The Book of Psalms

Word Study

"proved," Hebrew bachanta (בָּחַנְתָּ), tested as one tests metal. David invites the searching of God upon his inmost heart. Three verbs pile up, "proved," "visited," "tried," all drawn from the testing of precious metal in the fire to see whether it is pure.

"visited," paqadta (פָּקַדְתָּ), inspected, came to examine. He does not shrink from this examination; he welcomes it, even in "the night," the time when the true state of a heart shows itself, when no one is watching and the mask is off.

"tried," tzeraftani (צְרַפְתַּנִי), refined, assayed as in a furnace. The third of the verbs is the refiner's own word, the assaying of metal in the furnace; David asks God to put his heart into that fire and see what comes out of it.

"find nothing," bal-timtza (בַּל־תִּמְצָא). This is not a boast of sinless perfection, for elsewhere David confesses his sin deeply (Psalm 51); it is the honest claim of a clear conscience in the specific matter at hand, the false accusations of his enemies. He can say of that charge, "thou... shalt find nothing."

"purposed," zammoti (זַמֹּתִי), resolved. And he adds his firm resolve: "I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress." Under provocation, when the wicked slander him, he has set his will not to sin with his tongue, not to lie or curse or retaliate. Here is a man who both submits to God's searching and sets his purpose toward holiness. It is a fearful thing to invite God to search us; it is a blessed thing when, in a matter of unjust accusation, we can honestly do so.

Explanation

The three verbs, "proved," "visited," "tried," are an assayer's vocabulary, the language of testing precious metal in the fire to see whether it is genuine or full of dross. And here is the striking thing: a falsely accused man is asking to be assayed. Most of us dread God's inspection; David invites it, because in this matter the test is the very thing that will clear his name. He is confident he will come out certified genuine, "thou... shalt find nothing", no dross, no hidden lie the fire drags to the surface. Notice, too, that he wants to be tested "in the night", in the private, unwatched hours when a man is alone with his own thoughts and the mask is off. He does not ask to be judged by his public face but by his midnight self, and he stakes his innocence on what God finds there.

Gospel Focus

"Thou hast proved mine heart... thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing", what David could say only of a single matter, Jesus Christ could say of His whole life. He alone was proved, visited, and tried by God and by men, and nothing was found in Him: "the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me" (John 14:30); Pilate testified, "I find in him no fault at all" (John 18:38). The Holy One was tried in the furnace of temptation and suffering and came forth pure gold, "in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). And under the cruelest provocation His mouth did not transgress: "when he was reviled, reviled not again... but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously" (1 Peter 2:23). Because our sinless Saviour was tried and found faultless, He could stand in our place, the just for the unjust; and because He bore our sin, we who trust Him can invite God's searching not in terror but in hope, praying with the psalmist, "search me, O God, and know my heart" (Psalm 139:23), knowing that in Christ we are accepted, and that the same Spirit who tries us is purifying us for the day we shall behold His face.

Word Study

"keep," Hebrew shomreni (שָׁמְרֵנִי), guard me. David reaches for two of the tenderest images in all of Scripture. The first is a guarding: "keep me as the apple of the eye."

"apple of the eye," ishon bat-ayin (אִישׁוֹן בַּת־עָיִן), literally "the little man, the daughter of the eye," the pupil, the most tender and jealously guarded part of the body. The pupil is the most sensitive and precious part of the body, instinctively guarded; the eyelid closes and the hand flies up to protect it before we even think. David asks God to guard him with that same instant, jealous care, and indeed God says of His people, "he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye" (Zechariah 2:8).

"hide," tastireni (תַּסְתִּירֵנִי). The second image is a hiding: "hide me under the shadow of thy wings." To be hidden is to be covered over and put out of the reach of the one who hunts for you.

"shadow of thy wings," tzel kenafekha (צֵל כְּנָפֶיךָ). The picture is of a mother bird sheltering her young beneath her wings from storm and predator, a place of warmth, covering, and safety close to the heart. Together these images express both the tenderness and the vigilance of God's care: He guards us as jealously as we guard our own eyes, and He shelters us as warmly as a bird covers her brood. When enemies compass us about, this is our refuge, not our own strength but the near, tender, watchful protection of God, who holds His own as the very apple of His eye.

