Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 88:10
Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise [and] praise thee? Selah.
10. This and the two following verses can hardly be, as some commentators suppose, the prayer to which he refers in Psa 88:9. The connexion of thought seems to be this. He has prayed that God will shew him His marvellous lovingkindness, but he will soon be beyond the reach of it, for of course from his point of view there can be but one answer to the questions of Psa 88:10-12, and that a negative one. In despair he asks;
Wilt thou do wonders for the dead?
Shall the shades arise and praise thee?
To do ‘wonders’ is the prerogative of God (Exo 15:11; Psa 77:11; Psa 77:14): to give thanks to Him for them is the duty of man: but the Psalmist cannot believe that even God will work such a miracle that the dead shall arise and praise Him. Rephm, the Heb. word for ‘shades,’ denotes the dead as weak and nerveless ghosts. Arise might mean no more than ‘stand up,’ referring to what takes place in the unseen world, but the parallel of Isa 26:14 suggests that it is a resurrection of which the poet speaks as inconceivable. Cp. Job 14:12.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? – The wonders – or the things suited to excite admiration – which the living behold. Shall the dead see those things which here tend to excite reverence for thee, and which lead people to worship thee? The idea is that the dead will be cut off from all the privileges which attend the living on earth; or, that those in the grave cannot contemplate the character and the greatness of God. He urges this as a reason why he should be rescued. The sentiment here is substantially the same as in Psa 6:5. See the notes at that passage. Compare Isa 38:18.
Shall the dead arise and praise thee? – The original word, here rendered the dead, is Rephaim – repha’iym. On its meaning, see the notes at Isa 14:9. It means, properly, relaxed, languid, feeble, weak; and is then applied to the dead – the shades – the Manes – dwelling in the under-world in Sheol, or Hades, and supposed to be as shades or shadows, weak and feeble. The question here is not whether they would rise to live again, or appear in this world, but whether in Sheol they would rise up from their resting places, and praise God as men in vigor and in health can on the earth. The question has no reference to the future resurrection. It relates to the supposed dark, dismal, gloomy, inactive state of the dead.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 88:10-12
Wilt Thou show wonders to the dead?
shall the dead arise and praise Thee?
The great problem
I. Here is a problem common to humanity. Lived there ever a man who has not asked this question in some form or other?
II. Here is a problem that unaided reason cannot answer.
1. Ancient philosophy tried and failed. Witness Socrates.
2. Modern philosophy has nothing but speculations.
III. Here is a problem on which the gospel throws light. What saith the Gospel? (1Co 15:51). (Homilist.)
Wonders shown to the dead
In these verses we find mention made of four things on the part of God: wonders, lovingkindness, . . . faithfulness, and righteousness–four attributes of the blessed Jehovah, which the eyes of Heman had been opened to see, and which the heart of Heman had been wrought upon to feel. But he comes, by Divine teaching, into a spot where these attributes seem to be completely lost to him;and yet (so mysterious are the ways of God!) the very place where those attributes were to be more powerfully displayed, and made more deeply and experimentally known to his soul.
1. Wilt Thou show wonders to the dead? He is speaking here of his own experience; he is that dead person, to whom those wonders are to be shown. And being in that state of experience, he considered that every act of mercy shown to him where he then was must be a wonder. All Gods people are brought by the Spirits operations upon their souls, sooner or later, to be in that spot where Heman was. Paul was there, when he said (Rom 7:9). Then, surely, he was dead; that is, he had been killed in his feelings by the spirituality of Gods law made known in his conscience–killed, as to all hopes of creature-righteousness, and killed as to any way of salvation which the creature could devise. But the word dead carries with it a still further meaning than this. It expresses a feeling of utter helplessness; not merely a feeling of guilt and condemnation, so as to be slain to all hopes of salvation in self, but also to feel perfectly helpless to deliver himself from the lowest hell. But if We look at the expression as it simply stands, it seems to be uttered by one who is passing under the sentence of death before the wonder is displayed. It does not run in the past tense, Hast Thou shown wonders to the dead? It is not couched in the present tense, Art Thou showing wonders to the dead? The language is not the language of praise for the past; nor of admiration for the present; but that of anxious inquiry for the future Wilt Thou show wonders to the dead? Is it possible? Am I not too great a sinner? Is not my case too desperate?
