Draft. This siddur is waiting for a rav's review. For a halachic question, ask your rav.
King David. Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, a Bible commentator in southern France, about 1200) says David wrote this psalm while running from King Shaul.
Siddur Sefard puts it after Uva LeTzion and its Kaddish, and only on days when Tachanun (the pleading prayer after the Amidah) is said. Abudarham (a commentary on the prayers, Spain, about 1340) says it became a weekday habit because of the line "Teach me Your way, Hashem."
Radak on Tehillim 86:1; Abudarham, Weekday Prayers, Post Amidah 33; Siddur Sefard, Beit YaakovHebrew, then English. Open "What it means" under any line for the explanation.
Said on days when Tachanun is said. On other days, skip ahead to Beit Yaakov, the next paragraph.
תְּפִלָּה לְדָוִד הַטֵּה יְיָ אָזְנְךָ עֲנֵנִי כִּי עָנִי וְאֶבְיוֹן אָנִי.
A prayer of David Tilt, Hashem, Your ear answer me for poor and needy am I
A prayer of David. Tilt Your ear, Hashem, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.
Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, Provence, around 1200) says David wrote this psalm while running from King Shaul. He was poor then: he had nothing to live on except what relatives and men of Yehudah gave him in secret, or, while he stayed with Achish, king of Gat, spoils taken from other nations.
Radak on Tehillim 86:1שָׁמְרָה נַפְשִׁי כִּי חָסִיד אָנִי הוֹשַׁע עַבְדְּךָ אַתָּה אֱלֹהַי הַבּוֹטֵחַ אֵלֶיךָ.
Guard my soul for I am devoted save Your servant You are my God who trusts in You
Guard my soul, for I am devoted. You are my God: save Your servant, who trusts in You.
חָנֵּנִי אֲדֹנָי כִּי אֵלֶיךָ אֶקְרָא כָּל הַיּוֹם. שַׂמֵּחַ נֶפֶשׁ עַבְדֶּךָ כִּי אֵלֶיךָ אֲדֹנָי נַפְשִׁי אֶשָּׂא.
Be kind to me, my Master for to You I call all day Gladden the soul of Your servant for to You my Master I lift my soul
Be kind to me, my Master, for I call to You all day. Gladden the soul of Your servant, for to You, my Master, I lift my soul.
Ibn Ezra (a Spanish commentator who died in the 1160s) says "I lift my soul to You" is like Devarim 24:15, where a poor worker "lifts his soul" to his wages. Rashi (the classic Torah commentator, France, died 1105) explains there that the worker risks his life for it.
Ibn Ezra on Tehillim 86:4; Devarim 24:15 with Rashiכִּי אַתָּה אֲדֹנָי טוֹב וְסַלָּח וְרַב חֶסֶד לְכָל קֹרְאֶיךָ.
For You, my Master are good and forgiving and rich in kindness to all who call You
You have said this verse already. It closes the forgiveness lines in Tachanun, and it is in Uva LeTzion. Ibn Ezra says its last words, "to all who call You," answer David's own words from the line above: "to You I call all day."
Siddur Sefard, Tachanun and Uva LeTzion; Ibn Ezra on Tehillim 86:5הַאֲזִינָה יְיָ תְּפִלָּתִי וְהַקְשִׁיבָה בְּקוֹל תַּחֲנוּנוֹתָי. בְּיוֹם צָרָתִי אֶקְרָאֶךָּ כִּי תַעֲנֵנִי.
Give ear, Hashem, to my prayer and listen to the voice of my pleas On the day of my trouble I call You for You will answer me
אֵין כָּמוֹךָ בָאֱלֹהִים אֲדֹנָי וְאֵין כְּמַעֲשֶׂיךָ.
There is none like You among the gods my Master and nothing like Your deeds
Who are "the gods" here? Radak says the sun, moon and stars, which their worshippers think can save them. He says they are only messengers who do what God commands. Metzudat David (a line-by-line commentary from the 1700s) says they are the heavenly officers.
