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O that I had wings like a dove! - He was so surrounded, so hemmed in on every side by his adversaries, that he could see no way for his escape unless he had wings, and could take flight. The dove is a bird of very rapid wing; and some oil them passing before his eyes at the time, might have suggested the idea expressed here.
And be at rest - Get a habitation.
And I said - That is, when I saw these calamities coming upon me, and knew not what the result was to be.
Oh, that I had wings like a dove! - literally, “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 flagfeather of a bird‘s wing by which he steers his course, - as 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 supposed 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 should 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 which 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.
The message of the first angel and the message of the second angel had been sounded in the proclamation of the Advent message, and now the message of the third angel began to sound. Under this message the significance of the Seventh-day Sabbath began to dawn. EW xx.1
As we trace the story of the beginning of Sabbathkeeping among the early Adventists, we go to a little church in the township of Washington in the heart of New Hampshire, the state that adjoins Maine on the east and whose western boundary is within sixty miles of the New York state line. Here the members of an independent Christian church in 1843 heard and accepted the preaching of the Advent message. It was an earnest group. Into their midst came a Seventh Day Baptist, Rachel Oakes, who distributed tracts setting forth the binding claims of the fourth commandment. Some in 1844 saw and accepted this Bible truth. One of their number, William Farnsworth, in a Sunday morning service, stood to his feet and declared that he intended to keep God's Sabbath of the fourth commandment. A dozen others joined him, taking their stand firmly on all of God's commandments. They were the first Seventh-day Adventists. EW xx.2
Read in context »Brother Hyde, who was present during this vision, composed the following verses, which have gone the rounds of the religious papers, and have found a place in several hymn-books. Those who have published, read, and sung them have little thought that they originated from a vision of a girl persecuted for her humble testimony. 1T 70.1
We have heard from the bright, the holy land;
We have heard, and our hearts are glad;
For we were a lonely pilgrim band,
And weary, and worn, and sad.
They tell us the saints have a dwelling there—
No longer are homeless ones;
And we know that the goodly land is fair,
Where life's pure river runs.
1T 70.2
They say green fields are waving there,
That never a blight shall know;
And the deserts wild are blooming fair,
And the roses of Sharon grow.
There are lovely birds in the bowers green,
Their songs are blithe and sweet;
And their warblings, gushing ever new,
The angels’ harpings greet.
1T 70.3