2. Shall Thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? We have come a step lower now. We had been communing with the dead; but now we must go a step lower. We must go to the sepulchre; we must accompany the corpse to the grave. Now, what is the grave but the place where corruption riots, where putrefaction reigns? Here, then, is a striking figure of what a living soul feels under the manifestations of the deep corruptions of his heart. All his good words, once so esteemed, and all his good works, once so prized, and all his prayers, and all his faith, and hope, and love, and all the imaginations of his heart, not merely paralyzed and dead, not merely reduced to a state of utter helplessness, but also in soul feeling turned into rottenness and corruption. Now, were you ever there? Did your prayers ever stink in your nostrils? And are all your good words, and all your good works, and all your good thoughts, once so esteemed, now nothing in your sight but filthy, polluted and unclean?
3. Or Thy faithfulness in destruction? What is this faithfulness of which Heman speaks? It is, I believe, in two different branches; faithfulness to the promises that God has made in His word of truth–and faithfulness to His own witness and His own work upon the souls of His children. The Lord has destroyed your false religion, your natural hopes, your imaginary piety, your mock holiness, and those things in you which were not of Himself, but which were of the earth earthy, and were drawing you aside from Him; and has made you poor, naked, empty before His eyes. But it is in these very acts of destruction that He has shown His faithfulness–His faithfulness to His covenant, His faithfulness to His written word, His faithfulness to those promises which He has dropped with power into your heart.
4. Shall Thy wonders be known in the dark? and Thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? Here is another attribute of God about which Heman was exercised. His righteousness, Gods righteousness, I believe, here and elsewhere does not mean only Christs righteousness, but also the righteous acts of God in dealing with the soul in a way consistent with His own equitable character. This land of forgetfulness seems to imply two things–our forgetfulness of God, and Gods apparent forgetfulness of us.
(1) We often get into this sleepy land of forgetfulness toward God; we forget His universal presence, forget His heart-searching eyes, forget His former benefits, forget His past testimonies, forget the reverence which belongs to His holy name; which, above all things, we have desired most earnestly to remember. It is, then, in this land of forgetfulness, in this dull and heavy country, when, like the disciples in the garden, we sleep instead of watching, that God is still pleased to show forth His righteousness. Gods righteousness runs parallel with Christs atonement, for therein is His intrinsic righteousness manifested, that is, His strict compliance with equity and justice, because equity and justice have been strictly fulfilled by the propitiation of the Son of God.
(2) But the land of forgetfulness often means forgetfulness on Gods part–God seems to forget His people (Isa 49:13). Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath He in anger shut up His tender mercies? Does it not seem, at times, as though the Lord had utterly forgotten us, would take no more notice of us, slights us, rejects us, and would not cast one look, or bestow one word upon us? (J. C. Philpot.)
