This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome back to week four of our look through the book of
Psalms. This is day two. We're looking at Psalm 17 today.

In Psalm 17, verses one to five, focus on David's steps of holding on to God's
path in his life. Verse five says, "My steps have held to your paths. "My feet
have not slipped.

" And then verses nine to 15, focus on prayers to be saved from the wicked. In
verse 14, David prays, "O Lord, by your hand, save me from such men, "from men
of this world whose reward is in this life. " What I want to do together today is
look closely at verses seven and eight, the verses that stand in between these
two things that David prayed for.

Let me read those verses and then we'll dig into it. Verses seven and eight of
Psalm 17, "Show the wonder of your great love. "You who save by your right hand
"those who take refuge in you from their foes.

"Keep me as the apple of your eye. "Hide me in the shadow of your wings. " So
David is praying and he's asking God in the first part of the Psalm to affirm
and strengthen him in the holy life that he's wanting to live before God.

And he's also asking that God would protect him in the later part of the Psalm
from those who live with a completely selfish value system. As followers of
Christ, this prayer expresses the desire of so many of our hearts. God, I want to
be more like Jesus.

I want to live a more holy life. God, this world around me is such a selfish
place. I don't want to be caught up in it.

I don't want to be destroyed by it. I don't want you to miss what happens in the
middle of this prayer. In the midst of this prayer, he cries out, "God, show me
your great love.

" David, the man after God's own heart, he knew that he needed to know the heart
of God towards him if he was going to hear the answer to this prayer. And even as
he prays, he gives us these pictures of God's great love. There are three
descriptions in this prayer of David in Psalm 17 to never lose sight of in your
life, to keep sight of throughout the day to day.

He says, "God saves you by his right hand. " He says, "God keeps you as the
apple of his eye. " And he says, "God hides you in the shadow of his wings.

" So how does God show you his great love? Well, David says he saves you, he
keeps you, he hides you. He saves you, that means he rescues you.

He keeps you, that means he sustains you throughout the days. And he hides you,
that means he protects you for the future and for all that he has for your life.
Now, God wants to sink these truths into your heart, that he's the one who saves
you, who rescues.

He's the one who keeps you, who will sustain you. He's the one who hides you,
who's going to protect you. And one of the ways that he does that is through the
pictures that he gives David here to pray as he prays these things for his life
and as we pray these things for our lives.

Did you notice the pictures? He saves by his right hand. He keeps as the apple
of his eye.

He hides in the shadow of his wings. Let's dig into those. He saves you by his
right hand.

We looked at this yesterday. The right hand was the strong hand. God's greatest
strength is committed to saving you.

When you think of God as King, his right hand is the hand of blessing. But when
you think of God as Lord, it's the hand of power. And God's power was released
into this world in Jesus Christ.

God himself came into this world. God's greatest strength came into this world
so that you could be saved. Anytime that you're doubting whether you're really
saved, remember, it's not by your power, it's by his power.

It's by his right hand. It's by his great power. And so you hang on to that.

You recognize that. That God's power is what saves you. That's how you know his
great love.

And then he gives us this picture of he keeps you as the apple of his eye. We
use this phrase sometimes, and the phrase is so familiar, it's sometimes lost
its meaning. We hear the apple of somebody's eye and we just think that's the
gleam in their eye.

That's what makes them happy. But that's not the real meaning of this term. The
term apple of somebody's eye has a very particular meaning in Hebrew.

The apple was the pupil of the eye. The apple was the part of your body that you
protect above all others. If someone were to stab at you with a pencil, say
towards your eye, you'd hold up your hand in front of your eye.

Your hand would take the damage so that your eye would be protected. God keeps
you as the apple of his eye, as the one that he most values, as the one that he
would protect no matter what. That's what God is saying about you here.

When he says that he loves you, this is how deeply he loves you and values you.
You need to know that you're rescued by God. You also need to know how deeply
you are valued by God in Jesus Christ, what he has done for you.

So he keeps you not because he has to, not because he's forced to, but because
he loves you and because he values you. He deeply values you. Let that sink into
your heart.

He saves by his right hand. He keeps as the apple of his eye, and he hides you
in the shadow of his wings. This is the place of protection.

And there's a couple meanings here that teachers of the Bible have seen down
through the years. The shadow of his wings, one simple meaning is, like a hen
would gather some chicks under the shadow of its wing to protect the chicks from
maybe an enemy that was coming in. God protects you.

Obviously, God doesn't have real wings. God is above and beyond any of that. But
it's a picture of the fact that he will gather you in in those moments when you
feel the most vulnerable, and he'll bring you into a place of safety.

Your greatest place of safety is with the Lord. That's one of the meanings here.
But a lot of teachers also see a deeper meaning here.

The shadow of his wings in the Holy of Holies, in the mercy seat, there were
cherubim, angels, over that mercy seat, and there were wings that went over that
mercy seat. The shadow of his wings fell upon that mercy seat, that place of
mercy, that place of forgiveness. And so being in the shadow of God's wings,
hiding in the shadow of God's wings means that God's forgiveness for you in
Jesus Christ is the place where you were kept and hidden.

When God looks at you, he does not see your sin. You are hidden with God in
Christ. He sees Jesus Christ.

He sees the holiness of Jesus Christ. That's why you and I can be holy, because
he has given us this holiness. He hides you in the shadow of his wings.

These are powerful pictures about what God wants to do in our hearts, and I want
to sink them into my mind and heart by talking to God about them. Let's pray
together. And in prayer, just say, Father, there's so many pictures that come
into my life.

I want to live with these pictures. I want to let them guide and strengthen my
life to remind me that you are showing me your great love every single day. So
thank you for the great power by which you saved me.

Thank you for the great value that you put upon me in Jesus Christ. And thank
you for the protection that you give me, protection from the evils of this
world, even though I'm in the midst of them, you will guide me through them, but
ultimate protection through the forgiveness of Christ, that you see me as holy
in him. Thank you for what you have done for me.

And I pray that instead of letting the world around me give me the pictures of
who I am, or even my feelings about myself, I pray I'd let these pictures that
you've given me help me to see who I really am. Let me live with these pictures
today. In Jesus' name, amen.

Tomorrow we're going to look at Psalm 18. We're going to look at what David prayed
when he had one of his greatest victories.