TUESDAY 26th
Psalm 17
NIV (v8) – ‘Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.’
ESV (v8) – ‘Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.’
In our previous Psalm, the psalmist had put on record that the LORD was making known to him the path of life, in today’s Psalm he says ‘My steps have held fast to your paths; my feet have not slipped.’ On another occasion he reminds us that ‘the steps of a man are established by the LORD’. (Psalm 37:23) On Sunday I mentioned Job and we turn to him again where he also says ‘My foot has held fast to his steps; I have kept his way and have not turned aside.’ (Job 23:11) O how important it is for us to keep in step with the Scripture, with the Spirit and with the Saviour. ‘All the way my Saviour leads me, what have I to ask beside? Can I doubt his tender mercy, who thro’ life has been my guide . . . all the way my Saviour leads me, cheers each winding path I tread, gives me grace for every trial, feeds me with the Living Bread . . . all the way my Saviour leads me; Oh, the fulness of his love! Perfect rest to me is promised in my Father’s house above.’ (Redemption Hymnal 455, Making Melody 447)
In this Psalm, the psalmist makes the statement that is true for everyone who is walking on the right pathway, the pathway of life, he says ‘keep me as the apple of your eye’ This phrase is found elsewhere in Scripture, for example in Deuteronomy ‘He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.’ (32:10) and again in Proverbs 7:2 ‘. . . keep my commandments and live; keep my teaching as the apple of your eye.’ And in Zechariah 2:8 ‘For thus said the LORD of hosts, after his glory sent me to the nations who plundered you, for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye.’
What does this mean? Some other translations instead of the ‘apple of your eye’ have ‘pupil of your eye’ (CSB, NET) It speaks of the fact that David had value and worth and David didn’t want that to be lost, and God looks at each one of us and says ‘You are the apple of my eye’ and as such he will treasure us and protect us, so the translation ‘pupils of your eye’ expresses that just as one would do all they can to protect their eyes from danger, from the intrusion of foreign objects or any such thing that would cause damage to the eye, so God will protect us, without wanting to disrespectful, we have inbuilt protection for our literal eyes, eyelashes and eyelids, and God in protecting us as the apple or the pupil of his eye becomes our eyelashes, eyelids, he becomes our protector and protection. When I worked in the garage when leaving school, as the new boy, I was always getting something in my eyes, dirt, dust, bits of metal while grinding, fortunately the eye hospital was right opposite the garage so it was easy for me to go and get the medical help, but when a piece of metal hit the eye it was painful, I still have a scar on one eye from where I burnt it, the problem was that there was protection available in the way of goggles, but it was far too easy to not bother to put them on and hope for the best. May we never be like that in our Christian walk, but may we always take up the protection that is available to us, the LORD God himself who is willing to protect us as the apple or the pupil of his eye. Remember God cares for you he treasures you and he is willing to be your protector. In the same verse the psalmist continues ‘hide me in the shadow of your wings’, let us make sure that when trouble assails us, we run under his wings.