Marvels amidst the tombs
What a sad day in the history of a great country was that when over the gateway of the chief cemetery of Paris was inscribed the sentence, Death is an eternal sleep! This hopeless statement was the product of a highly civilized age, that chose to live without God; but the primitive races of men had not sunk so low in religious matters. When the chieftain of prehistoric days was placed in his tomb, before they raised his tumulus they placed with his bones his weapons of stone, or bronze, that he might in the spirit world pursue his avocations which he had followed on earth. But when men became philosophers, and studied the grounds of evidence, a cold withering frost of doubt seemed to freeze up their cheering convictions. Even the great Socrates, with his last breath, speaks with a kind of faltering utterance to his judges, And now we part, and whether it will be best for you, or for me, is known to God only. Then came the dawn of a nobler day. Christ Jesus walked on earth. In the death-chamber of the little Jewish maiden He recalled the vanished spirit. Thus the Christian answers to the despairing, wailing cry of Scepticism–Does God show signs amongst the dead? by pointing to the empty sepulchre; to the white-robed angels, that announce–He is not dead, He is risen; to the testimony of the pious women, who found the spices might be reserved for incense to burn in the worship of their Ascended Lord; and to the multitude of sober and sufficient witnesses, who both on the first Easter Day, and afterwards in Galilee, by many infallible proofs, perceived that He was alive, and alive for evermore! And now He holds the keys of death and of Hades–that is, the unseen world–and adoring Christendom bows before His name, who has shown wonders amongst the dead. In this faith our dear ones close their eyes, in His peace they rest; in sure and certain hope of His resurrection power we lay their earthly tabernacles beneath the green sod. (J. W. Hardman, LL. D.)
The land of forgetfulness.
The land of forgetfulness
There is a fabled river in ancient mythology called Lethe,–simply meaning forgetfulness. The idea of the fabulist was that whoever drank water out of that river instantly forgot everything that had happened; all the past was a forgotten dream. Nay, more than this, consciousness itself was not left after the Lethal water was taken. The man who drank one draught of the water of Lethe, oblivion, was not aware of his own existence; that draught had utterly extinguished him. Men have often longed for a draught of that water; men have sighed for the land of forgetfulness; souls, harps on which music was meant to be played, have desired with unspeakable earnestness to be allowed to die, to forget, to be forgotten.
I. In some aspects the land of forgetfulness is a desirable land. There are moments when we want to enter it and be enfranchised in it for ever. There are things that other people have done to us that we long to forget; if we could wholly forget them life would be sweeter, friendship would be dearer, the outlook would be altogether more inviting. What is it that makes the land of forgetfulness a land in poetry, a land inaccessible? Is there no potion that the soul may take? there are potions that the body may drink, but we do not want to drink our bodies into some lower level and some baser consciousness; we are inquiring now about soul-potions, drinks that affect the mind, draughts that lull the soul.
II. There are other aspects in which the land of forgetfulness is an attainable land. We can so live as to be forgotten. Men can live backwards. Men can be dead whilst they are alive, and forgotten while they are present to the very eyes. What is there to remember about them? Beginning as ciphers they have continued as ciphers; they have never done anything for the world, or for any individual in the world. Where are the parts of character on which we can lay hold and say, By these we shall remember you evermore?
III. But the land of forgetfulness is in fact an impossible land. Effects follow causes: deeds grow consequences. The Lord forgets nothing: but after a process known to us by the sweet name forgiveness there comes the state in the Divine mind which is known by the human word forgotten. Sometimes we say we can forgive but never forget. Then we cannot forgive; and if we cannot forgive we cannot pray; if we cannot forgive we cannot believe. Forgiveness is the true orthodoxy. Largeness, sensitiveness, responsiveness of heart, slavery to love, that is orthodoxy. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Things that should be forgotten
Let us forget all unkindness, incivility, discourtesy. Let us forget our good deeds. That will be one great step towards the land of heaven. There are some who remember every good deed they ever did, and therefore they never did anything worth doing. No man has ever done anything for God if he has kept account of it. It may be difficult to teach this lesson, and to drive it home; but so long as a man can tell you when he gave pounds and shillings, and when he rendered service, and to what inconvenience he put himself, all that he did is blotted out. The value of our greatest deeds is in their unconsciousness. The rose does not say, I emitted so much fragrance yesterday and so much the day before. The rose knows nothing about it; it lives to make the air around it fragrant. Thus ought souls to live, not knowing how long they have preached, how much they have done, what the extent of their good deeds has boon. They know nothing about it; they are absorbed in love; they are borne away by the Divine inspiration, and whilst anything remains they suppose that nothing has been given. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 10. Wilt thou show wonders to the dead!] methim, dead men.