Explanation

The two images belong together, and both make the believer's safety personal to God. To be kept "as the apple of the eye" is to be guarded like the pupil, the one spot on the body a man protects before he even thinks, because a touch there is agony; and God so identifies with His people that Zechariah can say whoever touches them "toucheth the apple of his eye" (Zechariah 2:8). Your hurt registers as His pain. And "the shadow of thy wings" says the same thing from the other side: a mother bird casting her shadow over the chick has put her own body between the little one and the hawk or the burning sun. In both pictures the protection costs the protector something, His own pain, His own interposed body. David is not asking to be watched from a safe distance, but to be guarded by a God who feels the danger as His own and stands in the way of it.

Gospel Focus

"Hide me under the shadow of thy wings", the sheltering wings David longed for are opened wide in Jesus Christ, who spread His arms to gather His people to Himself. Over Jerusalem He wept the tenderest of laments: "how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" (Matthew 23:37). The same God who sheltered Israel under His wings came in flesh, longing to gather sinners to safety, and at the cross stretched out His arms to make the shelter real. Those who come to Him are hidden in Him: "your life is hid with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3), safe under wings that were themselves pierced for us. And He keeps us as the apple of His eye, so that none can pluck us from His hand (John 10:28-29). The believer surrounded by enemies flees not to his own defenses but to the crucified and risen Christ, and finds there the warm, close, watchful shelter of God, guarded as tenderly as God guards His own eye, covered as safely as the young beneath the mother's wing.

Word Study

"as for me," Hebrew ani (אֲנִי), set in sharp contrast to the men of the world in verse 14. The psalm closes with a deliberate contrast. The men of the world (v14) "have their portion in this life"; their fill is here and now, and then it is gone. "As for me", says David, my portion is different: "I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness."

"behold thy face," echezeh panekha (אֶחֱזֶה פָנֶיךָ). This is resurrection hope: not merely rescue from present enemies but the sight of God's face.

"satisfied," esbe'ah (אֶשְׂבְּעָה), filled to the full. While the wicked are filled with treasure that ends at the grave, David looks beyond it to a satisfaction that begins there. The word is one of being filled to the full, the hunger of the soul met at last and not merely eased.

"when I awake," behaqitz (בְּהָקִיץ). The word "awake" points past this life; as sleep is the Bible's picture of death, so to "awake" is to rise, and David expects to open his eyes on the other side of death to behold the face of God and be made like Him.

"thy likeness," temunatekha (תְּמוּנָתֶךָ), thy form, thy image. With the sight of God's face goes conformity to His likeness, a satisfaction that nothing in this world can give and nothing can take away. "I shall be satisfied", the deepest longing of the soul, met at last, when we awake in the likeness of God.

Explanation

The psalm closes with a deliberate contrast. The men of the world "have their portion in this life"; their fill ends at the This verse only lands with full force when read against the one before it. In verse 14 the "men of the world" are described as those who "have their portion in this life," whose "belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure" and who are "full of children", paid in full, now, with everything the world can hold. Then verse 15 uses the very same idea, and the same Hebrew root: "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." Both the wicked and David are filled, but with utterly different fillings and on utterly different timetables. They are filled now, with things; he will be filled later, with God. Their portion is cashed out in this life and spent; his is held over until "I awake," past the grave, and it is God's own likeness. The word puts the choice before us: to be full now of what perishes, or to wait, and be satisfied for ever with the face of God.

Gospel Focus

"I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness", this ancient hope is secured and fulfilled in Jesus Christ, in whom we shall both see God's face and be made like Him. The face David longed to behold is now revealed in Christ, for God's glory shines "in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6), and the promise to the pure in heart is that "they shall see God" (Matthew 5:8). And the likeness David expected to awake into is exactly the resurrection hope of the gospel: "we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2). We who now "bear... the image of the earthy... shall also bear the image of the heavenly" (1 Corinthians 15:49), for Christ "shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body" (Philippians 3:21). Because Jesus rose, the believer's death is only a sleep, and we shall awake to see His face and be conformed to His likeness, satisfied for ever. So Psalm 17, which begins surrounded by enemies, ends on the far side of the grave, gazing on the face of God. Let the men of the world have their portion in this life; the child of God has a portion that begins where theirs ends, "satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness."