What Does Psalm 86:16 Mean?
Turn toward me, and favor me; give your strength to your servant, and deliver the son of your maidservant.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
O turn unto me, and have mercy upon me; give thy strength unto thy servant, and save the son of thine handmaid.THE KEY
Mercy, strength, and rescue form one movement: favor meets the speaker’s weakness and carries him toward deliverance.
THE MEANING
The verse gives your need direct words: turn toward me, show me favor, give me strength, deliver me. The speaker names a dependent place, servant, child of a handmaid, without hiding it from God. Strength and deliverance are asked for as gifts received.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that weakness makes you unworthy to ask: the speaker asks for strength precisely as a servant in need.
THE ROOT
וְהוֹשִׁיעָה
wəhôšîʿāh
GROWS FROM
ישע
Deliver; bring out into safety and spaciousness.
“deliver” in this verse is wəhôšîʿāh. The verb translated “save” names being brought out of constriction into safety and room. In this plea, deliverance follows the requests for favor and strength: the speaker asks to be brought out through help received.
ALSO GROWS
yeshuʿah: Deliverance.
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun names the deliverance the speaker asks to receive.
moshīaʿ: Deliverer.
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This branch names the one who brings another out, making the verse’s request relational.
וְחָנֵּנִי
wəḥonnēnî
GROWS FROM
חנן
Show favor; act generously toward someone.
“favor me” in this verse is wəḥonnēnî. The word behind “have mercy” is חָנֵּנִי (ḥonnēnî, show me favor), from חנן (ḥanan, show favor). This family names both favor itself and the gracious one, joining what the speaker asks for with the nature of the one addressed.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēn: Favor.
חֵן
This noun names the favor the speaker asks to receive.
ḥannūn: Gracious; favor-giving.
חַנּוּן
This branch describes one who shows favor, giving the request for mercy a personal source.
עֻזְּךָ
ʿuzzekha
GROWS FROM
עזז
Be strong or mighty; the related noun names strength and might.
עֹז (ʿoz, strength) belongs to the word family of עזז (ʿazaz, be strong). The speaker does not claim strength as something already possessed: it is asked for and given to the dependent one. Might becomes part of the appeal for deliverance.
ALSO GROWS
ʿoz: Strength; might.
עֹז
This is the noun used in the verse for the strength the servant asks to receive.
ʿazaz: Be strong; be mighty.
עָזַז
This verb names the state behind the requested strength.
THE PATTERN
Need is voiced directly, and favor is sought as concrete help and strength.
Turn your face to me and show me favor, for I am alone and bowed down.Let us therefore draw near, with open speech, to the throne of favor, that we may receive compassion, and find favor to help in the right moment.And he said to me, "My favor is enough for you, for strength is carried to its end in weakness." Most gladly, then, I will boast all the more in my weaknesses, so that the strength of the Anointed One may pitch its tent over me.THE THREAD
Favor me, O Lord, for to you I call out all the day.Psalm 86:3 uses חָנֵּנִי (ḥonnēnî, show me favor), from חנן (ḥanan, show favor), the same root as “have mercy” here. The psalm repeats its request for favor before asking for strength and deliverance, carrying the plea forward.
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