Psalms 88:10

In these verses,

I. The psalmist expostulates with God concerning the present deplorable condition he was in (Psa 88:10-12): "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 (Psa 88:13): "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 (Psa 88:14): "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, Psa 88:15. 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 6:4. 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," Psa 88:16. 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 (Psa 88:18): 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.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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. Rephâîm, 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.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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] Heb. the giants, that is, those that are swallowed up of death, as the giants were of the deluge.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ver. 10. Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? Wherefore then suffer me to die? While I live thou canst in me display the glories of thy grace, but when I have passed into the unknown land, how canst thou illustrate in me thy love? If I perish thou wilt lose a worshipper who both reverenced, and in his own experience illustrated, the wonders of thy character and acts. This is good pleading, and therefore he repeats it.

Shall the dead arise and praise thee? He is thinking only of the present, and not of the last great day, and he urges that the Lord would have one the less to praise him among the sons of men. Shades take no part in the quires of the Sabbath, ghosts sing no joyous Psalms, sepulchres and vaults send forth no notes of thanksgiving. True the souls of departed saints render glory to God, but the dejected Psalmist's thoughts do not mount to heaven but survey the gloomy grave: he stays on this side of eternity, where in the grave he sees no wonders and hears no songs.

Selah. At the mouth of the tomb he sits down to meditate, and then returns to his theme.

Ver. 10. He assures himself God would not fail to comfort him before he died; and again, that the Lord would rather miraculously raise him from the dead, than not glorify himself in his deliverance: and in this also he taketh a safe course, for he seeks for what he might expect, rather in an ordinary way, than by looking for miracles. David Dickson.

Ver. 10. Shall the dead arise and praise thee? So far from this being an argument against the resurrection, it is Messiah's own most powerful plea for itthat otherwise man would be deprived of salvation, and God of the praise which the redeemed shall give for it to all eternity. Thou canst not show wonders to the dead as such; for "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." (Mt 22:32.) Or even if thou wert to show thy wonders, it is only by their rising to life again that they can duly praise thee for them. A.R. Fausset.

Ver. 10. The dead. The word comes from a root which expresses what is weak and languid, and at the same time stretched out and long extended, and which can accordingly be employed to describe the shadowy forms of the under world as well as the giants and heroes of the olden time. Carl Bernhard Moll, in Lange's Commentary.

Ver. 10. The dead. An attentive consideration seems to leave little room for doubt that the dead were called Rephaim (as Gesenius also hints) from some notion of Scheol being the residence of the fallen spirits or buried giants. F.W. Farrar, in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible.

Ver. 10-11. Can my soul ever come to think I shall live in thy favour, in thy free grace and lovingkindness, to be justified by it, to apprehend myself a living man, and all my sins forgiven? To do this, saith he, is as great a wonder as to raise a man up from death to life; therefore he useth that expression, Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? He calleth it a wonder; for of all works else, you shall find in Scripture the resurrection from the dead counted the greatest wonder.

The phrase in Ps 88:10, as the Septuagint translates it, is exceeding emphatic. Saith he, "Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? Shall the physicians arise and praise thee?" So they read it, and so some good Hebrecians read it also; that is, Go send for all the college of physicians, all the angels out of heaven, all the skilful ministers and prophets that were then upon the earth, Gad and David, for he lived in David's time; send for them all. All these physicians may come with their cordials and balms; they will never cure me, never heal my soul, never raise me up to life again, except thou raise me; for I am "free among the dead", saith he. Now then, to work faith in such a one; for this poor soul, being thus dead, to go out of himself, and by naked and sheer faith to go to Jesus Christ alone, whom God raised from the dead, and to believe on him alone; this is now as great a power as indeed to raise a man up from death to life. Thomas Goodwin.

Ver. 10-12. In these verses we find mention made of four things on the part of God: "wonders", "lovingkindness", "faithfulness", and "righteousness". These were 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!) that spot was made the very place where those attributes were more powerfully displayed, and made more deeply and experimentally known to his soul.

The Lord led the blind by a way that he knew not into these spots of experience, that in them he might more fully open up to him those attributes of which he had already gained a glimpse; but the Lord brought him in such a mysterious way, that all his former knowledge was baffled. He therefore puts up this inquiry to the Lord, how it was possible that in those spots where he now was, these attributes could be displayed or made known?

1. He beginsWilt thou shew 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". Shall the dead arise and praise thee? What! the dark, stupid, cold, barren, helpless soul, that cannot lift up one little finger, that cannot utter one spiritual word, that cannot put forth one gracious desire, that cannot lift up itself a hair's breadth out of the mass that presses it down"Shall it arise?" and more than that, "praise thee?" What! can lamentation ever be turned into praise. Can complaint ever be changed into thanksgiving? Can the mourner ever shout and sing? Oh, it is a wonder of wonders, if "the dead" are to "arise", if "the dead" are to "praise thee"; if the dead are to stand upon their feet, and shout victory through thy blood! J.C. Philpot.

