Protection and Favor (Psalm 17:8)

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

Oh, what imagery in this Psalm, in all these Psalms.

Psalm 17:8 Teaches We are Loved Dearly by God

I love the Psalms and specifically here in this verse. This prayer that God would keep the Psalmist as the apple of his eye, which just pause there. There’s so much there. One, that we as rebellious sinners, for the Holy God of the universe would even be able to consider ourselves as the apple of his eye. This is what the Bible teaches. We are made in the image of God and loved by God, and for all who trust in Jesus, you know God as father. Just picture a dad in this world who so loves his children. They are the apple of his eye. He just shines when he thinks about them. He looks at them and spends time with them and he loves them.

This is not an unhealthy picture of a child trying to earn their dad’s approval. This is a picture of a father, a dad who delights in his kids. And this is the picture we have of God as our father. He’s delighting in you and me as his children. But not in a way that we’re then compelled to try to earn his favor, but in a way that we just want to stay there close to him. We want to be in intimate, close, wonderful, encouraging, enjoyable relationship with him as the apple of his eye. Don’t you want that today? Just to walk so closely with God as your father enjoying his love for you, walking in love for him.

Psalm 17:8 Reminds Us of the Privilege of an Intimate Relationship with God

And then the second phrase here in this verse, Psalm 17:9, “Hide me in the shadow of your wings”. Oh, yes. That picture of closeness, of intimacy just goes to a whole nother level, that in this image, you’ve got the wings of, I don’t know, an eagle, picture being nestled in the shelter and shadow and protection and provision of someone who is caring for you. Don’t you want to live there today?

Oh God, we praise you for the pure, holy, unimaginable, awesome, breathtaking, mind-blowing, life-transforming privilege of being the apple of your eye. God, help us to see ourselves today with this dignity and honor and delight that you bestow on us. God, help us not to live today with our heads hanging low in any way when we think about who we are, who you’ve made us to be, and Jesus, how you have saved us from our sin and our shame.

You’ve lifted our heads, we’ve been restored to relationship with you. We’re continually being conformed into your image, and we say yes. We just want more of that today. Lord, we want to walk closely with you. We want to experience your delight over us as we delight in you. God, we want to live today in the shadow of your wings, in your shelter, in your protection, in your provision over our lives.

Praying for the Jewish People

Yes, God, yes to all of this. Psalm 17:8, keep us as the apple of your eye. Hide us in the shadow of your wings. And God, help us to invite other people into this relationship with you, to lead other people to become your sons and daughters as we share the gospel with them. God, we pray that you would bring in all the peoples of the earth. We pray specifically today, especially in light of Holy Week that we’ve just walked through and what happened in Jerusalem, and how Jewish people in that day, along with the Romans, rejected you.

God, we pray for Jewish people around the world to be reached with the good news of your grace, for people in the United States of Jewish heritage or Jewish faith, and far from the United States, scattered around the world. God, we pray that you would draw in many, many Jewish men, women, and children to trust in you, Jesus, as the one who has made the way for their sins to be forgiven and their lives to be restored to you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.