Psalm 17: 1 – 15
The little man in His eye
1 Hear a just cause, O LORD, attend to my cry; Give ear to my prayer which is not from deceitful lips. 2 Let my vindication come from Your presence; Let Your eyes look on the things that are upright. 3 You have tested my heart; You have visited me in the night; You have tried me and have found nothing; I have purposed that my mouth shall not transgress. 4 Concerning the works of men, by the word of Your lips, I have kept away from the paths of the destroyer. 5 Uphold my steps in Your paths, that my footsteps may not slip. 6 I have called upon You, for You will hear me, O God; Incline Your ear to me, and hear my speech. 7 Show Your marvelous lovingkindness by Your right hand, O You who save those who trust in You from those who rise up against them. 8 Keep me as the apple of Your eye; Hide me under the shadow of Your wings, 9 From the wicked who oppress me, from my deadly enemies who surround me. 10 They have closed up their fat hearts; With their mouths they speak proudly. 11 They have now surrounded us in our steps; They have set their eyes, crouching down to the earth, 12 As a lion is eager to tear his prey, and like a young lion lurking in secret places. 13 Arise, O LORD, confront him, cast him down; Deliver my life from the wicked with Your sword, 14 With Your hand from men, O LORD, from men of the world who have their portion in this life, and whose belly You fill with Your hidden treasure. They are satisfied with children and leave the rest of their possession for their babes. 15 As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.
Our English phrase the apple of your eye is a helpful translation of the Hebrew, which is the little man of the eye. When you look into someone’s eye, you can see yourself reflected in the pupil of their eyeball as a little person. Also, your eye is the most vulnerable part of your body. You protect it by blinking or turning your face turning away from a ball or a blow. When we think about this term we should think of presence and protection.
In today’s scripture we come across some of the most beautiful words ever recorded. David says in Psalm 17 that he is the apple of God’s eye.
What does this mean? It means that God will keep an eye on him and protect him. Why? Because David is precious to him.
How can David claim to be the apple of God’s eye? And, what about us? How can we be the apple of God’s eye?
It’s because we are united to the true apple of God’s eye. At the baptism of Jesus, the voice of God the Father says, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). Jesus Is the very apple of God’s eye.
However, there’s a twist. Instead of protecting him at all costs like we always do with our eyes, instead of flinching away, deflecting the coming suffering, it pleased him to crush his own son for us.
Like David before him, Jesus pleaded with God in as he beheld the cup appointed for him. He knew the terror and horror of that cup of divine wrath. But he received no answer. Jesus pleaded his case before the Father like David does in Psalm 17, but it wasn’t “deliver me from my enemies because of your faithful covenant-keeping love, but deliver me over to my enemies and fulfill your covenant-keeping love.” The Son’s pleading to his Father was to, “fulfill your promise made before the foundation of the world that I would keep the law and satisfy the just requirements for their sin, usher in the New Creation, redeem them from bondage to sin death and Satan and wrap them into my family.”
Because of the true Son of David, we become the apple of God’s eye. We are children of God adopted and cherished in Jesus Christ. He has his eye on you. He protects you. What great news! It humbles and strengthens us.
When our Holy Father God Yahweh looks into your eyes He sees His Beloved Son Jesus and all His Righteousness. Thank you, Lord.
1 Hear a just cause, O LORD, attend to my cry; Give ear to my prayer which is not from deceitful lips. 2 Let my vindication come from Your presence; Let Your eyes look on the things that are upright.
The psalmist is under attack by the world and cries to YHWH to vindicate him. The verb indicates that his cry is strong and piercing. ‘O YHWH, righteousness’ might signify that it is God Who Is his righteousness (‘YHWH of righteousness’), or that he wants YHWH to judge righteously.
The scene is the heavenly court. He declares that he is speaking honestly and has nothing to hide. There is no deceit on his lips. He asks that he might be justified in the eyes of all men as YHWH passes judgment on his life and behavior. Let YHWH Who knows all things hear his plea, and come to the right verdict, the right judgment, and make it known to the world (Isaiah 42.1-4). His eyes look down on what is totally right.
3 You have tested my heart; You have visited me in the night; You have tried me and have found nothing; I have purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.
‘You have proved my heart.’ That is, have tried it and tested it and found out the truth about it.
‘You have visited me in the night.’ The night is the time when men can be alone, and the truth can come out. It is at night that a man’s thoughts roam freely and people consider mischief (36.4). It is also possible that when seeking a solution in a case the judge would visit a man at night when, alone together in privacy, he may be able to discover the truth. But YHWH has visited him and tried him then and found nothing. He is determined that nothing that he says will suggest transgression against God’s Law and against His requirements.
4 Concerning the works of men, by the word of Your lips, I have kept away from the paths of the destroyer. 5 Uphold my steps in Your paths, that my footsteps may not slip.
When he compares his behavior with the behavior of others he can justly claim that because he has heard YHWH’s word from His lips (through His Law) he has kept himself from being an unjustly violent man, even though none might have had better excuse. For he was a trained fighting man, had a band of men at his call, and had been unjustly treated. Yet he has ensured that his steps held fast firmly to YHWH’s paths, and his feet never slipped.
The point of truth we need to take to our thoughts is that what we suffer provides no excuse for how we behave.
