Is He, forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call on Him? If not you are praying to the wrong God.

“You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you.” Psalm 86:5

 David understood, Psalm 86 is David’s personal prayer — intimate, urgent, confessional. He is in genuine trouble (v.7: ‘in the day of my trouble I will call to , for you will answer me’). And before he brings his specific requests, he grounds his prayer in theology: who is God? His prayer is built on the character of the one he’s praying to.

Three attributes are named in this verse: forgiving (sallāh — ready to pardon, disposed toward forgiveness), good (tōb — inherently beneficial, genuinely favourable), and abounding in love (rav-hesed — rich in covenant love, overflowing with faithful commitment). The word ‘abounding’ is rav — great, abundant, much, full. God’s love is not merely present; it is in excess. And it is ‘to all who call’ — not to those who have earned it, not to those with a sufficiently impressive prayer life, but to all who call. Calling is the only criterion. You don’t have to be worthy of the love; you just have to be willing to call.

You need to understand who you are praying to as David did, only then will you experience real answers to your prayers just as David did. I am sure the answers were not always what David wanted but they were always what he truly needed.