Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

David is identified as the author of this psalm.

It appears to have been written during the time before he was firmly established as king of Israel, when he was still in danger from those of the house of Saul (who had been king, but who had fallen out of favor with God, leading God to have David anointed as the new king in Saul's place, as described in 1 Samuel, chapters 15 and 16).

Saul and those still loyal to him then embarked on a campaign to kill David for taking the throne away from Saul, although David had done no wrong, and, in fact, spared Saul on multiple occasions when David could have killed him.

In this psalm, David is asking God for His protection. "Keep me as the apple of your eye" is asking God to guard David just as much as if David were the pupil (spoken of figuratively as an apple) of God's eye. (A person would naturally guard the pupil of their eye with special care, since, if the pupil were injured, the person would be blind. Although God is a spiritual being, David is applying the same imagery to Him, since God is able to see all that is occurring.)

David's request to God to hide him in the shadow of God's wings employs another figure of speech, in which David is asking God to protect him from danger in the same manner in which a bird gathers its young beneath its wings to shelter them from danger.

Jesus used the same imagery in Matthew 23:37 and Luke 13:34 to describe how He as the Second Person of the Trinity (prior to His incarnation) had wanted many times to protect the people of Jerusalem from danger, but they had refused by not heeding God's warnings, or not living in the manner in which God wanted them to live.

May 15 2015 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report