Shall the dead] rephaim, “the manes or departed spirits.”
Arise and praise thee?] Any more in this life? The interrogations in this and the two following verses imply the strongest negations.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Wilt thou show wonders to the dead, to wit, in raising them to live again in this world? as it is in the next clause. I know that thou wilt not. And therefore now hear and help me, or it will be too late.
Praise thee, to wit, amongst mortal men in this world.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. shall the deadthe remainsof ghosts.
ariseliterally, “riseup,” that is, as dead persons.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Wilt thou show wonders to the dead?…. The Lord does show wonders to some that are spiritually dead, dead in Adam, dead in law, dead in trespasses and sins, by quickening them; whereby the wonders of his grace and love, and of his power, and the exceeding greatness of it, are displayed; for the conversion and quickening of a dead sinner is a marvellous event, like that of; raising Lazarus from the dead, and causing Ezekiel’s dry bones to live: likewise the Lord will show wonders to those that are corporeally dead, by raising them from the dead; which work, though not incredible, yet is very wonderful, and can only be accounted for by the attributes of Divine Omniscience and Omnipotence: yea, he would, and he has shown wonders to Christ, when dead, by raising him up again, and giving him glory, and that before he saw corruption, and as the head and representative of his people; and by raising many of the saints also, after his resurrection:
shall the dead arise and praise thee? the spiritually dead, when they are made alive, and rise out of their graves of sin, praise the Lord for the exertion of his grace and power upon them; which is one end of their being formed anew, quickened, and converted; and those that are corporeally dead, such of them as shall rise again to everlasting life, their mouths will be filled with everlasting praise: but here the author of the psalm suggests, that in a little time he should be among the dead, unless he had speedy help and deliverance from his troubles; to whom wonders are not shown, but to the living; and who ordinarily do not rise again to this mortal state, to praise the Lord in it: or, considering them as the words of Christ, he suggests, that none of the above things would be done, unless he was a conqueror over death and the grave, and was raised from thence himself; and so these expostulations carry in them the nature of a prayer, even of the prayer of Christ, as man, to be assisted in overcoming all his enemies, and to be raised from the dead, as Cocceius and others think: the Greek and Vulgate Latin versions are,
“shall physicians rise again?”
of whom the Jews had a bad opinion; [See comments on 2Ch 16:12].
Selah. [See comments on Ps 3:2].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Pleading with God. | |
10 Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah. 11 Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction? 12 Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? 13 But unto thee have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee. 14 LORD, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me? 15 I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted. 16 Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off. 17 They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together. 18 Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.
In these verses,
I. The psalmist expostulates with God concerning the present deplorable condition he was in (v. 10-12): “Wilt thou do a miraculous work to the dead, and raise them to life again? Shall those that are dead and buried rise up to praise thee? No; they leave it to their children to rise up in their room to praise God; none expects that they should do it; and wherefore should they rise, wherefore should they live, but to praise God? The life we are born to at first, and the life we hope to rise to at last, must thus be spent. But shall thy lovingkindness to thy people be declared in the grave, either by those or to those that lie buried there? And thy faithfulness to thy promise, shall that be told in destruction? shall thy wonders be wrought in the dark, or known there, and thy righteousness in the grave, which is the land of forgetfulness, where men remember nothing, nor are themselves remembered? Departed souls may indeed know God’s wonders and declare his faithfulness, justice, and lovingkindness; but deceased bodies cannot; they can neither receive God’s favours in comfort nor return them in praise.” Now we will not suppose these expostulations to be the language of despair, as if he thought God could not help him or would not, much less do they imply any disbelief of the resurrection of the dead at the last day; but he thus pleads with God for speedy relief: “Lord, thou art good, thou art faithful, thou art righteous; these attributes of thine will be made known in my deliverance, but, if it be not hastened, it will come too late; for I shall be dead and past relief, dead and not capable of receiving any comfort, very shortly.” Job often pleaded thus, Job 7:8; Job 10:21.
