Psalm 86:16

Psalm 86:16

I serve You, just as my mother did

This is, as far as I know, the only reference that David ever makes to his mother, although the statement here is repeated word for word in Psalm 116:16. In Psalm 35:14 he writes, “I bowed down heavily as one that mourns for his mother” but it’s not clear if he is referring to a specific situation involving the loss of his own mum. We have no clues anywhere else as to the character of David’s mother and it is not easy to determine who she was. The language here, however, would seem to imply that she was a godly woman, in some versions this verse is translated as “your handmaid,” a lady then who belonged to the Lord and who served Him faithfully. David now prays that, as he had been devoted to God by her, and had been trained up by her, God would remember all this, and would interfere on his behalf. 

Can it be wrong to plead before God, as a reason for His intervention, that we have been devoted to Him by parental faithfulness and prayer; that we have godly parents who hoped and prayed that we would grow up to serve the Lord as they have?  The man or woman who has had a godly mother has entered into life with considerable advantages; you can be sure that much prayer has accompanied their growing up and their development. Today I am allowed to hope that my mother’s, and father’s, prayers will not be forgotten, but that their example, their teachings, and their devotion to the Lord will still influence my walk until I join them in that heavenly world beyond this one.