Psalm 17 is a most fitting prayer to our Father in heaven for protection from the wicked and deadly enemies. In verses 8 and 9, we know why: we are the apple of His eye!
8 Guard me as the apple of your eye;
hide me in the shadow of your wings
9 from the wicked who treat me with violence,
from deadly enemies who surround me.
It is so humbling to know we are the apple of His eye!.
Since the Book of Psalm is the 19th book of the Bible, the identifier of chapter 17 verse 8 is (19+17+8=44) and that of verse 9 is therefore 45. The sum is 44+45=89. The 89th sphenic number is 670. Note that a sphenic number is a positive integer that is the product of three distinct prime numbers. In our case, 670=2 x 5 x 67. The number 670 has 8 divisors given in the set {1, 2, 5, 10, 67, 134, 335, 670}. The sum of the divisors is 1224. Hence, the arithmetic mean of the divisors is 1224/8=153.
CONCLUSION. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we petition our Father in heaven to guard us as the apple of His eye and hide us in the shadow of His wings from the wicked who treat us with violence and from deadly enemies who surround us.
Discussions
The Lord’s Prayer and Psalm 17 can be linked through their invocation of God’s protective care and the intimate relationship between God and His faithful.
In Psalm 17, particularly verses 8 and 9, the psalmist asks for God’s protection, using the metaphor of being the “apple of [God’s] eye” to express a sense of cherished value in God’s sight. The request to be hidden “in the shadow of [God’s] wings” evokes a powerful image of refuge and safety, reminiscent of a bird shielding its young. This passage conveys a deep trust in God’s willingness and power to protect and preserve the psalmist from harm and adversaries.
The Lord’s Prayer, taught by Jesus, includes a petition for deliverance: “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” While the phrasing is more general than the specific pleas of Psalm 17, the underlying desire is the same—a request for God’s guiding hand to provide safety and to steer the believer away from harm and the influence of evil.
The phrase “the apple of your eye” in Psalm 17:8 implies a special, watchful care that God extends to His people, which correlates with the assurance sought in the Lord’s Prayer. When believers pray “deliver us from evil,” they are acknowledging their vulnerability and God’s role as their ultimate protector, much like the psalmist does.
Both passages also reinforce the notion of dependency on God’s providential care. Just as the psalmist seeks refuge in the protective presence of God, believers reciting the Lord’s Prayer seek daily sustenance and guidance from their heavenly Father. They express faith that God is both attentive to their needs and capable of shielding them from the dangers that surround them.
Therefore, the link between the two is rooted in the themes of divine guardianship, the preciousness of God’s people in His sight, and the trust in God’s power to protect and sustain His followers in the midst of a world that can be hostile and threatening. Through both the psalmist’s cry and the disciple’s prayer, the faithful call upon God, the Father, to guard and deliver them because of their special place as His cherished children.
The Lord's Prayer: A Mathematician's Creed 