Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 88:11
Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? [or] thy faithfulness in destruction?
11. To proclaim God’s lovingkindness and faithfulness is the delight of His people (Psa 40:10; Psa 92:2), but in the grave they will neither have cause nor power to do it. These two attributes, so often coupled together, are the keynote of Psalms 89.
‘Destruction,’ Heb. Abaddon, is almost a proper name for Sheol as the place of ruin: elsewhere only in the ‘Wisdom literature,’ Job 26:6; Job 28:22; Job 31:12; Pro 15:11; Pro 27:20. Cp. Rev 9:11, where it is the name of “the angel of the abyss,” Gk. Apollyon, ‘the Destroyer.’
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Shall thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave? – Thy goodness; thy mercy. Shall anyone make it known there? shall it there be celebrated?
Or thy faithfulness in destruction? – In the place where destruction seems to reign; where human hopes perish; where the body moulders back to dust. Shall anyone there dwell on the fidelity – the truthfulness – of God, in such a way as to honor him? It is implied here that, according to the views then entertained of the state of the dead, those things would not occur. According to what is now made known to us of the unseen world it is true that the mercy of God will not be made known to the dead; that the Gospel will not be preached to them; that no messenger from God will convey to them the offers of salvation. Compare Luk 16:28-31.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 11. Or thy faithfulness in destruction?] Faithfulness in God refers as well to his fulfilling his threatenings as to his keeping his promises. The wicked are threatened with such punishments as their crimes have deserved; but annihilation is no punishment. God therefore does not intend to annihilate the wicked; their destruction cannot declare the faithfulness of God.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I am not without hopes that thou hast a true kindness for me, and wilt faithfully perform thy gracious promises made to me, and to all that love thee and call upon thee in truth. But then this must be done speedily, or I shall be utterly incapable of such a mercy.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11, 12. amplify the foregoing,the whole purport (as Ps 6:5)being to contrast death and life as seasons for praising God.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave?…. Where he saw himself now going, and where should he be detained, and not raised out of it, the lovingkindness of God to him, as his Son, and as man and Mediator, and to his people in the gift and mission of him to be their Saviour and Redeemer, how would that be declared and made known? now it is, Christ being raised, and his ministers having a commission from him to preach the Gospel, in which the lovingkindness of God is abundantly manifested:
or thy faithfulness in destruction? the grave, so called from dead bodies being cast into it, and wasted, consumed, and destroyed in it: the meaning may be, that should he be laid in the grave, and there putrefy and rot, and not be raised again, where would be the faithfulness of God to his purposes, to his covenant and promises, to him his Son, and to his people?
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
13. But to thee have I cried, O Jehovah! There may have been a degree of intemperateness in the language of the prophet, which, as I have granted, cannot be altogether vindicated; but still it was a sign of rare faith and piety to persevere as he did with never-failing earnestness in prayer. This is what is meant when he says, that he made haste in the morning; by which he would have us not to imagine that he slowly and coldly lingered till he was constrained by dire necessity. At the same time, he modestly intimates by these words, that his pining away in long continued miseries was not owing to his own sluggishness, as if he had not sought God. This is an example particularly worthy of notice, that we may not become discouraged if it happen sometimes that our prayers are for a time unsuccessful, although they may proceed from the heart, and may be assiduously persevered in.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(11) Lovingkindness.Better here, covenant grace. The grave knew nothing of this. Death severed the covenant relationship. So faithfulness, wonders, righteousness are all used in their limited sense as determined by the covenant.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(11, 12) In these verses appear three prominent features of the Hebrew conception of the underworld. It is a place of destruction (comp. Job. 26:6; Job. 28:22), of darkness (comp. Psa. 88:6), and of forgetfulness, which may imply not only that the dead are forgotten, both of God and men (comp. Psa. 31:12 with Psa. 88:5), but that they themselves have, to borrow the heathen figure, drunk of the water of Lethe. (Comp. Psa. 6:5; Psa. 30:9, and for both ideas combined Ecc. 9:5-10.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11. Destruction The Hebrew word is simply parallel to grave in the previous line; equal to sheol, place of the dead. There is no allusion whatever to annihilation. These poetical descriptions must always be construed phenomenally, as they appear to the eye with reference to living men, never in the abstract or metaphysical sense.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 88:11 Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? [or] thy faithfulness in destruction?
Ver. 11. Shall thy loving kindness, &c. ] The same again, and Psa 88:12 a third time, pro more dolentium. See Psa 6:5 ; Psa 30:9 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
in destruction: Psa 55:23, Psa 73:18, Job 21:30, Job 26:6, Pro 15:11, Mat 7:13, Rom 9:22, 2Pe 2:1
Reciprocal: Job 10:21 – the land Job 35:15 – in great Psa 143:7 – unto them Ecc 9:5 – the dead Isa 38:18 – the grave