Ver. 10-12.

1. The supposition.

(a) That a child of God should be wholly dead.

(b) That he should remain forever in the grave.

(c) That he should be destroyed.

(d) That he should always remain in darkness.

(e) That he should be entirely forgotten, as though he

had never existed.

2. The consequences involved in this supposition.

(a) God's wonders to them would cease.

(b) His praise from them would be lost.

(c) His lovingkindness to them would be unknown.

(d) His faithfulness destroyed.

(e) His wonders to them would be lost to others.

(f) His former righteousness to them would be forgotten.

3. The plea founded upon these consequences, "Wilt thou", etc. It cannot be that thy praise for grace shown to thy people can be lost, and none can render it but themselves. "Then what wilt thou do unto thy great name?" G.R.

Psalms 88:11*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11. (Psa 88:10) Wilt thou to the dead do wonders, or shall ghosts arise (and) thank thee? Selah. The argument implied is that the present life is the appropriate time for those favours which belong to it. See above, on Psa 6:5. The word Rephaim, in the last clause, is the name of a Canaanitish race of giants, but is applied poetically to the gigantic shades or spectres of the dead. See my note on Isa 14:9. Do wonders, literally wonder, as in Psa 77:11.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He showeth that the time is more convenient for God to help, when men call unto him in their dangers, than to tarry till they be dead, and then raise them up again.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 10. Wilt thou show wonders to the dead!] מתים methim, dead men.

Shall the dead] רפאים 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.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(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., rephaîm, 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.)

(10-12) These verses probably contain the prayer tittered with the “stretched-out hands.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 Gill on Ch2 16:12.

Selah. See Gill on Psa 3:2.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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 - רפאים rephâ'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.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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. רפאים, (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?”

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? Am I to receive no mercy till I am dead? and then wilt thou work a miracle for my restoration and deliverance? Shall the dead arise and praise thee? rather, the shades ( rephaim); comp. Job_26:5. The word rephaim designates the wan, shadowy ghosts that have gone down to Hades (Sheol), and are resting there. Shall these suddenly rise up and engage in the worship and praise of God? The psalmist does not, any more than Job, (Job_14:14) expect such a resurrection.

Vers. 10-12. Mournful views of death.

These verses are by no means the only ones which set forth similar views. Their melancholy is very profound. See this in

I THE DESCRIPTION OF THE HABITATION OF THE DEAD. The terms they use are all sad. As:

1. The pit." (Ver. 4) "The lowest pit" (ver. 6). The idea is of a vast profound subterranean cavern, into which no ray of light entered. Infernal regions indeed:

2. Destruction." (Ver. 11) A place where all living powers came to an end, and death only reigned.

3. The dark. " (Ver. 12) And "darkness" (ver. 6).

4. The land of forgetfulness" and silence. God had been their Light, their Joy, their Life; hut now they should know him no more. What wonder that they so shrank from death!

II THE BLESSINGS OF WHICH THEY WERE DEPRIVED. The living might rejoice in them, hut never the dead. These blessings were:

1. Knowledge of God"s wonders. The memory and experience of these were to the living their perpetual gladness; but the dead know and can know nothing of them. They are unhappy beings who know not anything, clean forgotten, out of mind beings whom God himself remembers not.

2. God"s loving kindness. (Ver. 11) They had been wont to exclaim, "How excellent is thy loving kindness!" to pray that God would "continue" it; to declare that they would "not conceal" it from all men, that they continually "thought of" it, that it was "good," that it was "life," yea, "better than life." But now they were shut off from it altogether.

3. God"s faithfulness. " (Ver. 11) This, too, they were wont lovingly to extol. (cf. Psa_36:5 Psa_40:10 Psa_89:1, Psa_89:5, Psa_89:8, Psa_89:24, Psa_89:33, etc.) But it was gone from them in the grave.

4. God"s righteousness. (Ver. 12) This had been all their trust and stay when living, but in the grave they knew it no more.

III THEIR LOSS OF ALL POWER.

1. They cannot praise God. (Ver. 10) This had been their joy on earth.

2. They cannot see. It would be in vain that God"s wonders were displayed before them.

3. They cannot hear. Therefore it would be of no avail to declare God"s loving kindness to them.

4. They cannot know either the wonders or the righteousness of God.

5. They have no power even to stand on their feet. Body, mind, and soul all stripped of their former powers. No wonder that Hezekiah cried, in his dread of death, "The living, the living, he shall praise thee!" And this was the belief of all the saints of the Old Testament.

