- Eye upon
Psalm 33.18
Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy.
“The eye of the Lord upon” does not mean God is keeping track in His book of every sin, slipup, misdeed, lie and broken promise so that He may justly judge with punishment and condemnation. God is, by the way, doing that since He knows all and will judge justly on the Final Day, but that is not the “eye upon” He is talking about in this promise.
The promise of the eye of the Lord being upon us is comforting because it promises protection from harm and blessing for good. It is comforting to know that the Lord is paying attention to us, that He cares about what happens to us, and that He is interested in the affairs of our lives. Nothing, not even the loss of a hair, is too small for God to care about. What happens to us matters to God and He wants to know about it. Nothing can happen to us that is beyond His control or out of His reach. He knows all about it and He knows the solution to every problem. Sometimes He acts to deliver us from evil; sometimes He waits for us to ask for help because He wants us to know that He is involved.
He already knows what we need before we ask him since His eye is upon us; our awareness of His knowledge encourages us to ask him and gives us confidence that He cares and answers. If we never ask in prayer we might never know that it was God who helped us. God wants us to know how good He is and how much He loves us. God may help whether we ask or don’t ask, but when we talk to Him and He responds we love Him all the more and our faith relationship is strengthened.
The condition of this promise of the Lord’s watchful care is that we fear Him and hope in His mercy; this means those who believe in Jesus Christ. The promise of loving oversight may not be claimed by unbelievers, although God may still watch over them and help them in times of trouble from time to time. God may particularly respond to the prayers of friends or relatives for them.
Jesus watches; He knows; He cares; He loves.