Radak and Metzudat David on Tehillim 86:7-8כָּל גּוֹיִם אֲשֶׁר עָשִׂיתָ יָבוֹאוּ וְיִשְׁתַּחֲווּ לְפָנֶיךָ אֲדֹנָי וִיכַבְּדוּ לִשְׁמֶךָ.
All the nations that You made will come and bow down before You my Master and honor Your name
All the nations that You made will come and bow down before You, my Master, and give honor to Your name.
Radak says that one day all the nations You made will see that You made them, and will come and bow. He says this will be in the time of the Messiah. Ibn Ezra reads it differently: the nations around David will see his great trouble, and when people tell others that God saved him, those nations will come to honor God's name.
Radak and Ibn Ezra on Tehillim 86:9כִּי גָדוֹל אַתָּה וְעֹשֵׂה נִפְלָאוֹת אַתָּה אֱלֹהִים לְבַדֶּךָ.
For You are great and do wonders You are God alone
For You are great and do wonders. You alone are God.
Why praise God's greatness in the middle of a request for help? Malbim (a commentator of the 1800s) says: God alone made the world, and His wonders can break the laws of nature, so He controls every force in it. Then He can surely save David. That is why David called on Him on his day of trouble.
Malbim on Tehillim 86:10הוֹרֵנִי יְיָ דַּרְכֶּךָ אֲהַלֵּךְ בַּאֲמִתֶּךָ יַחֵד לְבָבִי לְיִרְאָה שְׁמֶךָ.
Teach me, Hashem, Your way I will walk in Your truth make my heart one to fear Your name
Teach me Your way, Hashem, and I will walk in Your truth. Make my heart one, to fear Your name.
Malbim says David asks to be taught three things. First, God's ways: how He runs the world with kindness and mercy, so David can walk in them. Second, the truths of the Torah's laws. Third, true beliefs, like that God is one. That last one, he says, is how David's heart becomes one, so that he fears only God.
Malbim on Tehillim 86:11אוֹדְךָ אֲדֹנָי אֱלֹהַי בְּכָל לְבָבִי וַאֲכַבְּדָה שִׁמְךָ לְעוֹלָם.
I will thank You, my Master, my God with all my heart and I will honor Your name forever
כִּי חַסְדְּךָ גָּדוֹל עָלָי וְהִצַּלְתָּ נַפְשִׁי מִשְּׁאוֹל תַּחְתִּיָּה.
For Your kindness is great toward me and You saved my soul from the lowest Sheol
For Your kindness toward me is great, and You saved my soul from the lowest Sheol.
Radak says David may mean the many times God saved him from his enemies, and from Shaul, who tried to kill him. Sheol, he says, is the grave. Metzudat David reads it differently: the lowest Sheol is Gehinnom, the place of punishment after death, and David means that Natan the prophet told him his sin with Bat Sheva was forgiven.
Radak and Metzudat David on Tehillim 86:13אֱלֹהִים זֵדִים קָמוּ עָלַי וַעֲדַת עָרִיצִים בִּקְשׁוּ נַפְשִׁי וְלֹא שָׂמוּךָ לְנֶגְדָּם.
God, arrogant people have risen against me and a band of ruthless people have sought my life and they did not set You in front of them
God, arrogant people have risen against me, and a band of ruthless people have sought my life, and they have not set You in front of them.
Ibn Ezra notices that David's enemies are the opposite of how David described himself. "Arrogant" is set against "I am devoted." "Ruthless" is set against "poor and needy." Metzudat David says "did not set You in front of them" means they had no fear of God before their eyes.
Ibn Ezra and Metzudat David on Tehillim 86:14וְאַתָּה אֲדֹנָי אֵל רַחוּם וְחַנּוּן אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם וְרַב חֶסֶד וֶאֱמֶת.
But You, my Master are a God compassionate and gracious slow to anger and rich in kindness and truth
Apart from its opening, this is word for word Shemot 34:6, the start of the Thirteen Attributes God called out to Moshe. Radak reads "slow to anger" as a request: if David sinned, God should hold back His anger until he fully repents. The "truth," he says, is God keeping His promise that David would be king.
