TRV
Translation
King James Version
¶ Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah.
Complete Jewish Bible
Will you perform wonders for the dead? Can the ghosts of the dead rise up and praise you? (Selah)
Berean Standard Bible
Do You work wonders for the dead? Do departed spirits rise up to praise You? Selah
American Standard Version
Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? Shall they that are deceased arise and praise thee? [Selah
World English Bible Messianic
Do you show wonders to the dead? Do the departed spirits rise up and praise you? Selah.
Geneva Bible (1599)
Wilt thou shewe a miracle to the dead? or shall the dead rise and prayse thee? Selah.
Young's Literal Translation
To the dead dost Thou do wonders? Do Rephaim rise? do they thank Thee? Selah.
See also
In the KJVVerse 15,319 of 31,102
Study This Verse
Commentary on Psalms 88 verses 10–18
10 ¶ Wilt thou shew 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 (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 (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 10–18. Public domain.
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Augustine of HippoAD 430
Exposition on Psalm 88
But as His good works profited only the predestined to eternal salvation, and not all men, nor even all those among whom they were done, he adds, "Do you show wonders among the dead?" [Psalm 88:10]. If we suppose this relates to those whose flesh life has left, great wonders have been wrought among the dead, inasmuch as some of them have revived: [Matthew 27:52] and in our Lord's descent into Hell, and His ascent as the conqueror of death, a great wonder was wrought among the dead. He refers then in these words, "Do You show wonders among the dead?" to men so dead in heart, that such great works of Christ could not rouse them to the life of faith: for he does not say that wonders are not shown to them because they see them not, but because they do not profit them. For, as he says in this passage, "the whole day have I stretched forth My hands to You:" because He ever refers all His works to the will of His Father, constantly declaring that He came to fulfil His Father's will: [John 6:38] so also, as an unbelieving people saw the same works, another Prophet says, "I have spread out my hands all day unto a rebellious people, that believes not, but contradicts." [Isaiah 65:2] Those then are dead, to whom wonders have not been shown, not because they saw them not, but since they lived not again through them. The following verse, "Shall physicians revive them, and shall they praise You?" means, that the dead shall not be revived by such means, that they may praise You. In the Hebrew there is said to be a different expression: giants being used where physicians are here: but the Septuagint translators, whose authority is such that they may deservedly be said to have interpreted by the inspiration of the Spirit of God owing to their wonderful agreement, conclude, not by mistake, but taking occasion from the resemblance in sound between the Hebrew words expressing these two senses, that the use of the word is an indication of the sense in which the word giants is meant to be taken. For if you suppose the proud meant by giants, of whom the Apostle says, "Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world?" [1 Corinthians 1:20] there is no incongruity in calling them physicians, as if by their own unaided skill they promised the salvation of souls: against whom it is said, "Of the Lord is safety." But if we take the word giant in a good sense, as it is said of our Lord, "He rejoices as a giant to run his course;" that is Giant of giants, chief among the greatest and strongest, who in His Church excel in spiritual strength. Just as He is the Mountain of mountains; as it is written, "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be manifested in the top of the mountains:" [Isaiah 2:2] and the Saint of saints: there is no absurdity in styling these same great and mighty men physicians. Whence says the Apostle, "if by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them." [Romans 11:14] But even such physicians, even though they cure not by their own power (as not even of their own do those of the body), yet so far forth as by faithful ministry they assist towards salvation, can cure the living, but not raise the dead: of whom it is said, "Do You show wonders among the dead?" For the grace of God, by which men's minds in a certain manner are brought to live a fresh life, so as to be able to hear the lessons of salvation from any of its ministers whatever, is most hidden and mysterious. This grace is thus spoken of in the Gospel. "No man can come to Me, except the Father which has sent Me draw him;" [John 6:44] ...in order to show, that the very faith by which the soul believes, and springs into fresh life from the death of its former affections, is given us by God. Whatever exertions, then, the best preachers of the word, and persuaders of the truth through miracles, may make with men, just like great physicians: yet if they are dead, and through Your grace have not a second life, "Do You show wonders among the dead, or shall physicians raise them? And shall they" whom they raise "praise You"? For this confession declares that they live: not, as it is written elsewhere, "Thanksgiving perishes from the dead, as from one that is not." [Sirach 17:26]
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
