Imagine you’re at a hotel and all the guests are getting sick. Or recall when your teacher would announce a pop quiz on a text you had not read. Picture going about your day picking up a few items at the grocery store when someone starts firing a gun. In all of these situations, your immediate thought would be to get out, pronto!
David is conveying this kind of fear and panic in Psalm 55. He has been betrayed. And as his enemies suddenly press down on him, all he wants is to escape. “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove!” he cries. Many are the times each one of us has thought something like that. People like to tell us that there is a way out of any problem if we just try hard enough. But sometimes, there really is no way to escape.
It does not mean, however, that you are doomed. Notice how Psalm 55 ends with hope. David knows that God will save those who cast their cares on Him (v. 22). Do you know that, too? The wings God gives us are those of the Holy Spirit. On them we fly out of every battle of this world.