Shemot 34:6; Radak on Tehillim 86:15פְּנֵה אֵלַי וְחָנֵּנִי תְּנָה עֻזְּךָ לְעַבְדֶּךָ וְהוֹשִׁיעָה לְבֶן אֲמָתֶךָ.
Turn to me and be kind to me Give Your strength to Your servant and save the son of Your maidservant
Radak asks why David says "son of Your maidservant," his mother, and not his father. He says a child is formed and fed by his mother, so her nature is tied to his more than the father's. David was God's servant two ways: he trained himself to serve, and it was in his nature, because his mother served God.
Radak on Tehillim 86:16עֲשֵׂה עִמִּי אוֹת לְטוֹבָה וְיִרְאוּ שֹׂנְאַי וְיֵבֹשׁוּ כִּי אַתָּה יְיָ עֲזַרְתַּנִי וְנִחַמְתָּנִי.
Give me a sign for good so those who hate me will see and be ashamed for You, Hashem have helped me and comforted me
Give me a sign for good, so that those who hate me will see it and be ashamed. For You, Hashem, have helped me and comforted me.
Metzudat David says the "sign for good" is a sign that lets everyone know God wants good for him. He adds that the last words look back: God had already helped and comforted David, through Natan the prophet.
Metzudat David on Tehillim 86:17Say it word by word, with full focus. Od Yosef Chai (by the Ben Ish Chai of Baghdad) quotes Rabbi Chaim Vital: his teacher the Arizal (the kabbalist of Tzfat in the 1500s) warned him to say this psalm with complete focus. The Chida (a scholar of the 1700s) gives the same rule in Kesher Gudal.
Od Yosef Chai, Ki Tisa 17:2-3; Chida, Kesher Gudal 20:6Verse 16 says, "Turn to me and be kind to me." Radak says it is like a person who turns away from his own affairs and sets his eyes on something else. Midrash Tehillim (an old collection of rabbis' teachings on Tehillim) puts it in David's mouth: "Master of the world, turn away from all Your business and turn to me."
Radak on Tehillim 86:16; Midrash Tehillim 86:7Abudarham says it is said on weekdays because of the line "Teach me Your way, Hashem" (verse 11). He also quotes an order from the Geonim (the heads of the Babylonian Torah academies) for the last seven fasts declared in a drought, when no rain came. On those days, psalms that fit the day were added, and "A prayer of David, tilt Your ear" is one of them. So this psalm plays two roles: a daily request for guidance, and a plea for hard days.
Abudarham, Weekday Prayers, Post Amidah 33; Abudarham, Fasts, Prayers 4-5Verse 7 says, "On the day of my trouble I call You." The last verse says, "You, Hashem, have helped me and comforted me." Od Yosef Chai (a law book by the Ben Ish Chai of Baghdad, published 1910) points to this pair. Notice the tense: the help is spoken of as already given. Ibn Ezra says the comfort is for troubles that have already passed.
Od Yosef Chai, Ki Tisa 17:1; Ibn Ezra on Tehillim 86:17Tehillim is divided into five books. The second ends with "The prayers of David son of Yishai are ended" (72:20). The third book, psalms 73 to 89, has titles naming Asaf, the sons of Korach, Heman and Eitan. Psalm 86 is the only one with David's name in its title. It is also the only title in that book that calls its psalm a tefillah, a prayer.
Tehillim 72:20 and 73 to 89, titlesTwo lines near the start sound odd from a king. First: "I am poor and needy" (verse 1). Then: "I am a chasid" (verse 2), which means devoted and kind. Isn't that bragging?
On the first line, Radak says David wrote this while running from King Shaul, and he really was poor then. He could not support himself unless relatives and men of his tribe helped him in secret. Ibn Ezra (a Spanish commentator who died in the 1160s) gives other options: poor in his own eyes, or poor next to the kings of the nations.
On the second line, Radak admits some people are puzzled. His answer is that David's heart was honest. Even when he sometimes sinned, he regretted it. And he spoke of himself as a chasid only in comparison to his enemies, who did him harm while he did them none. He even saved Shaul more than once.
