Catholic Commentary on Psalm 17

"As for me, I shall see your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness." (Psalm 17:15)

The Prayer of the Blameless

Psalm 17 is a prayer of passionate appeal to God's justice, prayed by someone who claims integrity before the Lord. Hear me, Lord, my plea is just; listen to my cry. Hear my prayer, it does not rise from deceitful lips. David invites God's scrutiny: Though you probe my heart, though you examine me at night and test me, you will find that I have planned no evil. This is not self-righteousness. It is the prayer of someone who, in a specific matter under dispute, knows their own conduct and trusts that God's examination will vindicate them.

He describes his adversaries in vivid terms: they have tracked him down, surrounded him, set their eyes to cast him to the ground. Like a lion eager to tear, like a young lion lurking in cover. The imagery of a hunted animal pressed on all sides is not metaphor for mild inconvenience. David is in genuine danger, and his cry for deliverance is proportionate to the threat.

Keep Me as the Apple of Your Eye

Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings from the wicked who are out to destroy me. The phrase "apple of your eye" in Hebrew is literally "the little man of your eye": the tiny reflection of oneself visible in another person's pupil, so close and so precious. David asks God to guard him with that kind of intimate attention, as a parent hides a child under outspread wings. This image of God's protective wings recurs throughout the Psalter and reaches its culmination in Jesus' lament over Jerusalem: how often I have longed to gather your children as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.

The Vision of God

The psalm ends with a contrast between those whose portion is in this life only, who are satisfied with earthly treasure, and David himself: As for me, I shall see your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness. The vision of God, the face-to-face encounter with the divine, is the ultimate satisfaction. Not wealth, not vindication against enemies, not even health and long life. The vision of his likeness. This is the great promise of the New Testament: we shall see him as he is, and we shall be like him (1 John 3:2). Psalm 17 anticipates that promise centuries before Christ.

Living the Word

Brothers and sisters, what satisfies you? Psalm 17's final verse is a question asked of every human desire: is your deepest satisfaction sought in earthly things, in the portion that belongs to this life alone? Or does your longing reach beyond, to the face of God, to the likeness in which you were made and to which you are being restored? Pray for the desire. The vision will follow.

Prayer

Lord God, keep us as the apple of your eye. Hide us under the shadow of your wings. And when we awake on the last morning, let us be satisfied with your likeness, the face for which every human longing is ultimately a longing. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.