Apple of His Eye


Psalm 17
A Prayer of David.
1Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry! Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!
2From your presence let my vindication come! Let your eyes behold the right!
3You have tried my heart, you have visited me by night, you have tested me, and you will find nothing; I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress.
4With regard to the works of man, by the word of your lips I have avoided the ways of the violent.
5My steps have held fast to your paths; my feet have not slipped.
6I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; incline your ear to me; hear my words.
7Wondrously show your steadfast love, O Savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand.
8Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings,
9from the wicked who do me violence, my deadly enemies who surround me.
10They close their hearts to pity; with their mouths they speak arrogantly.
11They have now surrounded our steps; they set their eyes to cast us to the ground.
12He is like a lion eager to tear, as a young lion lurking in ambush.
13Arise, O Lord! Confront him, subdue him! Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword,
14from men by your hand, O Lord, from men of the world whose portion is in this life. You fill their womb with treasure; they are satisfied with children, and they leave their abundance to their infants.
15As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.

In just the right lighting situation, and if you are close enough you can see reflected objects in the pupil/iris of a person’s eye. There are hundreds of pictures on the internet of such. I suspect most of them are Photoshop enhanced, so I just picked one at random that looked the most real. Anyway, I just couldn’t get my mind off of that verse today. “Keep me as the apple of your eye.” Only four times in Scripture is the “apple of the eye” is even mentioned. In all four cases it is used as an illustration of that which needs extra protection because it is vulnerable.

Deuteronomy 32:10
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.

Proverbs 7:1–3
My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you; keep my commandments and live; keep my teaching as the apple of your eye; bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.

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:

Psalm 17:8
Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.

In Psalm 17 the Hebrew word for this “apple” actually also includes the word “daughter”. That’s an interesting inclusion, isn’t it? Those of us who have raised daughters know that protecting them seems to be of utmost importance in our minds. Despite the current ethos in the culture, God created women to be protected. You can say that isn’t politically correct and once again, I don’t care.

Our eyes are amazingly complex, terribly fragile, irreplaceable, and valuable. We take measures to protect them. And in this psalm, David conjures up that image of himself as fragile and in great need of protection from the only true source of power and strength, his loving God and Savior. Despite the many enemies that surround him, he knows that they are absolutely nothing when compared to His Protector. The psalm ends with I shall be satisfied with your likeness. I want to be so close to the Father that He can see His reflection in my eyes. There’s the bottom line. I’m so close to Him that He protects me perfectly from every kind of attack and when He looks at me He see Himself.

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