6 I have called upon You, for You will hear me, O God; Incline Your ear to me, and hear my speech. 7 Show Your marvelous lovingkindness by Your right hand, O You who save those who trust in You from those who rise up against them.
David calls on YHWH as the Deliverer, the One Who reveals His marvelous covenant love, Who saves by His powerful right hand, confident that He will answer him. He cries to Him to do so. The ‘I’ is emphatic. He has taken refuge in YHWH. Let YHWH deliver him from those who revolt against him, as for one who is true to the covenant.
8 Keep me as the apple of Your eye; Hide me under the shadow of Your wings, 9 From the wicked who oppress me, from my deadly enemies who surround me.
The apple of the eye is the pupil. It represented the precious gift of sight. It is above all things what a man guards, and it is protected by the eyelid. The psalmist wants God to protect him as a man would protect his eyesight, indeed he wants him to be as an eyelid to him. The second illustration is that of the bird which takes its young under its wing for protection. Thus, the psalmist claims dual protection.
The reason that he needs such protection is then given. The unrighteous, those who do not heed the voice of God, are oppressing him and seeking to hurt him. His deadly enemies are surrounding him, those who seek his death. They may have been internal enemies like Saul. They may have been external enemies. But the need is the same. David seeks protection from them all because he is YHWH’s, because he is righteous and does observe YHWH’s Law and YHWH’s will.
Those whose trust is in God can look to God with confidence when unbelievers press in for He will be their eyelid to protect His precious eye, He will take them under His wings to protect His young.
10 They have closed up their fat hearts; With their mouths they speak proudly. 11 They have now surrounded us in our steps; They have set their eyes, crouching down to the earth,
It may be that he vividly pictures his enemies as being entrapped in their own evil. (Different parts of the body are often used to depict the whole person and as thus affecting behavior). They are unable to consider their ways or behave humanely. Their current prosperity they are unable to hear the voice of God and behave righteously. When they speak it is always with pride and arrogance? They have now trapped the psalmist and his men, with their eyes showing their determination to cast them down to the earth.
12 As a lion is eager to tear his prey, and like a young lion lurking in secret places.
The ‘he’ here is some individual who is like a hunting lion greedy for its prey, a prime young lion of the pack lurking in hiding ready to pounce. There is always a ringleader, one who is especially subtle and dangerous. Certainly, David found himself in such a situation against Saul. But many of God’s people experienced the same in those dangerous days. Our enemies may be less deadly, but they can seem as equally dangerous. But God can deliver us from them all.
13 Arise, O LORD, confront him, cast him down; Deliver my life from the wicked with Your sword, 14 With Your hand from men, O LORD, from men of the world who have their portion in this life, and whose belly You fill with Your hidden treasure. They are satisfied with children and leave the rest of their possession for their babes.
‘Arise, O YHWH. Confront him, make him bow down.’ He calls on YHWH to awaken to the situation, and to face up to ‘the lion’, confront him and bring him down to the ground. Let him be rendered powerless. Let YHWH’s sword delivers him from the unrighteous, those who contrary to God’s will seek to bring him down. Let His hand saves him from the men who come against him.
‘From men of the world, whose portion is in this life, and whose belly you fill with your treasure. They are satisfied with children and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.’ He sums up the unrighteous. They are men taken up with the world (John 15.19; Philippians 3.19), men whose sole portion is in this life, (they have no portion in God), their only aim being to bear sons to perpetuate their name and to pass down what they have built up to their children. Thus they ignore God and His ways, their lives are meaningless and inward-looking, and their lives can be summed up in their children and so on ad infinitum. They live a purposeless existence.
And all this although it is YHWH who supplies them with good things, fills their bellies with treasure, making His rain fall equally on the unrighteous (Matthew 5.45) to provide them with the treasures of the harvest.
The whole picture of the unrighteous is of meaninglessness of existence rather than of positive evil. They fail to do the good required by God’s Law. They fail to love their neighbors as themselves. They fail to truly worship God. They fail in all that is most important.
15 As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.
In contrast to his enemies the psalmist beholds YHWH’s face ‘in righteousness’. This may mean that it is because God has accounted him as righteous in that he has responded to Him truly under the covenant, including the necessary making of atonement, or because he sees YHWH as the Righteous One. Either way he considers that to see the face of YHWH is better by far than all that the unrighteous can have.
‘I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with your form.’ When he wakes he will be satisfied if he but behold the ‘form’ of YHWH, as Moses had done before him (Exodus 33.17-23). What are the treasures of earth beside this? His only desire is to live for YHWH and enjoy His presence and see His face.
It is quite probable that we are to see in this his conscious hope of living on forever in the presence of God. The point is that the unrighteous live on in their children, and maintain their treasures by passing them on, while he lives on in beholding YHWH continually and his continuing treasure is found in YHWH. He needs no children or children’s children to be fulfilled because he will find his continual fulfilment in God. And God is his eternal treasure. In his times of ecstasy at least he cannot conceive of being separated from God by anything, not even by death.
‘When I awake.’ Probably not from the sleep of death, for that is a much later concept, but from the sleep of half-realization of YHWH to being awake to the full realization. He is confident that one day he will see Him as He is (1 John 3.1-3). That is all that he desires.
