Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 55:6

"And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! Then would I fly away, and be at rest." — Psalms 55:6 (ASV)

And I said - That is, when I saw these calamities coming upon me, and did not know what the result was to be.

Oh, that I had wings like a dove! - This literally means, “Who will give me wings like a dove?” or, “Who will give me the pinion of a dove?” The original word, אבר 'êber, means properly, “a wing-feather;” a pinion; the penna major or flag-feather of a bird’s wing by which it steers its course—such as that of an eagle (Isaiah 40:31) or of a dove, as here. It is distinguished from the wing itself (Ezekiel 17:3): A great eagle, with great wings, “long-winged,” full of feathers. The reference here is thought to be to the turtle-dove—a species of dove common in Palestine.

Compare the notes at Psalm 11:1. These doves, it is said, are never tamed. “Confined in a cage, they droop, and, like Cowper, sigh for ‘A lodge in some vast wilderness - some boundless contiguity of shade;’ and no sooner are they set at liberty, than they flee to their mountains.” Land and the Book (Dr. Thomson), vol. i., p. 416.

For then would I fly away, and be at rest - I would escape from these dangers and be in a place of safety. How often do we feel this in times of trouble! How often do we wish that we could get beyond the reach of enemies, of sorrows, of afflictions! How often do we sigh to be in a place where we might be assured that we would be safe from all annoyances, from all trouble!

There is such a place, but not on earth. David might have borne his severest troubles with him if he could have fled—for those troubles are in the heart, and a mere change of place does not affect them. Or he might have found new troubles in the place that seemed to him to be a place of peace and of rest.

But there is a world that trouble never enters. That world is heaven. To that world we shall soon go, if we are God’s children, and there we shall find absolute and eternal rest. Without “the wings of a dove,” we shall soon fly away and be at rest. None of the troubles of earth will accompany us there; no new troubles will spring up there to disturb our peace.