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^6 I call on you, my God, for you will answer me;
turn your ear to me and hear my prayer.
^7 Show me the wonders of your great love,
you who save by your right hand
those who take refuge in you from their foes.
^8 Keep me as the apple of your eye;
hide me in the shadow of your wings
^9 from the wicked who are out to destroy me,
from my mortal enemies who surround me.

Psalm 17:6-9

I can’t imagine having the kind of enemies King David had. He was just barely old enough to serve in the army when Saul tried to pin him to the wall. Then Israel’s first king sent him into the thick of Philistine territory to by asking for foreskins in exchange for his daughter’s hand.

Later in life, he fought battles on every side, but the ones that brought him the most grief were the ones that came from inside the palace. One son raped his sister, and another took revenge. Absalom, the son who’d taken the law into his own hands, usurped the throne, and David was chastised by the army commander when he mourned his son’s death. A third son stepped in while his father was on his death bed and made himself king even though David, following the command of God, had proclaimed Solomon would be the next king.

He had too many wives to make any one his sole confidante. Even when Bathsheba came to inform David another son had taken Solomon’s place, she wasn’t really ensuring David’s orders were carried out or Yahweh’s will was done, she was looking out for her son.

David had no one he could trust completely–except God.

When his enemies chased him around the wilderness, he refused to touch the Lord’s anointed. Even when Saul was within arm’s reach, he trusted God to take care of his enemies.

David’s relationship with God gave him confidence in his prayers. He knew he was precious to His creator. “Keep me as the apple of your eye,” he prayed. David compared himself to the most protected part of the body. He believed God watched him so closely, the eye of God had a reflection of the king in it constantly.

As a mother bird protects her young, David trusted God could and would protect him from those who wanted to take his life.

But we can’t leave the Psalm without asking, “Do I trust God as much as David?”

I praise Jesus that I don’t have to face the adversaries of David. I can count on those who surround me. But because I can trust my family and friends, do I trust God less? Do I call on them in times of trouble before I call on Jesus? Will I allow them to pull me from worship or take my focus away from my Sovereign King?

Having the comforts of the twenty-first century and the love of a good family make it easy to say we trust God completely without being fully committed. And personally, I don’t want to lose everything just to find out if my faith is as strong as I think it is.

I believe a lot of the proof can be found in our commitment to the body of Christ and the effort we put into growing in the faith. Do we attend worship each week, and do we go out of duty or because we love Jesus? Do we study scripture? Are our prayers limited to meals and bedtime or are they a continual conversation with the One who calls us the apple of His eye?

It’s difficult to tell when life is good, but if the trust isn’t there when life is good, we’ll fall apart when life gets hard. Ask Jesus to search deep inside and reveal to you the priorities of your life, so you can be as confident as King David knowing the Almighty saves those who truly take refuge in Him.

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