"For Thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in Thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of Thy wings. Selah." (Psalm 61:3-4)
Sure. You helped me out of every scrape I ever faced, crowning, even, the garden-variety blessings that "everyone else" takes for granted with Your own fingerprint of beauty and originality and permanence—like You'd done them for me and me alone and didn't take from the template of another. And yet somehow I don't feel that You can deal with this thing or see me into the next season of what I want and desire, and need.*
*Actual unvoiced and subconscious strain of thought on my insides in relation to my needs.
"And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! For then would I fly away and be at rest." (Psalm 55:6) Uh, we don't have wings. But God does.
Winging it
David says at the first part of the top verse how God had done these things. He says in verse two "From the end of the earth will I cry unto Thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I." Here's a secret: it doesn't take much for me to feel overwhelmed in this life. I have a very analytical and wiredrawn way of thinking and if I let slip too much the simple first-love things of gratitude and wonder, electing to take on my quotidian cares and worries (instead of leaving them with God), the waves will come crashing down as I make my way through the sea. I'm using the metaphor here of walking through the Red Sea—à la (or is it ala?) the Children of Israel—because I believe it is a fitting parallel for what the believer goes through in this life. Skipping ahead, this is what I like about the fourth verse at the top. "I will abide in Thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of Thy wings." And when it says "Selah." It's asking I stop and meditate on the truth therein. God is never changing, never moving. It doesn't matter if God clears a wide swath in front of us, we must ever keep moving even as He is stationary in our hearts and minds and His throne. We are moving forward to and for Him. In other words, He doesn't alter or vacillate. And if we start out with a misconception as to who and how He is, it doesn't matter what we get or what we go through, He'll need to heal that for us to truly move on. So deep, at times, is this worry I sense saying my needs won't be met, that I forget it isn't part of me anymore. When we accept Christ, we are "complete in Him who is the head of all principality and power." (Colossians 2:10) This is Gospel and this is how God sees us.
"He shall cover cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust: His truth shall be thy shield and buckler." (Psalm 91:4)
Real quick: an integument is essentially a covering. Biologically speaking, it's the same. It's a skin or a shell or something that keeps what's in, in and what's out, there. For birds, I guess it'd be feathers. "The covert of [God's] wings" certainly could refer to the actual "covering" we receive from Him. That continual and ever-expanding presence of the Lord akin to the outstretched wings of a mama bird. But there's a type of feather called the "covert". They're the special feathers at the base of the wing. And God extends those over you and brings you in. You are His and He is brooding over you.
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killeth the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!" (Luke 13:34)
On a wing
It takes great faith to see past our deep wounds and believe that God wants to do for us what we never thought we'd receive. But we have to come to Him for rest and then rest in His presence. Have you ever had something so handicap you that you can't help but see everything you do in light of its influence? I would wager to say everyone deals with this. And those wounds are necessarily something God alone sees. "To His own master He standeth or falleth" says Paul in his letter to the Christians in Rome (14:4) God wants to so cover you with His presence and His feathers, that those things holding you down from flying with Him are driven out and healed and replaced with their Christlike counterparts.