Devotional Thought From Psalm 17:8–15
Psalm 17:8–15
8 Keep me as the apple of the eye,
Hide me under the shadow of thy wings,
9 From the wicked that oppress me,
From my deadly enemies, who compass me about.
10 They are inclosed in their own fat:
With their mouth they speak proudly.
11 They have now compassed us in our steps:
They have set their eyes bowing down to the earth;
12 Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey,
And as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.
13 Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down:
Deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:
14 From men which are thy hand, O LORD,
From men of the world, which have their portion in this life,
And whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure:
They are full of children,
And leave the rest of their substance to their babes.
15 As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness:
I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.
I have always been weird about my eyes.
I can’t stand the thought of something touching them. I need contacts but will never have them because the thought gives me heebie jeebies. When I played basketball in school, I kept imagining getting my eyes poked and asked my mom to buy some James Worthy glasses. She said no, I didn’t need them to see and I would look like an “alien dork”. Sorry James, she said it, not me.
I had an uncle who would touch his eyeball and move it with his finger and then fold his eyelids back. I still feel like I need therapy from being forced to see that. Thanks Eddie, I’m sure you are looking down and laughing just to know that!
You should see me try to use eye drops. I just can’t keep my eye open. I always have drops everywhere but my eye. Have you ever seen a fella with eye drops on his toes? Come over some time.
My point is that I am very protective over my eyes.
It is common to be protective of your eyes but maybe I take it too far.
So, what does my eye paranoia have to do with today’s Psalm?
Psalm 17 is the first one that is actually labeled a prayer although we know many more of them are prayers. There are a couple of verses in this prayer that especially bless my heart.
The first blessing is in verse 8.
“Keep me as the apple of the eye.”
The term apple of the eye is an old English phrase that meant the pupil. David is asking the Lord to protect him as though he were the pupil of his eye. Our reflexes are designed by God so that when something is coming toward our eyes we blink and boy is that flicker fast!
Protect me like that Lord!
Of course, over time the expression “apple of the eye” has come to mean an object of affectionate focus. I believe both apply to God’s children.
He loves us and keeps us until we are with him forever in our Heavenly home.
The last verse of the prayer is also so special to me and is the second blessing I want to discuss.
As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness:
I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.
Psalm 17:15
David prayed for earthly deliverance from his enemies throughout the Psalm, but then at the end he acknowledges a need for another kind of deliverance. He needs a deliverance from himself.
It is the hope of every believer that when we finally see our Lord, he will deliver us from that old sin nature that we fight daily.
We grow ever so slow, always imperfect, always incomplete. John said in his first epistle,
“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”
1 John 3:2
I look forward to that day when I will never have to confess again.
The day is coming when I will never have to say I am sorry for some stupid sin. Until that day I pray he will protect and keep me like I protect my eyes.