The Pupil and the Predator
Introduction: Prayer on the Battlefield
We live in a therapeutic age that wants a domesticated God. We want a deity who is a celestial guidance counselor, a divine affirmation machine, a cosmic butler who brings us warm milk and tells us everything is going to be alright. But the God of the Bible is a warrior, and His people are soldiers. The Psalms are not a collection of inspirational quotes for coffee mugs; they are a war-time prayer book. They teach us how to speak to God from the trenches, with the enemy's hot breath on our necks.
This psalm, a prayer of David, is a masterclass in what we might call covenantal combat prayer. It is not the vague, sentimental wishing that often passes for prayer in our day. It is a direct, bold, and urgent appeal to the sovereign King of the universe, made from a position of extreme peril. David is surrounded. He is being hunted. And his response is not to panic, nor is it to posture. His response is to call upon the only one who can save him, and to do so with the confidence of a son appealing to his father, a soldier to his king.
Here we learn the grammar of faith under fire. We see how to appeal to God’s character, how to plead for His protection using some of the most intimate and powerful metaphors in all of Scripture, and how to honestly assess the nature of the enemy we face. The world is full of lions, and they are always hungry. If you do not know how to pray like this, you will be devoured. This is not a prayer for the faint of heart; it is a prayer for the blood-bought children of God who know they are in a fight.
The Text
I have called upon You, for You will answer me, O God;
Incline Your ear to me, hear my speech.
Marvelously show Your lovingkindnesses,
O Savior of those who take refuge at Your right hand
From those who rise up against them.
Keep me as the apple of the eye;
Hide me in the shadow of Your wings
From the wicked who devastate me,
My deadly enemies who surround me.
They have closed their unfeeling heart,
With their mouth they speak proudly.
They have now surrounded us in our steps;
They set their eyes to cast us down to the ground.
He is like a lion that is eager to tear,
And as a young lion lurking in hiding places.
(Psalm 17:6-12 LSB)
The Logic of Faith (v. 6)
The prayer begins not with a question, but with a confident assertion.
"I have called upon You, for You will answer me, O God; Incline Your ear to me, hear my speech." (Psalm 17:6)
Notice the logic. It is not "I call in the desperate hope that you might hear." It is "I call because you will answer." This is the logic of a covenant relationship. David is not casting a bottle into the cosmic ocean; he is picking up the phone to a number he knows will be answered. This is presuppositional prayer. He begins with God. He begins with the settled fact of God's faithfulness. Our prayers should not be attempts to get God's attention, as though He were distracted. They are the confident exercise of a blood-bought privilege.
The plea, "Incline Your ear to me," is a beautiful anthropomorphism. It pictures the infinite God leaning down, stooping to catch the whisper of His child. It is a request for intimate, focused attention. In a world of noise, distraction, and accusation, the believer asks for the ear of the King. And because of Christ, we have it. We do not come to God on the basis of our righteousness, but on the basis of Christ's. Therefore, we can come with this same boldness, knowing that the Father always hears the Son, and we are in the Son.
A Marvelous Salvation (v. 7)
Having established the basis for his hearing, David specifies the nature of his request.
"Marvelously show Your lovingkindnesses, O Savior of those who take refuge at Your right hand From those who rise up against them." (Psalm 17:7)
He does not ask for a mundane deliverance. He asks God to "marvelously show" His lovingkindnesses. The Hebrew word for lovingkindness is hesed. This is one of the great words of the Old Testament. It means covenant loyalty, steadfast love, unfailing mercy. David is asking God to put His hesed on public display in a spectacular, astonishing way. He wants a deliverance that makes the evening news, a salvation that makes the enemy's jaw drop and causes the saints to sing.
He appeals to God's character and His established reputation. He is the "Savior of those who take refuge at Your right hand." God has a track record. His "right hand" is the symbol of His power and authority. Those who run to Him for safety, placing themselves under His mighty protection, will be saved from those who rise up against them. This is a prayer that boxes God in by His own promises. It is, in effect, saying, "Lord, you are the God who does this. This is your job description. Now, do it for me, and do it marvelously."
