A Plea for Protection, a Reflection on Psalm 17:1-9

The psalmist asks for deliverance, and backs up the request by asserting his innocence. Thus, this psalm does fit the situation of Job. However, I can't help but wonder at least a little if it applies to me when I am in trouble. How often have I contributed to whatever particular difficulty that I find myself in?

So, I'm not sure that in every case, every day that I can say that there's no wickedness in me, that my mouth hasn't transgressed, that my feet have never slipped.

Yet, beginning in verse 6, I find the words ones that I can more honestly pray,

I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God;
incline your ear to me, hear my words.

Wondrously show your steadfast love,
O savior of those who seek refuge
from their adversaries at your right hand.

The psalmist, although in great difficulty, is confident that God will always love and, in that confidence, turns for help.

Guard me as the apple of the eye;
hide me in the shadow of your wings,
from the wicked who despoil me,
my deadly enemies who surround me.

In the notes for Psalm 17 in the Wesley Study Bible, I learned that Charles Wesley had used the image of God protecting the psalmist with his wings in the hymn, Jesus, Lover of My Soul.