King David was hurting badly. A close friend abandoned him – betrayed him. We can almost imagine the lament of his tormented mind.
"I don't understand how such a close friend could do this to me. I trusted him totally. I confided in him so many times, and I always looked to him for advice. He was my close associate, and now he's stabbing me in the back. He has taken sides against me. I can't believe the things he's saying and doing. Is he even the same guy? He's completely betrayed me; worse still, he's actively working and plotting against me."
It’s bitterly hard to take when someone you implicitly trust turns against you, but that’s precisely what Ahithophel did. David’s confidential advisor got swept up in the rhetoric and rebellion of Absalom. David had been ‘knifed-in-the-back’ – so to speak.
In Psalm 55, David described the hurt this way:
For it is not an enemy who taunts me– then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me– then I could hide from him. But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend. We used to take sweet counsel together; within God’s house we walked in the throng.” Psalm 55:12-14
But those days were over. The relationship had come to a sharp and bitter end. Ahithophel is now plotting and scheming to bring King David down. It is a huge and hurtful trial for the King. That’s probably the background of Psalm 55 when David cries out in deep distress:
Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest.” Psalm 55:6
"Lord, I can't take this any longer. Let me run. Let me escape. I just want to be at rest. I can't take the hurt, the pain, the hostility and the turbulence any longer. I wish my appendages could be transformed into wings so I could fly away like a dove."
Dear child of God, David wasn’t the first person who had the urge to escape his lot in life, and you won’t be the last. It must comfort you today to know that spiritual giants in the past had the same thoughts you are having. As writer Derek Kidner observed, Elijah succumbed to his impulses (1Kings 19); while Jeremiah resisted and withstood such thoughts. (Jeremiah 9:2, 10:19)
David got beyond his escapist desires and his flight impulses. The real answer to his hurt and deep wounds was found not in running away. He stated the formula for relief and rest this way:
Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved. Psalm 55:22
The Apostle Paul was besieged by a stubborn personal problem that just would not go away. He recalled three specific occasions when he deliberately prayed for God to remove it from his life. But God didn’t. Instead, He told Paul:
“My grace is sufficient for you. For My strength is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:8-10
The Apostle James said we should not try to escape a trial or cut it short because the Lord is doing a work in our lives through all the pain. So he tells us to allow the trouble to work its way through.
“Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations. Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience. But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing.”James 1:2-4 Amplified
The late William MacDonald wrote: “We should not short-circuit the development of endurance in our lives. By cooperating with God, we will become mature, well-rounded Christians, lacking in none of the graces of the Spirit.” Wise words indeed, but the reality is even the most spiritual among us, experience seasons when they are plagued by such thoughts.
Today, as the pressure grows and the pain intensifies, and the problems multiply – cast your burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain you. He won’t give us a set of aerodynamic dove wings. Instead, He has given us a set of elbows and knees. If we use what He has given us, He will enable us to mount up with wings as eagles – not doves! Isaiah 40:31
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