Unselfed

 

Psalm 17

“The apple of your eye.”

I found a source that claims that the words “pupil” and “apple” were synonymous in Old English. (…ninth-century Old English translation of the Latin Cura pastoralis attributed to Alfred the Great. Wikipedia)

More interesting was the connection from the Hebrew, which some scholars say can be translated as “little person of your eye,” referring to the small image reflected in the pupil. This supports the fact that pupil, in English, means both a student or young person, and the dark aperture in the center of the eye.

The Hebrew word can also be translated as “dark; obscure”.

My favorite translation of the Bible (CJB) gives the phrase as “protect me like the pupil of your eye.”

The picture that came to mind when I read the phrase as “little person in your eye” gained some real metaphorical pull when I imagined seeing my own reflection in God’s eye. I don’t know how to capture the significance of that, but it’s tied together with the idea of the dark of God’s eye, also.

 

Out of the dark

in the eye of God

I walk toward

what I see—

Inward to

the Dark,

the Hollow,

the Hallowed

Empty—

                              Turning

I walk outward

from this image of God—

Unselfed.