This Week's Focus Passage

This Week’s Focus Passage: Psalm 55:6 ‘Oh that I had wings like a dove, then would I fly away, and b

This Week’s Focus Passage: Psalm 55:6

‘Oh that I had wings like a dove, then would I fly away, and be at rest.’

 

    David has begun this fifty-fifth psalm with pleadings unto Jehovah, that He would grant to give him [David] a hearing; thus he cries unto Him:

Give ear to my prayer, O God; And hide not thyself from my supplication. Attend unto me, and answer me: I am restless in my complaint, and moan, Because of the voice of the enemy, Because of the oppression of the wicked; For they cast iniquity upon me, And in anger they persecute me. My heart is sore pained within me: and the terrors of death are fallen upon me. Fearfulness and trembling are  come upon me, And horror hath overwhelmed me. And I said, Oh, that I had wings like a dove! Then would I fly away and be at rest. Lo, then would I wander far off, I would lodge in the wilderness. [Selah.                                                        –Psalm 55:1-7 ASV1901.

 

One writer has begun his comments upon this psalm of David, with the following expressions, which certainly speak of both David, the son of Jesse, as well as of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, and the Son of God. 

“Such a cry as this helps to make the Psalter a book for the extre-mities of experience as well as for its normalities. The person who is driven to distraction finds a fellow-sufferer here; the rest of us may find a guide to our intercessions, so that we can pray with our brethren ‘as though in prison’ (or other distress) ‘with them’ (Heb. 13:3*). Further, the heart-rending passages on the betrayal (12ff., 20f.) give us added insight into the sufferings of Christ, and at the same time into His self-mastery and redemptive attitude, in such a situation as gave David every reason to appeal for judgment.”

*Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; them that are ill-treated, as being yourself also in the body.—Hebrews 13:3. 

Such thoughts spontaneously bring to our memories, the many trials and persecutions endured by David. After King Saul had gone against the directions of Jehovah with regard to his failure to deal with the Amalekites, as he was clearly told to do. We read of that certain direction  given Saul, in 1 Samuel 15:2, in unequivocal language from God; Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, I have marked that which Amalek did to Israel, how he set himself against him in the way when he came out of Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. Remarkable in its inclusion of that which involves all that they have. All means just that!

And in verse nine of the same chapter, we read of Saul’s abject disobedience.

And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good. In other words, they ‘choiced the line,’ they took all that was good, in their eyes, unto themselves. They denied God’s command.

Saul followed Frank Sinatra, and ‘did it my way,’ rather than the way of God.    But God is not mocked; Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. [Galatians 6:7]. King Saul sowed his seeds of rebellion against his God, and he reaped the loss of his kingdom; it was taken away from him by the God who gave it; Jehovah Sabaoth. But to return to our subject; that of David’s wishing to fly away from his troubles and be at rest. We must, each of us, confess that oftentimes when found in any such similar strait, we would much rather crawl into some hole, if we could, rather than face the problem. This is most natural, is it not?

However, that does not, necessarily, mean that it is right. And it certainly was not right for David to behave as he did as recorded in the twenty-fifth chapter of that book, when he fled from Saul, and we must most sadly read; And David laid up these words in his heart, and he was sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath. And he changed his behavior before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard.—1 Samuel 21:12-13. We suggest, and rather strongly, that such behavior was not becoming the king of Judah, not in the least. Yet, immediately following that particular occasion, we may read what might be [we are not specifically told] the means of escaping both Saul and Achish, for the very next chapter of 1 Samuel informs us that David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave of Adullam: and when his brethren and all father’s house heard it, they went down thither to him. And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became captain over them; and there were with him about four hundred men.—1 Samuel 22.

The Cave of Adullam, we are told, “was originally a stronghold referred to in the Old Testament, near the town of Adullam, where future king David sought refuge from King Saul. The word cave is usually used, but ‘fortress’ which has a similar appearance is used as well.” We do think, almost immediately, of the hymn, “A mighty Fortress is our God,” and it would seem that God Himself provided this refuge for David. The lesson seems clear, does it not; we should wait upon our God for the proper direction in all things, no matter how these things may appear to us.

 

David Farmer, elder

Fellowship Bible Church

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