord's set apart one, then that he was God's servant and had learned to trust in the Lord, and lastly that he had been taught to pray daily; surely these are such holy pleadings as any tried believer may employ when wrestling with a prayer hearing God, and with such weapons the most trembling suppliant may hope to win the day.
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Ver. 3. Be merciful unto me. Lest any should by the former words, ("I am holy", )suspect him to be a merit monger, he beggeth mercy with instancy and constancy of request. John Trapp.
Ver. 3. I cry unto thee daily. A great difference between saints and sinners in prayer is that sinners who pray at all, pray only when they are in trouble, whereas saints cry daily unto God. Compare Job 27:10. William S. Plumer.
Ver. 3. Importunity.
1. When she pleads"daily".
2. How she pleads"I cry".
3. To whom she pleads"unto thee".
4. For what she pleads"be merciful".
Ver. 3. I will cry daily for pardoning, sanctifying, assisting, preserving, providing and guiding mercy. William Jay.
Psalms 86:4*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 all day long
all day long
This is an exaggeration. David cries out continually, but not literally at all times from dawn to dusk. AT: "continually" (See: Hyperbole and Generalization)
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Make your servant glad
David refers to himself as "your servant," that is, God's servant. AT: "Make me, your servant" or "Make me" (See: First, Second, or Third Person)
translationWords
mercy
lord
cry
servant
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.