Spirited Away

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February 12th, 2008 admin Leave a comment Go to comments

Spirited Away

The Dove of the Spirit and psalm 55

Psalm 55 reads as follows from the King James Version of the Bible:
1] Give ear to my prayer, O God; and hide not thyself from my supplication. [2] Attend unto me, and hear me: I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise; [3] Because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked: for they cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they hate me. [4] My heart is sore pained within me: and the terrors of death are fallen upon me. [5] Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me. [6] And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! For then would I fly away, and be at rest. [7] Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness. Selah. [8] I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest. [9] Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues: for I have seen violence and strife in the city. [10] Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof: mischief also and sorrow is in the midst of it. [11] Wickedness is in the midst thereof: deceit and guile depart not from her streets. [12] For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him: [13] But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. [14] We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company. [15] Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell: for wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them. [16] As for me, I will call upon God; and the LORD shall save me. [17] Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice. [18] He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me: for there were many with me. [19] God shall hear, and afflict them, even he that abideth of old. Selah. Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God. [20] He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him: he hath broken his covenant. [21] The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords. [22] Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. [23] But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction: bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in thee.

The main elements of this psalm are the situations of violence and strife in the city and the pursuit of enemies to the psalmist.

On top of that is the betrayal by his close compatriot, which is almost like a final blow to the overwhelming nature of these mounting difficulties, described more strongly as horrors.

It might not get that bad for most people as it did for David as he is describing in this psalm.
But the outline of this psalm is quite interesting with regards to the general approach to mounting troubles in the spiritual realm.
We have a description from David where he wishes he had wings like a bird and could fly away and be at rest. Birds could fly away from troubles as they do sometimes even today, such as from fires and storms on the land.
Verses 5 through 8 read as follows:
[5] Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me. [6] And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! For then would I fly away, and be at rest. [7] Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness. Selah. [8] I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest

David is in fact overwhelmed by the antagonistic nature of the events which are coming close to him even surrounding him like a storm arising from every direction. He might have given his status, strength and all else had the ability to stay and contend, but the point had been reached or passed to where the need to escape was obvious.

He is alluding to having wings like a dove as having the means also to escape quickly, yet this is not his reality. He recognizes the need in to escape quickly, as the situation was like an exploding volcano. He sees that the dove can fly away and escape without being followed, and wishes that somehow he had this same ability but at the same time he needs a quick exit and the symbol of the dove also represents a quick redress or escape from the immediacy of these titan troubles.
This represents a type of longing that can take place in the soul, with regards to any difficulty, that there might be greater means provided or some other way that would be provided that in fact is just not going to be there. Wings in the physical sense represented hope for escape for him, but there would be no wings even though the imprint of this hope and longing was there. Maybe part of this is that David knows that his enemy’s could not also have wings like a dove as symbolically they were not of that type, and could never be in the realm of the dove. As the dove he would be a solo flyer to the land of escape and even enchantment compared to what he was experiencing and where he was. Doves would not chase after doves and his enemies could never have wings like a dove. They enemies would remain at the sight of their crimes regardless.

So the idea is that sometimes when we are in trouble, we wish we had extraordinary means somehow made available to us to cope with these troubles, even means that would separate us from the pack, make us extraordinary, almost like superman or superwomen.
But David’s hope for these means is only a unachievable dream, something that he historically and instinctively knows can’t happen for him, that he can only work with what he has and he has to go back and take another look at the means he does have.

He has this dream and fantasy of his escape, which he does ponder and does wish for, but he realizes he must turn back from these momentary hopes and dreams and face the reality of situation and look at the truth of what he does have as his true means.

His turnaround in the psalm brings him back to what might be his last hope and only resort as he did not have the ability to resort to what the dove represented, the wings of escape.

David realizes that he doesn’t have the extraordinary means he hopes for in the realm of the physical, he would have to face off with his troubles with another approach.

