Psa. 139—The Spirit of God is here searching out the heart, and faith looks to God’s creation, although with Israel, they are restored in the flesh. At first he cannot get out of God’s hand, and cannot stand before Him in the searching out of flesh, but afterward he sees he is God’s handiwork, and that he is His creation, and now he can ask to be searched out. The principles of the new creation are here without revealing it. Verse 16, in principle, applies to the church, but there is no direct allusion to it.
Q. What are the lower parts of the earth?
A. His mother’s womb. It is curious how in the Old Testament they speak of their mother’s womb as the earth. As we read in Job, “Wilt thou bring me into the dust again?” And in Eccl. 3:2020All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. (Ecclesiastes 3:20), “All are of the dust, and all return to dust again.” Man comes out of the dust of death really, and returns there again. We have God’s thoughts and purposes of grace brought out in the close of the psalm towards Israel.
Psa. 140—He finds himself in the presence of the evil man, and is looking for deliverance, and counts on Jehovah. In these Psalms it is always the remnant, and sometimes a positive promise about Christ.
Psa. 141—Looking for deliverance, but asking to be kept, both as to heart and lips in the midst of distress. Crying to the Lord in the place of testimony in the midst of judgment and trials.