“I will praise You, for I AM FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I WAS MADE IN SECRET, And SKILLFULLY WROUGHT IN THE LOWEST PARTS OF THE EARTH. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!” (Psa. 139:14-17)
“The lowest part of the earth” does not carry any type of negative connotation. David is just using this metaphor to emphasize the intricate and wondrous development of the fetus in the womb as being done in as remote manner as if it were occurring in the depths of the earth. Even in such a location, we are visible to God, and are NOT HIDDEN from His knowledge.
This was strangely similar to the creation of the heaven and earth, “The earth was WITHOUT FORM, AND VOID; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” (Gen. 1:2) This is similar to the new birth experience, to better understand the new birth we should have a good knowledge of what takes place within the womb before birth. We live in a liquid environment, surrounded by water in darkness just as the earth was in the beginning. In the same way that the earth returned to its former condition during the flood, we must return to the way we were before we were born. The earth that emerged from the deluge was a new heaven and a new earth. Everything from the former earth had passed away. Thus when we emerge from the waters of baptism everything from our former life has passed away and we are new creatures.
“…if anyone is in Christ, HE IS A NEW CREATION; old things have passed away; behold, ALL THINGS HAVE BECOME NEW.” (2 Corin. 5:17) At the moment of salvation, we become A NEW CREATURE IN CHRIST. Some of us may have a pleasant memory of feeling the change as the BURDEN OF SIN WAS LIFTED and replaced with forgiveness and hope. But if we didn’t feel anything? WE ARE STILL SAVED.
-Bill Stockham