Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar;
Psalms 17:8: “Keep me as the apple of your eye, Hide me under the shadow of your wings.”
The idiom “apple of the eye” is really an English idiom ie., a reference to something or someone who is most precious to you. The construction of this phrase is interesting. In the Hebrew it is ‘ishon bath ‘eyin. Literally this means a man daughter eye. Davidson renders ishon as little man, as a reflection from the pupil of the eye. The word bath ‘eyein, daughter of the eye” is a Hebrew idiom for the pupil. Hence you get a little man in the pupil of the eye. The little man is the reflection from the pupil.
My study partner pointed out that this is a picture of an intimacy with God. To have your image kept in the pupil of God’s eye means that he must keep his full attention on you and not be distracted by anything else.
Therefore we come to the next phrase in the passage, “hide me under the shadow of thy wings.” To follow Hebrew poetry this phrase should somehow relate to the previous phrase. That relationship becomes much more clear when we consider the fact that the phrase, “Shadow of His wings,” is an idiomatic expression for the talit, the prayer shawl. The idea of the talit is to cover your head in prayer so as to hide yourself from the world around you. You cover your head to avoid any distractions when you are in prayer to God. It also serves to alert others to the fact that you are in prayer and are not to be disturbed. Hence David is here asking to be hidden under God’s talit. The word hide is “sathar” which has the idea of hiding, but it also means a secret. Many of you who have attended a Jewish wedding probably have seen the bride and groom share a talit. It s a picture that the two will become one in God, sharing together secrets with each other and with God and God sharing His secrets with them.
David is asking in this verse that God will keep his focus on him and him alone and that he be allowed to share God’s secrets under the talit of God.
In this verse we are seeing the heart of David. He is longing for an intimacy with God, one in which he and God are closet together sharing deep intimate things. Note that David is saying; “Keep me” as the apple of your eye. That word is in an imperative not just asking but commanding God to keep him as the apple of His eye.
This is just a thought. Are we to assume that we are automatically the apple of His eye, or should we ask that we be given that position. Salvation does not just happen automatically, we must ask Him. Would it hurt so much if we ask that He make us the apple of His eye?
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