Psalms 86:2

2. Preserve David’s prayer for protection points to his danger. (Psalms 86:14; Psalms 86:17.)

For I am holy Dedicated to God, a God-worshipper. But the word חסיד is as often used in the sense of merciful. “Keep my soul, for I am merciful;” as in Psalms 97:10, “He preserveth the souls of his saints” better, of his merciful ones. This suits the connexion and scope. The issue between David and his enemies was, not that he was irreligious, but that he had been unjust to man by superseding the house of Saul in the dynasty, and the tribe of Ephraim in the supremacy, to which slander had added many other false accusations. See 2 Samuel 15:2-6. The word in question is often used to cover the great principle of the second table of the decalogue “Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself.” David pleads that he had been merciful to men as a reason for now obtaining mercy of God. See Matthew 5:7; James 2:13, and notes on Psalms 4:3; Psalms 12:1. כי , ( kee,) “for,” because, in the text, as a causal particle, does not assign as a reason for acceptance good works as a ground of merit, as the papists hold, but as a proof of moral fitness, the promise being to such. He appeals to his works as evidence of the purity and sincerity of his intentions and heart.

Trusteth in thee Another reason of fitness.