In this verse we encounter one of those remarkable gems in Scripture that we all too often just simply gloss over – we would do well to pause a while and reflect carefully on what David asks of the Lord in this verse... “Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.”



We all know that to say to someone, “you are the apple of my eye” means that we treasure them above all other things, that there is no one and nothing more valuable to us than them – it is a proverbial way of saying, you mean everything in the world to me!



How wonderful it is then to hear that these are the words David uses to describe the position he wants the Lord to keep him in; David must have had a sure vision of himself as the apple of God’s eye or else he would not have asked to be kept as such. We read a similar sentence in the book of Zechariah 2:8, “For this is what the LORD Almighty says... whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye...”

How marvellous to imagine that you and I might be the apple of God’s eye, but how difficult it is too. This is not a thought that comes naturally to us, for various reasons, but it should be a thought impressed upon us if we want to come to terms with our true value as people in God’s eyes.



A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a R20.00 note. In the room of 200, he asked, "Who would like this R20 note?" Hands started going up. He said, "I am going to give this R20 to one of you but first, let me do this. He proceeded to crumple up the R20 note. He then asked, "Who still wants it?" Still the hands were up in the air. Well, he replied, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. Still the hands went into the air. My friends, we have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth R20.

Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make, the actions we take or even just the circumstances that come our way. And as a result of this we might feel as though we’re worthless. But hear this: no matter what has

happened or what will happen, no matter what you have done or will do, no matter where you’ve been or where you might go, you will never lose your value to God!



Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still absolutely priceless to Him because He loves you. If only we would learn to accept this great truth and start to measure the worth of our lives from God’s point of view. Our value as human beings derives not from what we do or who we know, but from who we are as God’s people.



Go live this day as one loved by the Almighty God who considers you to be the apple of his eye! AMEN