Psalms 88:10 encapsulates the psalmist Heman's profound and unyielding despair, expressed through rhetorical questions that challenge God's capacity or willingness to intervene in the realm of the dead. This verse reflects the Old Testament's somber view of death as a state where active communion with God and the offering of praise cease, highlighting Heman's intense feeling of abandonment and his perception of being on the precipice of Sheol, beyond the reach of divine wonders.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Psalm 88:10 employs several potent literary devices to convey its message of profound despair and theological struggle. The primary device is Rhetorical Question, used twice ("Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise [and] praise thee?"). These are not questions seeking information but rather expressions of deep doubt, frustration, and a sense of hopelessness, implying a negative answer. The psalmist uses them to underscore the perceived impossibility of God's intervention or the continuation of praise from the grave. There is also a strong element of Irony, as Heman, a temple musician whose very calling was to lead in praise, now finds himself in a state where he believes praise is impossible and his ability to worship God has been extinguished. The use of Antithesis is subtle but present, contrasting the "wonders" of God, which are typically associated with life, power, and deliverance, with the inert, silent state of "the dead." Finally, the repeated reference to "the dead" (repha'im) functions as Metonymy for Sheol or the grave, emphasizing the silent, inactive realm where the psalmist feels he is heading, a place devoid of life and active worship.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Psalm 88:10 powerfully articulates an Old Testament perspective on death as a state of separation from God's active presence and the cessation of praise. This lament reflects a common understanding that the living are the ones who can experience God's wonders and offer Him worship, while the dead are consigned to a realm of silence and inactivity. This perspective highlights the preciousness of life as the primary arena for communion with God and underscores the profound tragedy of feeling cut off from Him, even before physical death. The psalmist's desperate questions are a raw expression of human finitude and the perceived limits of divine intervention in the face of overwhelming suffering and the inevitability of the grave, emphasizing the vital importance of the present life for engaging with God.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Psalm 88:10, though steeped in the psalmist's profound despair, offers significant spiritual lessons for believers today. It powerfully validates the human experience of deep suffering and the right to lament honestly and openly before God, even when our faith feels weak, our questions seem unanswerable, or God appears silent. This psalm, and particularly this verse, reminds us that God is truly big enough to handle our rawest emotions, our darkest doubts, and our most desperate cries, even when immediate relief or understanding is not granted. It serves as a potent reminder of the preciousness of life and health as the time appointed for actively experiencing God's wonders and offering Him praise. This should challenge us to seize the opportunities we have now to worship, serve, and commune with God with fervor and gratitude, recognizing that these capacities are profound gifts not to be taken for granted. Furthermore, Heman's lament implicitly encourages us to cultivate a posture of empathy and presence for those in deep despair, allowing them to voice their pain without judgment, just as he voices his before God.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Does Psalm 88:10 suggest that God cannot or will not perform miracles for the dead?
Answer: Psalm 88:10 reflects the psalmist's personal experience of profound despair and the prevailing Old Testament understanding of death, where Sheol was seen as a place of silence and separation from God's active praise. The questions are rhetorical, expressing Heman's feeling of being utterly cut off and beyond the reach of God's "wonders" in his current state, which he perceives as akin to death. It is not a definitive theological statement about God's absolute inability, but rather a desperate cry from a human perspective feeling abandoned and without hope of earthly deliverance. Other Old Testament passages affirm God's sovereignty over Sheol (Psalm 139:8) and some even hint at a future resurrection (e.g., Daniel 12:2), but the immediate context of Psalm 88 is one of unrelieved gloom and the perceived cessation of active worship in death.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Psalm 88:10, with its chilling questions about God's wonders reaching the dead and the possibility of praise from the grave, finds its glorious and definitive answer in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Where Heman saw death as the ultimate barrier to God's active presence and human worship, Christ utterly transformed this understanding. Jesus declared Himself to be "the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25), demonstrating His sovereign power over death by raising Lazarus from the tomb (John 11:43-44) and ultimately by His own triumphant resurrection from the grave (Matthew 28:6). The New Testament proclaims that through Christ, death has been swallowed up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:54), and that those who are "dead in Christ will rise first" at His coming (1 Thessalonians 4:16). Thus, the very questions Heman posed, steeped in the despair of a world without a resurrected Savior, are now answered with a resounding "Yes!" in Christ. He indeed shows wonders to the dead by giving them new, eternal life, and the dead do arise to praise Him, not in silence, but with eternal hymns of glory, for in Him, even death is conquered and becomes a pathway to everlasting worship and communion with God.