NOTES for Psa 86
The psalmist is aware of his poverty, and this is not merely material poverty, although David experienced hardship more than once during his wanderings. But he seems to be speaking of another kind of poverty, the one that will be called poverty of spirit.
It is precisely because of this poverty that he becomes able to hear God and accept what He tells him. Therefore, as he asks the Lord for protection from his enemies, the psalmist grieves that they do not set God before them. Thus, his struggle with his enemies becomes not a simple confrontation between “us” and “them,” but a defense of hope in the Lord before a world that does not know Him or is hostile to Him.
Yet even when surrounded by enemies, in the midst of a world ruled by hostility, the psalmist proclaims that all nations will glorify the Lord. Nothing human gave him reason to make such assertions. But these words were not dictated by human reason. David heard this because he was open to God.