“And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.”
The focus on the wind and tempest as the agent of escape transforms the fantasy from personal flight into divine intervention; God (represented by the wind) will accomplish what human effort cannot. The idea that God's action can effect the psalmist's removal from tempest into a place of shelter suggests that divine deliverance works by establishing refuge and peace. The parallelism between escape and shelter indicates that the goal is not merely distance from enemies but the establishment of a place of safety and rest. This verse moves the fantasy from personal escape into the realm of divine action, suggesting that only God can effect the transformation the psalmist craves.
Church Fathers on Psalms 55:6
1. Of this Psalm the title is: “At the end, in hymns, understanding to David himself.” What the “end” is, we will briefly call to your recollection, because you have known it. “For the end of the Law is Christ, for righteousness unto every man believing.” Romans 10:4 Be the attention therefore directed unto the End, directed unto Christ. Wherefore is He called the end? Because whatever we do, to Him we refer it, and when to Him we shall have come home, more to ask we shall…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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