In Psalm 17:8 we read two clear and moving images by which the author approaches God. The first is the image of the apple of your eye. The apple of the eye—the pupil—has a wondrously complex function but is also vulnerable. One does everything to protect it. In the same manner, God is watchful for those who seek his salvation. God’s loving care is described by Moses in Deuteronomy 32:10: He found him (Jacob) in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
Note the contrast between enemies who surround me
(Psalm 17:9) and God encircled him (Jacob)
(Deuteronomy 32:10). We see the threatening encirclement over against loving care. Another image is of a mother hen who cares for her young. Underneath her wings, the delicate chicks are protected against the heat and the robbers. This reminds us of Psalm 61:4 where we read: Let me dwell in your tent forever! Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings!
We see before us the Old Testament image of cherubs with their wings: the protecting power of God’s armies of angels. Jesus also uses this image when he laments over the choice Jerusalem makes toward him in Matthew 23:37: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
The person who prays asks his God for this manner of safety and protection over against the enemies who are searching for victims, who must pay with death.
Despising God and his will leads to the threatening of fellow human beings. It makes one think of asylum seekers, who have had to flee from their own country, due to death threats, for example, because of their faith. We read about the danger of the enemies in what follows. The red line still remains to be the plea for protection of the righteous person(s).
8 Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings,