Lent Day 5: The Fierce Protection of a Motherly God

Scripture, Psalm 17, can be found here...

I'll begin with my favorite quote from John Calvin-- in fact, probably the only thing I can even reasonably paraphrase from his prodigious body of work. But I don't have to paraphrase it here; I can quote directly. About the book of Psalms, he wrote:

I have been accustomed to call this book, I think not inappropriately, “An Anatomy of all the Parts of the Soul;” for there is not an emotion of which any one can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror.*

The more I allow the psalms to soak into my heart, my psyche, the more I agree with Calvin.

Psalm 17 is an exquisite expression of fear combined with, and finally conquered by, trust. The NRSV titles it "A Prayer for Deliverance from Persecutors," and as the psalm unfolds, we take in images of pursuit, tracking down, surrounding. These are combined with descriptions of assaults on character, lies spread by pitiless hearts and arrogant speech.

It isn't just iron age kings who have to go through these things. I have friends...

One image from this psalm calls to me, and it's an image I first learned, not by hearing or reading scripture, but from my mother's mouth.

"You are the apple of my eye," she said.

As a child I understood this to mean something like, "You are sweet," or "You are sweet to look at." I knew it was said in love and tenderness. But it was a confusing thing to hear; it didn't really make sense (especially to a kid who probably hadn't yet taken to apples).

Here, we read it in the context of pursuit, and paired with another (illuminating) image:

Guard me as the apple of your eye; 
hide me in the shadow of your wings. ~ Ps. 17:8 

The Hebrew of the first part of the verse reads, literally, "Keep/ guard me as the apple/pupil, daughter of the eye."

In his commentary (17:7-9), Calvin notes that the eye is the tenderest part of the body. To guard someone in this way, then, is to protect them as you would protect your own most vulnerable parts.
And, it's fascinating to me (since I first heard this phrase as a mother's expression of love) that "daughter" is used here, hidden in the Hebrew-- does that mean the daughter is one's greatest vulnerability, and therefore most fervently to be protected? The image is paired with an explicitly motherly image--the mother bird's instinctive use of her wings to cover, hide, and protect her young.

For me, this psalm of David, most likely associated with one of the many battles in which he found himself, before and after becoming king, also speaks of mothers and daughters, and, in the best cases, the deep trust the daughter has that her mother will protect her in every possible way.

Because it is a psalm, it is a promise, even to those of us whose parents failed to live up to our needs or hopes, that God is steadfast and present, loving and protecting.

The love of God will not disappoint us.


*John Calvin, "The Author's Preface," Commentary on the Psalms, Vol. 1.