Two Metaphors of Intimate Protection (v. 8)
David now employs two of the most tender and powerful images for divine protection found anywhere in Scripture.
"Keep me as the apple of the eye; Hide me in the shadow of Your wings" (Psalm 17:8)
First, "Keep me as the apple of the eye." The "apple" here is the pupil, the most delicate, sensitive, and jealously guarded part of the body. Think about your own reflexes. If anything comes toward your eye, your hand flies up, your eyelid slams shut. You protect it instinctively and fiercely. To pray this is to ask God to give you His most reflexive, vigilant, and tender protection. It is to ask that God would see any attack on you as an attack on the most sensitive part of Himself. The prophet Zechariah says that he who touches you touches the apple of His eye (Zech. 2:8). This is a prayer for God to be jealous for your safety.
Second, "Hide me in the shadow of Your wings." This evokes the image of a mother bird gathering her chicks under her wings at the first sign of a predator. The hawk may be circling overhead, but the chicks are safe, warm, and hidden in the place of ultimate security. It is a picture of complete dependence and perfect peace in the midst of mortal danger. Jesus Himself lamented over Jerusalem with this same imagery: "how often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling" (Matt. 23:37). To pray this is to abandon all self-reliance and run to the only true shelter.
The Anatomy of the Wicked (vv. 9-12)
To appreciate the refuge, we must understand the threat. David now gives a chillingly accurate diagnosis of his enemies.
"From the wicked who devastate me, My deadly enemies who surround me. They have closed their unfeeling heart, With their mouth they speak proudly. They have now surrounded us in our steps; They set their eyes to cast us down to the ground. He is like a lion that is eager to tear, And as a young lion lurking in hiding places." (Psalm 17:9-12)
First, note their character. They are "wicked" and "deadly." Their hearts are "unfeeling." The literal Hebrew is that they have "closed up their fat." This is a biblical image for a heart that has become calloused, arrogant, and insensitive through prosperity and pride. A person with a fatty heart cannot feel, cannot sympathize, and cannot repent. This internal corruption manifests itself in their speech: "With their mouth they speak proudly." Arrogance is the native language of the ungodly heart.
Second, note their strategy. They "surround" their prey. This is not a distant threat; it is immediate and enclosing. "They have now surrounded us in our steps." They watch every move, looking for a misstep, an opportunity to trip up the righteous. Their goal is total humiliation and destruction: "They set their eyes to cast us down to the ground." They want to see the godly brought low.
Finally, note their essential nature. David sums it all up in a single, terrifying image: "He is like a lion." The enemy is not a misguided debater. He is a predator. He is ferocious, "eager to tear," and cunning, "lurking in hiding places." This is not an opponent you can reason with. This is an adversary who wants to eat you. The apostle Peter picks up this very image to describe our ultimate enemy: "your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). The wicked men who surrounded David were simply the lion's cubs, doing the work of their father.
Conclusion: Praying from the Shadow
This psalm is a gift to the church militant. We are surrounded. The lions of secularism, of sexual rebellion, of proud atheism, speak proudly. They have closed their fatty hearts to the truth of God. They watch our steps, eager to see us cast down to the ground. They want to devastate the church, to tear it limb from limb.
What is our response? It is not to cower, and it is not to trust in our own cleverness or strength. Our response is to run to our Savior. It is to pray with covenantal confidence, "Incline your ear to me." It is to plead with God to act for the glory of His own name, "Marvelously show your hesed." And it is to find our security in the safest place in the universe: held as the very pupil of God's eye, hidden in the shadow of His almighty wings.
The great Lion of Judah was surrounded by these lesser lions. They cast Him down to the ground and tore at Him on the cross. But God's right hand marvelously showed its power, and raised Him from the dead. Because we are united to Him, the lions that surround us have been defanged. They can roar, but they cannot ultimately destroy. Therefore, we can pray this prayer with even greater confidence than David, knowing that the ultimate predator has been defeated, and we are eternally secure.