April 17, 2012 … Seeking God’s Protection

Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: Psalm 17 … To study these chapters, go to this link -
============
Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: Psalm 35 … To study these chapters, go to this link -
============
Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: Psalm 54 … To study these chapters, go to this link -
============
Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: Psalm 63 … To study these chapters, go to this link -

============
Highlight Passage of the Day #1: Psalms 17: 8 … Keep me as the apple of your eye;
hide me in the shadow of your wings …
============
Highlight Passage of the Day #2: Deuteronomy 32: 10-11 … 10 In a desert land he found him [i.e. Israel], in a barren and howling waste. … He [God] shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye, 11 like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft.

My Journal for Today: Four more of the Davidic Psalms today in my chronological read; and all of these passages are more of the very emotional songs written by David as he felt so alone and oppressed when he was being pursued by Saul and his enemies.

Have you ever felt lonely in your relationship with God? I’d bet we all have, … in those times when our prayers just seem to be going out but nothing seems to be coming back from God.

Well, … of all the powerful pleas from David during these psalms, one verse, the #1 highlighted passage above, stood out for me with some very poignant and powerful word pictures, reminding me how God is always out there watching over me and protecting my spirit, if not my physical being.

Meditate closely on Psalm 17, verse 8 above. Note the word picture of David’s plea to have God protect him “… as the apple of [God’s] eye,” which is the Hebrew word, “iyshown,” which translates literally into English as “the pupil of the eye.” The eye, of course, is the organ of sight and therefore one of the most precious human organs in our body; and we know that God protects the pupil, i.e., the vessel of vision, with a covering, … the eye-lid. Here David is pleading with God to cover his ability to see life with the covering that only God can provide when we’re having trouble seeing our way through life. And isn’t that a wonderfully accurate picture of how we all feel at times when our “vision” of life seems obscured or blurred by what is going on in our circumstances. Oh, how we desire that God would help us see His way and His will during such times … i.e., for Him to protect our vision.

And then David follows this plea for protection with another very poignant word picture, pleading for God to cover him protectively … just as a mother eagle covers her chicks with her wings of protection from the elements. Actually David may have known these images from a song written by Moses into God’s Book of the Law (copied above in highlight passage #2 from Deut. 32: 10-11), where Moses sung of how God protected His beloved chosen ones, i.e., “Israel,” … as the “apple of His eye” and under His wings of protection.

Dear one, when our vision seems to be obscured by life’s oppressive circumstances; and when we feel very vulnerable to what life is showering down upon us, we must remember that God will always be there – for the obedient believer – covering us as the apple of His eye and like the chick who needs the covering of the mama eagle with her wings protecting us. God’s promise is that He will always be there, never leaving us or forsaking us (see Deut. 31: 6,8 and Heb. 13: 5).

My Prayer Today: … Lord, cover me; ... with your ever protective wings and as the apple of Your eye. Amen