Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah.
Parallel translations
- WEB Do you show wonders to the dead? Do the departed spirits rise up and praise you? Selah.
- BSB Do You work wonders for the dead? Do departed spirits rise up to praise You? Selah
- NKJV Will You work wonders for the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise You? Selah
- NASB ¶Will You perform wonders for the dead? Or will the departed spirits rise and praise You? Selah
- NLT Are your wonderful deeds of any use to the dead? Do the dead rise up and praise you? Interlude
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
He asks whether God works wonders for the dead or whether the departed rise to praise Him. He pleads that God act before death silences his praise.
Overview
Heman reasons that the dead, in his limited Old Testament view of Sheol, cannot witness or proclaim God's wonders. He urges God to save him while he can still praise. The fuller answer comes in Christ, who indeed shows wonders to the dead by raising them, transforming Sheol's silence into resurrection praise.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Ps 6:5For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?
- Isa 26:19Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.
- Ps 30:9What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth?
- Isa 38:18–19For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.
- 1 Cor 15:52–57In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
- Mark 5:35–36While he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house certain which said, Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further?
- Ps 118:17I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD.
- Ps 115:17The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence.
- Job 14:7–12For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.
- Luke 7:12–16Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her.
- Ezek 37:1–14The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 88:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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