The Gemara (the record of the rabbis' debates, finished about 1,500 years ago) explains this verse in Berakhot 4a. Two rabbis give two answers. In one, David says: the kings of the east and west sleep late, while I get up at midnight to thank You. In the other: all those kings sit in their honor, while my hands are dirty with blood and afterbirth, ruling that a woman is pure for her husband. And whatever he did, he checked with his teacher Mefiboshet and was not embarrassed to ask.
Then the Gemara asks how David could call himself a chasid at all. In Tehillim 27:13 there are dots over the word lulei, "had I not," which the Gemara reads as doubt: he trusted God to reward the righteous but was not sure he was one of them. It answers that David was afraid a sin might spoil it.
Midrash Tehillim adds that chasid is God's own title, from Yirmeyahu (the prophet Jeremiah) 3:12. It says David kept silent when people cursed him, the way God stays silent when the nations insult Him.
Radak on Tehillim 86:1 and 86:2,Ibn Ezra on Tehillim 86:1,Berakhot 4a,Midrash Tehillim 86:1; Yirmeyahu 3:12Verse 11 says, "Teach me Your way, Hashem, I will walk in Your truth; make my heart one to fear Your name." The Hebrew word is yached, from the word for "one" or "together." Ibn Ezra says it comes either from yachid, "one," or from joining. So David asks God to make his heart one. Most of us know the feeling of wanting two things at once.
Radak reads it as a worry about where attention and fear go. He says David already knew by tradition that God alone is God. Still, he asks to learn more about how God made the world. Then he asks that his heart not "turn this way and that," but be united to fear God's name, so he fears no person, only God.
The next verse says the same from the other side. When God unites his heart, David will thank Him "with all my heart." Radak explains that no part of his heart or thoughts will be aimed at anyone else.
Midrash Tehillim hears a different problem. It reads "with all my heart" as "with the good inclination and the bad one, so that there is no crookedness in them." The Mishnah (the earliest book of rabbinic law, from about 1,800 years ago) reads "with all your heart" in the Shema the same way, as both inclinations (Berakhot 9:5). On that reading, the goal is not for one of the pulls to vanish. It is for both of them to be straight, and both to serve God.
Abudarham says the Ahavat Olam line, "make our hearts one to love and to fear Your name," is built on this verse. The Ahavat Olam page tells more.
Tehillim 86:11-12,Ibn Ezra and Radak on Tehillim 86:11-12,Midrash Tehillim 86:5,Mishnah Berakhot 9:5,Abudarham, Blessings on the Shema 10The last verse asks: "Give me a sign for good, so those who hate me will see it and be ashamed." A sign of what? The sources do not agree.
Radak says the sign is the kingship itself. It will show David's enemies that God chose him long ago.
Midrash Tehillim finds the sign in David's own life. The sign for good is about Ahitophel, the adviser who turned against him. "You helped me" is about Chushai the Archite, whose advice Avshalom's people chose over Ahitophel's. "And comforted me" is about the prophet Natan, who told David, "Hashem has also removed your sin" (Shmuel II 12:13).
The Gemara tells it another way (Shabbat 30a, Sanhedrin 107b). David asked God to forgive him for that sin. The discussion in Sanhedrin 107a takes it to be the matter of Bat Sheva and Uriah, since God answers him with the verse about a man who sleeps with his neighbor's wife. God said it was forgiven. David then asked for a sign in his lifetime, so everyone would know. God answered that in David's lifetime He would not make it known, but in his son Shlomo's lifetime He would.
Shabbat 30a says how. When Shlomo built the Temple, the gates stuck together as he tried to bring in the Ark. They opened only when he said, "Remember the kindnesses of David Your servant." Then the faces of David's enemies turned dark "like the bottom of a pot," and everyone knew God had forgiven David.
Not every teacher tells David's story the same way. In Shabbat 56a, Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani says in Rabbi Yonatan's name that anyone who says David sinned is mistaken. The same passage still finds fault with him: he should have put Uriah on trial instead of having him killed in battle.
