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Shall Your lovingkindness be declared in the grave? Or Your faithfulness in the place of destruction?
Psalms 88:11 · New King James Version
Parallel translations
  • WEB Is your loving kindness declared in the grave? Or your faithfulness in Destruction?
  • KJV Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction?
  • BSB Can Your loving devotion be proclaimed in the grave, Your faithfulness in Abaddon?
  • NASB Will Your graciousness be declared in the grave, Your faithfulness in Abaddon?
  • NLT Can those in the grave declare your unfailing love? Can they proclaim your faithfulness in the place of destruction?

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's love and faithfulness are declared in the grave. He pleads that death seems to cut off testimony to God's goodness.

Overview

Continuing his argument, Heman implies that the grave is no place to proclaim God's hesed and faithfulness. His questions are really pleas for rescue so he may keep praising. In Christ, God's loving kindness and faithfulness reach even into death and beyond through the hope of resurrection.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 8

  • Ps 73:18Surely you set them in slippery places. You throw them down to destruction.
  • 2 Pet 2:1But false prophets also arose among the people, as false teachers will also be among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master who bought them, bringing on themselves swift destruction.
  • Job 26:6Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering.
  • Ps 55:23But you, God, will bring them down into the pit of destruction. Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days, but I will trust in you.
  • Rom 9:22What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath made for destruction,
  • Job 21:30that the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity, That they are led out to the day of wrath?
  • Matt 7:13“Enter in by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter in by it.
  • Prov 15:11Sheol and Abaddon are before Yahweh — how much more then the hearts of the children of men!

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (3)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Psalms videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Psalms 88:11YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on PsalmsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

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 88:11 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

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.