Psalm 86: A Pattern for Prayer

As a pastor for decades now, I have received and heard many prayer requests. Most of these requests fall into three categories: physical health, finances, and relationships.

With the physical, we are asking God for healing or protection from illness. With the financial, we are asking for relief from financial hardship or for specific needs. With the relational, we are asking God for wisdom to navigate complicated relational situations with family, friends, colleagues, etc.

These are all important needs. But there is another type of prayer that we offer to God that is more important than any of the others—one that we see modeled by David in Psalm 86. This is a prayer about our hearts. And when we get our hearts in the right place before God, it has the potential to impact the physical, financial, and relational needs as well.

When we pray like David, we are praying for God’s grace, our hearts, and his strength. More in today’s message.