Tehillim 86:17,Radak on Tehillim 86:17,Midrash Tehillim 86:7,Shabbat 30a; Sanhedrin 107b,Shabbat 56aShort ideas from the Chassidic masters, the Kabbalah and the Mussar teachers.
The Zohar (the central book of Kabbalah) says David saw that God listens to no prayer as quickly as a poor person's. So he made himself poor. He took off his royal clothes, sat on the ground like a beggar, and prayed: "for I am poor and needy." God said to him: David, are you not a king, ruling over mighty kings? And you make yourself poor and needy? So David changed his prayer and said: "Guard my soul, for I am devoted." The Zohar adds that all of it was true of David.
כיון דחמי האי, עבד גרמיה עניא ומסכנא, פשט לבושא דמלכותא, ויתיב בארעא כמסכנא
Zohar, Parashat BalakThe HaMaavir Sheinah page asks how you can pray for what the Gemara says is your own choice. The Zohar asks it about this verse: "Teach me Your way, Hashem... make my heart one, to fear Your name." Everything is in God's hands, it says, except being righteous or wicked. So how can David ask for this? Its answer: David asks only that God open his eyes to the straight road, so he knows it. After that, "I will walk in Your truth," without turning right or left. Now read the verse again and notice which part David keeps for himself.
אלא, דוד הכי קאמר, הורני ה' דרכך. ההוא ארח מישור, ומתקנא, לגלאה עיני, ולמנדע ליה, ולבתר, אהלך באמתך
Zohar, Parashat BereishitRabbi Shlomo of Radomsk (a Chassidic master of the 1800s) reads two verses of this psalm side by side. In one, all the nations come and bow because God does wonders. In the other, David says: "I will thank You, my Master, my God, with all my heart, and honor Your name forever." The nations, he writes, bow when wonders happen. But "forever" means we thank God in every situation that comes over us. Now read the word "forever" again.
לעולם בכל הבחינות שיעברו עלינו נודה לשמך
Tiferet Shlomo, on the Festivals, Shavuot 14The Le'olam Yehei Adam page told how Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (a Chassidic master who died in 1810) told a man to say every psalm about himself. The man asked about the verses where King David praises himself, and the example he gave is this line: "Guard my soul, for I am devoted." This one too, Rebbe Nachman said, you must read about yourself. Judge yourself kindly and find in yourself some merit, one good point. In that good point, you are "devoted." Now read the line as if it were about you.
צריכין לדון את עצמו לכף זכות, ולמצא בעצמו איזה זכות ונקדה טובה
Likutei Moharan, Part II 125Rebbe Nachman teaches that in exile, God has hidden His face, so to speak. A face stands for compassion. The back stands for strict judgment. So all our prayers and requests, he writes, are about one thing: that God, who has turned His back to us, will bring His face back. His example is King David's words in this psalm: "Turn to me."
וכל תפלותינו ובקשתנו על זה שפנה ערף אלינו, שיחזר את פניו
Likutei Moharan I, Torah 2, section 8The practical laws. For a final ruling, ask your rav.
No. This siddur's note says that on days when Tachanun (the pleading prayers after the Amidah) is not said, you skip Tefillah LeDavid and begin with Beit Yaakov, the next prayer. The Chabad siddur and the Sephardic Edot HaMizrach siddur print the same rule. The Ben Ish Chai (Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, 1800s) calls the custom widespread: on days when the confession is not said, this psalm is not said. The Ribono Shel Olam page lists which days those are.
Siddur Sefard, note before Beit Yaakov; Ben Ish Chai, Year 1, Ki Tisa 17Seder HaYom (a book on the daily order of prayer, printed in 1599) calls this a special psalm for pleading that God hear our prayer. Reading it shows sorrow and a broken heart, it says, so it was set not to be said in a time of joy, since the psalm says, "On the day of my trouble I call You." The Ben Ish Chai says he knows no reason, and that people call it a tradition from earlier generations. His later book, Od Yosef Chai, gives one: David set this psalm for a day of trouble.