II. He resolves to continue instant in prayer, and the more so because the deliverance was deferred (v. 13): “Unto thee have I cried many a time, and found comfort in so doing, and therefore I will continue to do so; in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.” Note, Though our prayers be not answered immediately, yet we must not therefore give over praying, because the vision is for an appointed time, and at the end it shall speak and not lie. God delays the answer in order that he may try our patience and perseverance in prayer. He resolves to seek God early, in the morning, when his spirits were lively, and before the business of the day began to crowd in–in the morning, after he had been tossed with cares, and sorrowful thoughts in the silence and solitude of the night; but how could he say, My prayer shall prevent thee? Not as if he could wake sooner to pray than God to hear and answer; for he neither slumbers nor sleeps; but it intimates that he would be up earlier than ordinary to pray, would prevent (that is, go before) his usual hour of prayer. The greater our afflictions are the more solicitous and serious we should be in prayer. “My prayer shall present itself before thee, and be betimes with thee, and shall not stay for the encouragement of the beginning of mercy, but reach towards it with faith and expectation even before the day dawns.” God often prevents our prayers and expectations with his mercies; let us prevent his mercies with our prayers and expectations.
III. He sets down what he will say to God in prayer. 1. He will humbly reason with God concerning the abject afflicted condition he was now in (v. 14): “Lord, why castest thou off my soul? What is it that provokes thee to treat me as one abandoned? Show me wherefore thou contendest with me.” He speaks it with wonder that God should cast off an old servant, should cast off one that was resolved not to cast him off: “No wonder men cast me off; but, Lord, why dost thou, whose gifts and callings are without repentance? Why hidest thou thy face, as one angry at me, that either hast no favour for me or wilt not let me know that thou hast?” Nothing grieves a child of God so much as God’s hiding his face from him, nor is there any thing he so much dreads as God’s casting off his soul. If the sun be clouded, that darkens the earth; but if the sun should abandon the earth, and quite cast it off, what a dungeon would it be! 2. He will humbly repeat the same complaints he had before made, until God have mercy on him. Two things he represents to God as his grievances:– (1.) That God was a terror to him: I suffer thy terrors, v. 15. He had continual frightful apprehensions of the wrath of God against him for his sins and the consequences of that wrath. It terrified him to think of God, of falling into his hands and appearing before him to receive his doom from him. He perspired and trembled at the apprehension of God’s displeasure against him, and the terror of his majesty. Note, Even those that are designed for God’s favours may yet, for a time, suffer his terrors. The spirit of adoption is first a spirit of bondage to fear. Poor Job complained of the terrors of God setting themselves in array against him, Job vi. 4. The psalmist here explains himself, and tells us what he means by God’s terrors, even his fierce wrath. Let us see what dreadful impressions those terrors made upon him, and how deeply they wounded him. [1.] They had almost taken away his life: “I am so afflicted with them that I am ready to die, and” (as the word is) “to give up the ghost. Thy terrors have cut me off,” v. 16. What is hell, that eternal excision, by which damned sinners are for ever cut off from God and all happiness, but God’s terrors fastening and preying upon their guilty consciences? [2.] They had almost taken away the use of his reason: When I suffer thy terrors I am distracted. This sad effect the terrors of the Lord have had upon many, and upon some good men, who have thereby been put quite out of the possession of their own souls, a most piteous case, and which ought to be looked upon with great compassion. [3.] This had continued long: From my youth up I suffer thy terrors. He had been from his childhood afflicted with melancholy, and trained up in sorrow under the discipline of that school. If we begin our days with trouble, and the days of our mourning have been prolonged a great while, let us not think it strange, but let tribulation work patience. It is observable the Heman, who became eminently wise and good, was afflicted and ready to die, and suffered God’s terrors, from his youth up. Thus many have found it was good for them to bear the yoke in their youth, that sorrow has been much better for them than laughter would have been, and that being much afflicted, and often ready to die, when they were young, they have, by the grace of God, got such an habitual