HIS NEAREST AND DEAREST

Psalm 17
HIS NEAREST AND DEAREST
Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings. (v.8)

The expression “The apple of the eye" has entered the English language as an idiom meaning something most tender and most precious, therefore guarded with the utmost care. The "apple" is the pupil of the eye. Try touching it, and the eyelid will close instinctively to protect it.

God's people, Israel, is called the apple of His eye (Deut 32:10). Nothing underlines God's care and protection for His people more dramatically than the declaration made of the LORD Almighty, "...Whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye" (Zech 2:8). To harm a child of God is to touch the pupil of God's eye.

The second imagery is equally tender and vivid. We can almost feel the heart of Jesus breaking as he cried out, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your chickens together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing" (Matt 23.37). He who shed tears over the people would next shed blood for them. His love, as the love of a hen for her chicks, was passionate and sacrificial.

Such is the love and care David counts on in his prayer. How could anyone be more secure than one who dwells under God's wings? How could anyone be more protected than one who resides in God's eye? God guards his own jealously.

The safest place on earth is in the hands of God.