Seder HaYom, Order of Ashrei and Uva LeTzion; Ben Ish Chai, Year 1, Ki Tisa 17; Od Yosef Chai, Ki Tisa 17; Tehillim 86:7The sources ask for more care. Seder HaYom says not to treat it lightly by leaving it out, and that it is right to read it word by word and plead with God to accept your prayer.
Seder HaYom, Order of Ashrei and Uva LeTzionBoth can be right. The Aruch HaShulchan (a code of law by Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein, around 1900) calls saying Tefillah LeDavid after Uva LeTzion "the custom of Sefard" and says of that whole closing order, "their custom is correct and good." When he lays out the order in his own community, it goes from Uva LeTzion to Aleinu to the daily psalm, with no Tefillah LeDavid.
Aruch HaShulchan, Orach Chaim 133:1-2 and 133:4Not quite. Menorat HaMaor (by Rabbi Yisrael Alnakawa of Toledo, Spain, who died in 1391) says that on special days Tefillah LeDavid is swapped for a psalm that fits the day: Barchi Nafshi on Rosh Chodesh, Mizmor Shir Chanukat HaBayit on Chanukah, "By the rivers of Babylon" on Tisha B'Av. Abudarham (a commentary on the prayers, Seville, about 1340) also says that on Chanukah that psalm is said in place of Tefillah LeDavid. By 1599, Seder HaYom gives the custom this siddur prints: skip it.
Menorat HaMaor, On Prayer, Tachanun; Abudarham, Chanukah; Seder HaYom, Order of Ashrei and Uva LeTzionבימים שאין אומרים תחנון אין אומרים תפלה לדוד רק מתחילים מן בית יעקב
On days when Tachanun is not said, "A prayer of David" is not said. We begin with Beit Yaakov ("House of Jacob").
ונהגו לומר בכל ששת ימי החול תפלה לדוד מפני שכתוב בו הורני ה' דרכך
It became the custom to say "A prayer of David" on all six weekdays, because it says in it, "Teach me Your way, Hashem."
ביום תחנה אומרים תפלה לדוד קודם בית יעקב כי מזמור זה תקנו דוד הע"ה לאומרו ביום צרה
On a day of pleading we say "A prayer of David" before Beit Yaakov, because King David set this psalm to be said on a day of trouble.
ומנהג בני ספרד כל יום שאין בו נ"א אין אומרים למנצח יענך ביום צרה ולא תפלה לדוד
The custom of Sephardic Jews: on any day without Nefilat Apayim (Tachanun), we do not say Lamenatzeach, "May Hashem answer you on the day of trouble," and not "A prayer of David."
זה המזמור חברו דוד בעודנו בורח מפני שאול
David wrote this psalm while he was running from Shaul.
לא חסיד אני שכל מלכי מזרח ומערב יושבים אגודות אגודות בכבודם ואני ידי מלוכלכות בדם ובשפיר ובשליא כדי לטהר אשה לבעלה
Am I not a chasid? All the kings of the east and west sit in groups in their honor, and my hands are dirty with blood and afterbirth, so that I can make a woman pure for her husband.
שלא יהא לבי פונה אילך ואילך אלא יחד אותי ליראה שמך ולא אירא מבני אדם אלא שמך לבדך אירא
That my heart not turn this way and that, but that You unite me to fear Your name, so that I do not fear people, only Your name alone.
אודך ה' אלקי בכל לבבי. ביצר טוב וביצר רע שלא יהא בהם עקף
"I will thank You, Hashem my God, with all my heart": with the good inclination and the bad one, so that there is no crookedness in them.
פנה אלי וחנני. אמר דוד רבונו של עולם תפנה מכל עסקיך ופנה אלי וחנני
"Turn to me and be kind to me." David said: Master of the world, turn away from all Your business and turn to me, and be kind to me.
אמר לו עשה עמי אות בחיי אמר לו בחייך איני מודיע בחיי שלמה בנך אני מודיע
David said to Him: Make me a sign in my lifetime. God said to him: In your lifetime I will not make it known. In the lifetime of your son Shlomo I will make it known.
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