seriousness and weanedness from the world as have been of great use to them all their days. Sometimes those whom God designs for eminent services are prepared for them by exercises of this kind. [4.] His affliction was now extreme, and worse than ever. God’s terrors now came round about him, so that from all sides he was assaulted with variety of troubles, and he had no comfortable gale from any point of the compass. They broke in upon him together like an inundation of water; and this daily, and all the day; so that he had no rest, no respite, not the lest breathing-time, no lucid intervals, nor any gleam of hope. Such was the calamitous state of a very wise and good man; he was so surrounded with terrors that he could find no place of shelter, nor lie any where under the wind. (2.) That no friend he had in the world was a comfort to him (v. 18): Lover and friend hast thou put far from me; some are dead, others at a distance, and perhaps many unkind. Next to the comforts of religion are those of friendship and society; therefore to be friendless is (as to this life) almost to be comfortless; and to those who have had friends, but have lost them, the calamity is the more grievous. With this the psalmist here closes his complaint, as if this were that which completed his woe and gave the finishing stroke to the melancholy piece. If our friends are put far from us by scattering providences, nay, if by death our acquaintance are removed into darkness, we have reason to look upon it as a sore affliction, but must acknowledge and submit to the hand of God in it.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
10. Wilt thou perform a miracle for the dead? By these words the prophet intimates, that God, if he did not make haste to succor him, would be too late, there being scarce anything betwixt him and death; and that therefore this was the critical juncture, if God was inclined to help him, for should the present opportunity not be embraced another would not occur. He asks how long God meant to delay, — if he meant to do so till death intervened, that he might raise the dead by a miracle? He does not speak of the resurrection at the last day, which will surpass all other miracles, as if he called it in question; yet he cannot be vindicated from the charge of going to excess, for it does not belong to us to prescribe to God the season of succouring us. We impeach his power if we believe not that it is as easy for him to restore life to the dead as to prevent, in proper season, the extreme danger which may threaten us from actually lighting upon us. Great as has been the constancy of the saints, it has always had some mixture of the infirmity of the flesh, which has rendered it necessary for God, in the exercise of his fatherly clemency, to bear with the sin with which even their very virtues have been to a degree contaminated. When the Psalmist asks, Shall thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave? he does not mean that the dead are devoid of consciousness; but he pursues the same sentiment which he had previously stated, That it is a more seasonable time to succor men, whilst in the midst of danger they are as yet crying, than to raise them up from their graves when they are dead. He reasons from what ordinarily happens; it not being God’s usual way to bring the dead out of their graves to be witnesses and publishers of his goodness. To God’s loving-kindness or mercy he annexes his truth or faithfulness; for when God delivers his servants he gives a confirmation of his faithfulness to his promises. And, on the other hand, he is influenced to make his promises by nothing but his own pure goodness. When the prophet affirms, that the divine faithfulness as well as the divine goodness, power, and righteousness, are not known in the land of forgetfulness, some deluded persons foolishly wrest the statement to support a gross error, as if it taught that men were annihilated by death. He speaks only of the ordinary manner in which help is extended by God, who has designed this world to be as a stage on which to display his goodness towards mankind.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(10) Shall the dead arise? . . .These words are not to be taken in the sense of a final resurrection as we understand it. The hope of this had hardly yet dawned on Israel. The underworld is imagined as a vast sepulchre in which the dead lie, each in his place, silent and motionless, and the poet asks how they can rise there to utter the praise of God who has forgotten them (Psa. 88:5). That this is meant, and not a coming forth again into a land of living interests, is shown in the next two verses. (See Notes.)
Dead.Heb., repham, a word applied also to the gigantic races of Palestine (Deu. 2:11; Deu. 2:20, &c.), but here evidently (as also in Pro. 2:18; Pro. 9:18; Pro. 21:16; Isa. 14:9; Isa. 26:19) meaning the dead.
