Today we are introducing this new Psalm.

* David is under trial here, and as is ever the case, the trials of God’s saints now are but a foreshadowing of the future time when believers as well as the Jewish people, will encounter the wrath of antichristianity.

* That the future is also in the mind of the Psalmist may be seen in his final words in verse 15. “As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.”

This will take place at the return of the Lord. 1 Thess 4:16-17; Php 3:21; 1 John 3:2. I believe that we may see that this subject was ever in the mind of the Jew.

* We must see this psalm as being, in truth, a prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ. Only He could truthfully and fully utter the words of verse 3. “Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.” But those who identify with Him and and suffer for Him, may employ these words as their prayer in times of trouble. These words of David then are a prayer of His people also. We are of His mind, Php 2:4. As He thought and prayed so do we. In a much more limited sense we can say: “Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.”

We are not truly Christians if we have no sense of the Lord searching us out, Psalm 139:1-2.

Verses 1-4 make up the first division of the Psalm — An Appeal to God. The Psalmist’s first petition is: “Hear the right, O LORD, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips. Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; let thine eyes behold the things that are equal,” verses 1 & 2.