IV QUESTIONS THAT ARISE FROM THE FACT OF THESE VIEWS ABOUT DEATH.

1. Are they true? Certainly not. In no one single particular are they true. The believer does not after death abide in the grave, nor in any pit, nor in the land of destruction, of darkness, and of forgetfulness. He is "with Christ, which is far better" (see New Testament, passim).

2. Were they ever true? In part they were. Christ opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. He was the Forerunner. None entered into the heavens until Christ, "the Way," first entered. Until then the spirits of the just were being safely guarded the rendering (1Pe_3:19) "in prison" is surely a misleading one, suggesting, as it does, the idea of punishment, whereas the word only signifies being "watched over," "guarded," "kept in the invisible world, in Hades, the place of departed spirits. They were in an inferior, but not in an unhappy, condition. It was called by the Jews "Abraham"s besom," "Paradise". (Luk_16:23 Luk_23:43) And again and again in the Psalms we have utterances of bright though not definite hope as to the future. (Psa_11:7 Psa_16:8-11 Psa_17:15 Psa_49:15, etc.) But they had their seasons of despondency, and then this hope fled away, and they could speak only as in these verses before us, which are so very far from the complete truth. Even then, blessed were the dead who died in the Lord!

3. Why was our better, brighter hope withheld from them, so that they could hold such sad views as these? The reply is to be found in God"s method of educating the race. Step by step, here a little and there a little, progressively such seems to have been the Divine plan. As we educate our children, so did God educate man. (cf. Heb_1:1) Our Lord taught the people, when he was here on earth, "as they were able to bear it." And such seems ever to have been God"s way. It has been suggested (J.A. Froude) that, seeing how Egypt had perverted the doctrine of a future life, making it the minister of all kinds of wrong, God kept any clear knowledge of this life from Israel, concentrating their attention upon the present life and its duties by means of present temporal rewards and punishments. It may have been so; but the question is one beyond our power to fully answer.

4. Why is the better hope given to us? To vindicate God. (cf. 1Co_15:12-19) To sustain men"s hope. "We are saved by hope." To quicken the love and pursuit of believers. To deliver from the fear of death. All this our hope does. S.C.

Peerings into the future.

"Wilt thou show wonders unto the dead?" "It is both curious and instructive to mark how, throughout the psalm, whether it is his own infirmity which he bewails, or the loss of friends, the mind of this wise man is straining toward the great darkness in which so many of his lovers and companions have been swallowed up, and into which he is himself about to pass. He is forever speculating on the physical and moral conditions of the world which lies in or beyond that darkness. He cannot get away from the theme. He is forever fingering it, anal returning to it." "He was forever asking Is the life beyond death a true life? is it a life worth living? Will it redress the wrongs of time, and vindicate the ways of God with men? Is the world to come a world of righteousness and charity and peace, in which Truth will lift her veil, and all alienations and enmities will be swallowed up in love?" Peerings into the future are natural; they may be healthy, they may be unhealthy; they depend very much on personal disposition, and quite as much on particular circumstances. Concerning the future, enough is known to prove a constant incentive to moral goodness; so much is unknown that faith may be kept in lively exercise. These points may be illustrated.

I PEERINGS INTO THE FUTURE ARE NATURAL. Man has never been able to accept the idea that his life ends at death. Heathen and pagan religions meet the cry for light on the world beyond death. Our friends die, but we cannot think them lost. So many die young, just fitted for life; there must be life for them beyond. We must die, but we cannot admit the idea that our real life ends at death. We are consciously fitted, by our earth life, for something more.

II PEERINGS INTO THE FUTURE MAY BE HEALTHY. They will be if they bring a vivid sense of the relation of the coming life to this life. If we see that the powers of that life are the powers gained in this.

III PEERINGS INTO THE FUTURE MAY BE UNHEALTHY. They will be if they become time-consuming, vague, impractical speculations, which fritter away the powers of the soul, and make present duties seem dull. The sitting in a window seat and dreamily peering into the west may be all very well, supposing the dreamer has got no housework to do. She would be wise to do her duty and leave the future alone. Unhealthy speculation on the future is a modern religious epidemic, seriously injuring the vitality of our Churches.

IV PEERINGS INTO THE FUTURE DEPEND ON DISPOSITION AND CIRCUMSTANCE. Some are speculative; they cannot live in the actual, they are always imagining the possible. They are always away yonder. No doubt they have their mission; but we are glad not to have too many of them, or the work of today would never get done. When men are in illness, or at gravesides, or set thinking by national calamities, then "peerings into the future" are befitting, and may be helpful things. R.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Wonders - In raising them to life. To praise thee - In this world?

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

dead

(See Scofield "Ecc 9:10").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.