His decision was that he would pray throughout the day or days with the belief that his voice would be heeded. It would not be the wings of a dove but his voice in prayer that would be he respite, and his voice in prayer would be the wings of prayer that saved him.
Verses 16 and 17 say: 16] As for me, I will call upon God; and the LORD shall save me. [17] Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.

Here he is just speaking for himself, when he says as for me; I shall call upon the Lord who would save him from his troubles. He ultimate betrayer was someone who was his equal and seemingly his equal in knowing and serving the Lord, but this became a façade and stunningly to David now it was only him and the Lord. This is also a fearful thing in that someone who was equal to David must have been a might man of the Lord, but even the mighty can fall all the way. So there is a warning with this psalm as well even to those who are now of high estate that they must keep close to the Lord in truth.

Just as he was just speaking for himself when he wished he was the only one who would have the wings like a dove, so he could fly away and none could follow as they would not have these extraordinary means, he still feels that he has a channel of extraordinary means, that he would call upon the Lord who would heed and recognize his voice, as the distinct voice of David, a voice that remained in this light even though his very equal had turned to the darkness.

He from these verses does not believe the others who are violent and the adversaries of war would also be seeking the Lord and his saving presence as they were betrayers of the faith, despite their smooth talk and soft words, there was another reality of violence ageist the innocent of which they were partakers. In this time and place, he would be the solo traveler to the Lord.

It is interesting how David, when he resorts to calling upon the Lord all day long, calls upon the speed of the Lord, which is also representative of the speed of the dove or the Holy Spirit.

It is interesting and this is maybe a key secret from the psalm, that David in his prayers to the Lord asks for what the wings of a dove would have given him had they been a reality. He asks that the enemies be quickly vanished and taken out of his sight as a result of his prayers, which were his dove. Had he been able to fly away, this same result would have been achieved, that the enemies would be gone quickly and out of sight quickly. His prayer asks for and achieves that same result, he goes right to the heart of his situation in the prayer, and he doesn’t in any way go around it. And he turns to the Dove of the Spirit who will also act as quickly for him as the imagined dove of his dreams of escape.

His advice to those who are in trouble or who face like circumstances to a more likely a lesser degree is found in verse 22 when he says,

22] Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
Here he is advising that the righteous, go right to the Lord with there burdens and go metaphorically to the land of the Lord. Here though, David is being practical, his burden is that these enemies quickly disappear and are out of this very sight for good and this is what he brings into his request, and the fullness of the burden is casts to the Spirit of the Lord. This would be quickly in that the preciously imagined suggestion of flying away like a dove would also have been quickly escaping. There was no means to fly away to a faraway land, it would only be an imaginary escape, that the only true and real place of refuge was going to the Lord in the voice of prayer in casting the burdens to the Lord with your own individual voice of prayer and the doorway to do that was open all day and every day to those who were righteous in the sight of the Lord.

For David the solution would be the wings of a prayer and the Dove of the Spirit not the wings of a dove that would be his ultimate means. The Dove of Spirit would however turn to his enemies, face off with them, and quickly bring them away and gone and to judgment.
So this psalm represents that the Dove of the Spirit, may not operate in a way that you would initially imagine, as when David first thought of the dove of the skies he thought of flight, then when he reached to the heavens to the Dove of the Spirit, he reached into scenes of similar speed but the power was reversed to a forward motion against the enemies.

While yes, the dove is symbolic of the Holy Spirit, this psalm gives something to think about in relation to how the Holy Spirit actually is, as compared to the symbol of the actual dove. The Holy Spirit that David is experiencing here in response to his pleas is closer to the images of the consuming fire given elsewhere in the Bible. We need also at times to seek the image of the Spirit as part of understanding the works of the Spirit.The Spirit was still tender to David needs in this situation, but not to his enemies. There seems to be dual image of the Spirit in this psalm of the Dove and of Fire.

David resorted not to the wings of the dove, which he could never have, but the wings of prayer to the Spirit, which he always had.

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