His Eye

What a wonderful promise from our heavenly Father! He’ll teach us and guide us when we don’t know how to progress. It’s so encouraging, because we need that help every day as we face life in an increasingly hostile world with all the challenges that it brings to believers.

But the verse also makes me wonder how exactly He give me His directions. The scripture says it will be with His eye, but what does that mean? Will He show His disapproval when I go wrong by giving me one of those exasperated eye-rolling looks that my grandmother used to use? You probably know that kind of look and may even have used it yourself on occasion. It’s the look which gets an unspoken message to a wayward child that says clearly, “You, or your behaviour, are not approved of”, or, worse still, “I’ll deal with you later”.

Or, maybe it means a sort of ‘wink’, an eye movement which we’re supposed to somehow interpret, although it may not be at all clear what we’re to do. Or perhaps, we hope, if we randomly chose the right way ahead, that His eye will look towards us with approval or at least with tolerance. So, how does He guide with His eye?

I don’t think any of these are what the psalmist means. When the word ‘eye’ is used in the Scriptures, it can mean a physical eye, but often means the internal eye, or eye of the spirit. Indeed, sometimes it’s just an analogy for the human spirit itself.

There are several examples that might help us to understand better. One of these is in the words of Jesus recorded in Matthew’s gospel, Chapter 7. Here Jesus says, “Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye”. It’s obvious that this isn’t about our physical eye or our physical ability to see, but it concerns the ability to ‘see’ with the spirit eye and speaks about the state of our inner being. What Jesus is explaining is that our human spirit can be defiled by our condemnation and judgement of others who’ve sinned. In fact, He indicates that nothing defiles our spirit as seriously as the sin of judgementalism.

Proverbs 22:9 says, ‘He who has a generous eye will be blessed’. I’m not sure how a physical eye can be generous, but certainly it makes sense to understand this as a generous spirit which will cause us to delight in giving of ourselves, our time, our finances or our resources. This will, no doubt, delight God’s heart and bring His blessing on our lives.

So back to our verse for today. God’s eye here means His Spirit, and since we know that God’s Holy Spirit communicates directly with our human spirit (Romans 8:16), we have a clear path to receiving His guidance. Being guided by God’s eye means receiving wisdom and revelation from His Holy Spirit into our human spirit. It’s clear. we just need to have our ‘eyes’ open to ‘see’ His face and ‘look’ into His ‘eye’.

Prayer: Father God, I need Your guidance every day of my life and earnestly desire that You will teach me and lead me into Your way in every situation I face. I look to You with my ’eye’, my human spirit, and desire to see You ‘face to face’, so I can connect with You and receive from Your ‘eye’, Your Holy Spirit. I ask it in Jesus’ name, Amen.