Verse Lens · Concise explanation
Psalms 86:13 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 13. 13For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Psalm 86:13: The reason or consequence in “For great is thy mercy toward me” supports the surrounding claim in “A poor servant asks the merciful God to teach.”
Read It With
- Psalms 86:1–17
Read Psalms 86:13 with 86:1–17. Read alone, “For great is thy mercy toward me” could lose the individual voice, the parallel line or movement it develops, and the psalm's outcome. The complete movement establishes: Within Psalms 86:1–17, the individual voice carries the movement “A poor servant asks the merciful God to teach” as part of “A poor servant asks the merciful God to teach.” Its lament form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Psalms 86:1–17 opens Psalm 86 with “Bow down thine ear, O LORD, hear me: for I am poor and needy” and establishes the individual voice and “A poor servant asks the merciful God to teach” movement before later lines develop or answer it. Within that relationship, Psalm 86:13 supplies a reason or consequence through “For great is thy mercy toward me” and must be read with the claim it supports.
What Remains True
Psalm 86:13 carries “For great is thy mercy toward me” inside the lament movement “A poor servant asks the merciful God to teach.” Its durable contribution is this: Praise and prayer become truthful when they attend to people harmed by predatory power and pursue protection, generosity, and fair judgment. The local movement is “A poor servant asks the merciful God to teach.” The unit's reviewed limit is: The prayer's humility does not authorize social humiliation, servile exploitation, or ignoring material need.
How It Can Shape Life
- Because Psalm 86:13 belongs to “A poor servant asks the merciful God to teach,” its role must lead the practice: Psalm 86:13 supplies a reason or consequence through “For great is thy mercy toward me” and must be read with the claim it supports. Let “For great is thy mercy toward me” test worship and public claims by their effect on vulnerable people; correct one practice that hides or compounds harm.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Psalms 86:1–17 — A poor servant asks the merciful God to teachSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Psalms 86:1–17, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Psalms
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ps.xml, OSIS 86:1–17
Open the fixed Hebrew Psalms file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Notes: Psalms 1-150
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, current official online edition
Supports: Verse-level controls for poetic syntax, imagery, older KJV language, textual issues, headings, and alternatives in Psalms 86:1–17.
Exact location: Official NET Bible Psalm 86 HTML, translator, textual, and study notes attached to Psalms 86:1–17
Open the official NET Psalms notes ↗