All the passages cited confirm the impression got from this psalm of the Hebrew conception of the state of the dead. They were languid, sickly shapes, lying supine, cut off from all the hopes and interests of the upper air, and even oblivious of them all, but retaining so much of sensation as to render them conscious of the gloomy monotony of death. (Comp. Isa. 38:18; Sir. 17:27-28; Bar. 2:17.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(10-12) These verses probably contain the prayer tittered with the stretched-out hands.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
10. Wilt thou show wonders to the dead A wonder, singular, a token, a proof of saving power and favour. God’s “wonders,” for the edification of living men, are shown to the living, not to the dead. Why, then, should he be left to die?
Shall the dead arise and praise thee The “dead,” here, does not refer to dead bodies, but to disembodied spirits, or, as the ancient idea was, the shades or manes of the dead; and the rising must not be understood of a resurrection of the body, but of the rising up, as from a recumbent posture, of the shades or spirits of the departed in their abode in sheol. , ( rephaim,) here translated dead, is a different word from “dead” in the previous clause, and is the term for giants, (as Gen 14:5; Deu 2:11; Deu 2:20,) and the climax seems to require the sense of mighty dead, or shades of the mighty, as in Isa 14:9: “Sheol raiseth for thee the mighty dead, all the great chiefs of the earth.” Lowth. These spirits were living, but had no sensible connexion with this world. The sense, therefore, is this: “Wilt thou produce a wonder to the dead? Shall the [spirits of the] mighty dead rise up [in their abode in sheol] and praise thee?” Nothing could make it more clear that the Hebrews considered living men to be debarred all direct intercommunion with the dead, so that the latter could not rise up and declare to the living what are the divine dispensations to them, and thus cause their experiences to become salutary to the living. And hence the argument all along implies, that if help were not quickly shown to the suppliant psalmist, while yet numbered with the living, the moral effect of his deliverance would be lost, and God would not be glorified by it. As to the supposed adverse bearing of this and other texts on the belief of man’s immortality, see on Psa 115:17, and the references there made. We say with Bishop Alexander: “How could Christianity, all quivering with the hopes and fears of another life, have issued from Judaism, if Judaism had possessed nothing of the kind?”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 88:10-13. Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead The Psalmist in this, and the following verses, exaggerates his own distress, and the seeming impossibility of relief, by representing himself as a dead man, and his state of misery and affliction as a state of death: nor can the words be taken in the literal sense, except they be referred to Him to whom God did indeed declare his loving-kindness in the grave, and his faithfulness in death. We need not observe to the scriptural reader, that strong figures of this kind are extremely common in the Hebrew poets.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
If I mistake not, the force and beauty of these expressions are intended to confirm the certainty of the things they seem to inquire after. We meet with many such passages in Scripture, where the certainty of the truth intended to be established is more effectually done by the inquiry, than if it had been said in so many words. Thus our Lord demands, What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? By this question, it is plain, Christ not only meant to say that it should profit him nothing, but, by this method of stating the subject, he intended the most decided conviction of the stupidity and folly of neglecting the care of the soul, upon any and every consideration whatever. So in the present instance: Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise thee? Yes, thy dead men shall live (is the promise of the Father to his Son), together with my dead body, shall they arise. Isa 26:19 . Jesus by his death hath overcome death: for it was appointed that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man. And as he was delivered for our offences, so was he raised again for our justification. Heb 2:9 ; Rom 4:25 . Hence, therefore, God’s wonders shall be shown among the dead; for the dead in Christ shall arise. For if we believe that Jesus died, and rose again, even so them also, which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him. 1Th 4:161Th 4:16 . Oh! how blessed the thought: God’s faithfulness is engaged, pledged, made over, in covenant engagements, to this assured purpose. The loving-kindness of God is as sure to the dead in Christ, as, to the living in him. Hence that blessed declaration, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For God is not the God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him; Luk 20:37-38 . Reader, think what blessed privileges Jesus hath procured by his redemption, and what wonders, even in the regions of darkness and of the grave, have been wrought by his one vast salvation!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 88:10 Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise [and] praise thee? Selah.
