Kept As The Apple Of His Eye Series

Introduction: The Cry for a Fair Hearing

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, have you ever felt utterly misunderstood? Have you ever been in a situation where your motives were questioned, your character was attacked, and your name was dragged through the mud? In those moments, what is the deepest longing of your heart? It is to be heard. Not just to be listened to, but to be truly heard by someone who can see the truth, someone who can judge rightly, someone who knows your heart. This is the very place where we find King David in Psalm 17. This is not a song of public worship for the congregation; this is a raw, private, and desperate prayer. The title in many of our Bibles simply calls it, "A Prayer of David." And in this prayer, David gives us a divine blueprint for how to approach God when the world is against us, when we feel isolated, and when all we want is justice and protection. The prayer begins with an urgent plea in verse 1:

"Hear the right, O LORD, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips."

David doesn't just ask God to hear him; he asks God to "Hear the right." He is not just crying out for relief; he is appealing to the very character of God as a God of justice. And notice the qualifier he adds: his prayer does not come from "feigned lips." It's not fake. It's not a performance. It is a cry from the depths of a sincere soul. This is our first lesson today: Our access to God's throne room is paved with authenticity. God is not interested in polished, perfect prayers that we think He wants to hear. He is interested in the real cry of your heart. He invites you to come as you are misunderstood, hurting, accused-and to speak to Him without pretense.

I: The Confidence of a Tested Heart (vv. 2-5)

Having established his sincerity, David then makes a bold request. Look at verse 2:

"Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; let thine eyes behold the things that are equal."

Imagine that! "Lord, I bypass every human court. I bypass the court of public opinion. I submit my case directly to Your Supreme Court in heaven. You be my judge and my jury." Why could he be so confident? Because he knew he had been tested. Verse 3 is one of the most searching verses in all the Psalms:

"Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress."

David isn't claiming sinless perfection. The original language suggests that God had sifted him like wheat and found no duplicity, no wicked scheme, no hidden malice. He is saying, "Lord, you've looked deep within me, in the secret hours of the night when no one else is watching, and you know my purpose. You know my heart's intention is to follow you."

He then grounds this purpose in God's Word. In verses 4 and 5, he says that it is "by the word of thy lips" that he has kept himself from the paths of the destroyer, and he pleads, "Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not."

Here is the profound truth: Our integrity is not self-made; it is God-tested and Grace-sustained. We can stand before God not because we are perfect, but because our purpose is to please Him, and we depend wholly on His Word to guide us and His grace to hold us up when we are about to stumble. We cannot walk the righteous path on our own. We must cry out daily, "Lord, hold me up!"

II: The Petition for Precious Protection (vv. 6-9)

Having laid his heart bare, David's prayer shifts. It moves from a plea for justice to a petition for protection. And here, in the center of this Psalm, we find its most beautiful and enduring image. Let's read verses 7 and 8:

"Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them. Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,"

My friends, let these words sink into your soul today. "Keep me as the apple of the eye." What is the "apple of the eye"? In Hebrew, it literally means 'the little man of the eye,' referring to the tiny reflection of yourself that you can see in another person's pupil. It is the most sensitive, most vulnerable, and most instinctively protected part of the entire body. If a speck of dust comes near your eye, your eyelid shuts automatically. You will throw up your hands to protect it without a second thought.