Guard Me as the Apple of Your Eye
A prayer for protection in times of danger and distress
One of the great joys of my life is getting to be a part of my nieces’ and nephews’ lives as they have children of their own. Family gatherings find us sitting in a living room with a coffee table in the middle. One of the new babies, now a toddler-in-the-making, will have our attention as she clings to the table with one hand while looking around, puzzled by all the stares.
The climactic moment comes when she takes her hand off the table and tries to take a first step. The family gasps with joy, imploring each other, “Look, look, look!” We watch with hope. We cheer and encourage.
When she inevitably falls, we are prepared to take her hand and help her up with tender encouragement and love. Never have I heard a family member deride a child for only making a step or two before thudding on her diaper. No one ever belittles her with words like “Stupid! Idiot! Loser! Dud!” Instead, she hears, “Way to go!” As her family, we feel a deep instinct to embrace failure and give it meaning so that in the future she will have the courage and the self-confidence to keep trying and developing. We all want her to embrace the truth that growth comes from risk-taking, from putting yourself out there.
Every way we seek to do good or conduct ministry involves the risk-taking implicit in putting our hearts on public display. And people aren’t as kind to an adult trying to walk in a new way of discipleship to Jesus as we are with unsteady toddlers. At this point in your faith journey, do you long to hear some kind words of Divine affection? One of the most cherished expressions of Divine acceptance and love is God naming us “the apple of his eye.”
Deuteronomy 32:10 says, “God shields and cares for his people and keeps them as the apple of his eye.” King David, picking up this ancient tradition, prayed for God to:
Wondrously show your steadfast love, O savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand. Guard me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings….
Psalm 17:7-8 (NRSV)
Psalm 17 arises from a time in David’s life when he was besieged by an enemy. In danger and distress, feeling pressured and insecure about the future, he asks God for what he needs: warm, accepting, protective love—to be kept and guarded as the apple of God’s eye. This refers to an experience of God’s safety and protection in the way a loving father watches over the growth, trials, risks, and failures of his beloved children. This watchfulness includes a magnificent invitation: When we lose our balance and sin or when we doubt our standing and fall down, we never need to turn away from God in shame.
Seeing our genuine attempts at transformation into Christlikeness for the sake of becoming his agents of healing, benevolence, and justice, God never calls out “Fool! Jerk! Moron! Failure!” God loves, respects, and admires our attempts at spiritual growth. He experiences abundant joy from our efforts at transformation and obedience.
Instead of fleeing from a god we assume harshly judges us, we are invited to say yes to the welcome implied by God’s outstretched hand and run to it, knowing we will be held in the strength of his boundless love.
The knowledge of God’s abundant and tender love enables repentance. It gives us the courage to take a fearless inventory of our moral and social life and then to share our findings directly, frankly, and vulnerably with God. In return, God’s love is expressed through his strong right hand reaching out to stabilize and assure us as we take steps to follow Jesus for the sake of serving others.
As you press ahead in discipleship, remember who you are: You are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for [you] to do (Ephesians 2:10). Our feelings of unsteadiness when we try to walk in good works in difficult circumstances are real, but something else is ultimately determinative: God’s handiwork. You can place your confidence in his workmanship in you and what he is accomplishing through you. You, and your process of repentance and re-formation, are God’s making—they are what God is up to in your life. Your inward formation and outward ministry are God’s creation, his masterpiece, his work of art.
Therefore, we profess with reverent adoration:
God’s looking after me, keeping me safe in the kingdom of heaven. All praise to him, praise forever! Oh, yes!
2 Tim. 4:18 (MSG)