Ver. 10. Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? ] Wilt thou delay to deliver me till I am dead, and then raise me again by a miracle, that I may praise thee? But he should have considered that God neither needeth our poor praises nor can his help ever come too late.
Shall the dead arise
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 88:10-12
10Will You perform wonders for the dead?
Will the departed spirits rise and praise You? Selah.
11Will Your lovingkindness be declared in the grave,
Your faithfulness in Abaddon?
12Will Your wonders be made known in the darkness?
And Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
Psa 88:10-12 This strophe describes the general OT view of the joyless, silent existence of the conscious soul/person/self in the afterlife.
1. God did not deliver (save) from the dead
2. the dead do not praise God (cf. Psa 6:5; Psa 30:9; Psa 115:17; Isa 38:18)
3. God’s faithfulness is not declared in the grave (cf. Isa 38:18)
4. God’s acts of deliverance (BDB 810, see Special Topic: Wonderful Things) are not declared in the darkness
5. God’s righteousness (i.e., His acts of salvation) is not declared in the land of forgetfulness
Psa 88:10
NASBthe departed spirits
NKJV, TEVthe dead
NRSV, JPSOA,
REBthe shades
NJBthe shadows
This Hebrew root (BDB 952) has two connotations/usages.
1. race of giants (see Special Topic: Terms Used for Tall/Powerful Warriors or People Groups ) – Gen 14:5; Gen 15:20; Deu 2:20; Deu 3:11; Jos 17:15; 1Ch 20:4
2. the departed/the conscious dead – Job 26:5-6; Pro 2:18; Pro 9:18; Pro 21:16; Isa 14:9; Isa 26:11-19; this usage is common in Wisdom Literature (see SPECIAL TOPIC: WISDOM LITERATURE )
Because of Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 it is possible to see these as departed kings and powerful humans, now in Sheol, their power and prestige gone. There is a detailed discussion of this term in NIDOTTE, vol. 3, pp. 1173-1180.
Selah See notes at Psa 3:2.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
dead. Hebrew. Rephaim, who have no resurrection. See note on Isa 26:14, where it is rendered “deceased”; and 19, where it is rendered “the dead”. Compare App-23and App-25.
Selah. Connecting Psa 88:10 with its amplification in verses: Psa 88:11-13. Compare Selah, Psa 88:7. See App-66.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
dead
(See Scofield “Ecc 9:10”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Wilt thou: The interrogations in these verses imply the strongest negations. Psa 6:5, Psa 30:9, Psa 115:17, Psa 118:17, Isa 38:18, Isa 38:19, Mar 5:35, Mar 5:36
shall: Job 14:7-12, Isa 26:19, Eze 37:1-14, Luk 7:12-16, 1Co 15:52-57
Reciprocal: Job 26:6 – destruction Psa 143:7 – unto them Ecc 9:5 – the dead Ecc 9:10 – for Joh 4:49 – come
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 88:10-12. Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? Namely, in raising them to life again in this world? No: I know thou wilt not. And therefore now hear and help me, or it will be too late. Shall the dead arise and praise thee? Namely, among mortal men in this world? Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? &c. I am not without hopes, that thou bearest a real good-will toward 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 receiving such a mercy. Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? In the grave, which is called the land of darkness, Job 10:21-22. Thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? The grave, so called, either, 1st, Because there men forget and neglect all the concerns of this life, being indeed but dead carcasses without any sense or remembrance. Or, rather, 2d, Because there men are forgotten even by their nearest relations.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
88:10 Wilt thou shew {i} wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise [and] praise thee? Selah.
(i) He shows that the time is more convenient for God to help when men call to him in their dangers, than to tarry till they are dead, and then raise them up again.