What are the depths of the earth in Psalm 139:15?

As to Sheol, to see how vague it is in scripture, see Genesis 42:38; 44:29, 31. 1 Kings 2:6, 9. Job 11:8 seq. Psalm 86:13; 141:7. Isaiah 14:11; 28:15, 18. It meets sight at the grave, and all is dark and silent beyond. Job 7:9, where nothing is seen beyond - Job 14:12. Yet we have "the lowest hell," where lowest is lowest part. So Deuteronomy 32:22, same as lower parts (of earth), only singular, Job 17:13. As to lower parts (of the earth), you have these of Sheol, and some of the earth: Psalm 63:9; 139:15; Isaiah 44:23. It is most common in Ezekiel (Ezek. 26:20; 31:14, 16, 18; 32:18, 24). There is also Psalm 88:6, lowest Sheol.

Then we have such expressions as the "depths of sheol" (Prov. 9:18), "the lowest sheol" (Ps. 86:13, Deut. 32:22), — in the last passage God's wrath being said to burn to it, — "though they dig into sheol" (Amos. 9:2), which show that the grave cannot be the whole matter there. So even in sheol (Ps. 139:8) there is no escape from the presence of God: "if I make my bed in sheol, behold, Thou art there!" Can that be nonentity?

Then we have such expressions as the "depths of sheol" (Prov. ix. 18), "the lowest sheol" (Psa. lxxxvi. 13, Deut. xxxii. 22), - in the last passage God's wrath being said to burn to it, - "though they dig into sheol" (Amos. ix. 2), which show that the grave cannot be the whole matter there. So even in sheol (Psa. cxxxix. 8) there is no escape from the presence of God: "if I make my bed in sheol, behold, Thou art there!" Can that be nonentity? Surely we may be excused then from following very closely the dissertations of those who have learnedly endeavoured to prove that sheol is the abode of dead sheep, of men's bones, and of weapons of war! For the first statement there is one passage produced, Psa. xlix. 14: "Like sheep they are laid in sheol;" as Delitzsch expresses it, "they are made to lie down in sheol, like sheep in a fold." This one comparison of the wicked lying down in sheol like a flock of sheep, Mr. Constable thinks sufficient to show, "to the astonishment and disgust of our Platonic divines and thinkers, that beasts go on death to hades"! In the same way, Psa. cxli. 7, "Our bones are scattered at the mouth of sheol," is made to assure us that "the bones of the dead are consigned in death to hades!" The psalmist plainly says they are outside.*

By "the heart," or "lower parts," of the earth, we understand the grave. Our Lord not only died, but was buried" and "rose again the third day." Of this Jonah was a sign. Ps. 139:15 may serve to guard us from a too literal interpretation of the words which would seem to indicate that by the lowest parts of the earth is meant what is plainly out of sight — "in secret." The sepulchre was made sure and the stone sealed (Matt 27:66). Thus no human eye should peer into that holy domain where lay the body of Jesus.

He proceeds to speak of these marvels: of the bony framework upon which the flesh was supported; of the delicate embroidery of vessels and nerves ramifying through it; all this wrought in secret, in underparts of earth," — not the ground, surely, which would scarcely have been true of Adam, — but of that human substance which is but animated dust. He thinks of that wrapped up embryo, and of the sketched out plan; in which each part of that continually progressing organism had, before coming into being, its predestined place.

Down in the depths, the lowest parts of the earth, in the womb of the creature. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect, and in Thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

Hereupon we have in the Psalm which follows (139) how a saint can come to be at home in the Divine presence. The sense of God's omniscience as well as of His omnipresence cannot provide that. Rather the contrary. God's eye on him is no comfort. From under that eye he cannot escape, wherever he goes. To what place soever he might betake himself, that eye would still be on him (1-12). What then can minister relief? The answer to this is very simple and very blessed. God's thoughts as revealed can do it. The Psalmist's thoughts about God have not done it. So up to verse 12 he is uneasy. In verse 13, however, he strikes a different note, and the first thing which ministers relief is the remembrance that God thought of him when in his mother's womb (13-16). That eye which he finds on him wherever he may go, that eye surveyed his frame when made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. "Thine eyes," he proceeds, "did see my substance, being unperfect and in Thy book all my members were written, which in continuance [or, day by day] were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them." The remembrance of this has quite changed his key. "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are Thy works; and that my soul knows right well" (14). He has got quite away from thinking about himself, and is now occupied with God.

Certainly, one's frame was not hidden from God, for his Creator had acted in secret with marvelous skill "in the lowest parts of the earth' (v. 15). This may be a reference to Adam's being formed from the dust of the earth (Gen. 2:7). It certainly must have taken some skill to accomplish a matter like this! And the Lord knew perfectly the substance of every individual long before this formation took place. He did not have to experiment to find what may be successful, but in His book (of course figuratively) everything about the person was written down long before his being in existence. How little indeed can we understand such wisdom!

Rekem, "embroidery," a word that might be thought to have only a very fanciful connection with any spiritual work. Nor is it employed exactly in this way; but the verb is used in a striking passage in that wonderful psalm, the 139th, in which God's thought and care of man is traced from his beginnings in the womb: — "My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought" — "embroidered" — "in the lowest parts of the earth." And, indeed, the curious interweaving of nerves, veins, arteries, together can be compared to nothing more justly than to a marvellous embroidery. This, of course, in all men: and can God be wanting in consideration and tenderness for a being upon whom He has bestowed such wonderful care?

261 This Psalm is the mystic Christ, but spoken of in person because so known in connection with the Jews, and the enemies of God; but it is His moral character, as so known in connection with the Church, as having no iniquity, and bearing no iniquity. But, He being fully searched, what is perfect owned, i.e., Himself and His Body the Church, He is in open opposition to the adversaries to God so detected. Indeed Christ was most thoroughly searched in His day, even to death, and no iniquity found in Him, and therefore perfect for His Church before God. It was His death that proved this; therefore His members were formed in the "lower parts of the earth." The Church was taken out of Christ's death, and here is the force of "the lower parts of the earth" - a difficulty as on this very ground, for as Christ's death was the real power in which sin was measured, and out of which the Church in resurrection was formed, so out of this world, in a state of death from God, the Church in its members was taken - Christ having descended there for the purpose, and going really into the full character of it responsibly, even into death and the grave, the lower parts of the earth. Thus the principle of the Church in Christ is known, and the Church formed as His Body out of it - the object - and meeting the requisitions of God's eye, and then therefore used as the scene and instrument of God's power, as answering His moral character which the power was to vindicate, in the form of those in whom it had been dishonoured. No place could escape the search of God's Spirit, nor man find a place from it. But Christ (and the Church) stand it, because formed in the power of the "Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead." The grave was indeed a dark place - the Church's (mother's) womb - but God knew it there, and, by His creative grace, formed its members there out of Christ, "when as yet there was none of them."