Psalm 88

‘Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee?’ Psalm 88.10.

by Mr G. D. Buss
A Vice-President of the Society

‘A Song or Psalm for the sons of Korah, to the chief Musician upon Mahalath Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite’.
Heading of Psalm 88

Introduction

Of Heman the Ezrahite little is known, except that most godly scholars believe that he was contemporary with Solomon. However, two things may be said of Heman without hesitation: that he was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write as he did, and that he himself was a deeply spiritual man.

The language of the psalmist in Psalm 88.10 may seem extravagant to some readers, but perhaps these people have not been in the spot where Heman sat. Otherwise they would doubtless understand the deep place into which he had come.

We must not infer from Heman’s language in verse ten that he believed in the annihilation of the soul, but rather that he knew that matters which are not settled between God and the sinner before death, will not be resolved hereafter. ‘In the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be’ (Ecclesiastes 11.3; this can also been seen in Revelation 22.11). In that sense the answer to Heman’s questions about the dead is ‘No’.

However, looking deeper into the language of Heman’s soul an awakened sinner can give a different answer.

1. A work of grace

Firstly, when the Lord is pleased to begin a work of grace in a sinner’s heart, He does show wonders to the dead! How wondrous are those words in Ephesians 2.1, ‘And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and in sins’.

How the awakened soul looks back in wonderment to the quickening grace which first alerted him to the solemn state in which he was living. And what encouragement this may be to those who have loved ones yet in spiritual death and darkness. It may be pleaded for them by those who are burdened for their eternal state, while as yet these spiritually dead have no heart for it themselves and ‘are as far from God as sheep may go’. The prodigal’s father said, ‘This my son was dead, and is alive again’ (Luke 15.24).

2. Could ever God dwell here?

Secondly, when the soul is awakened it begins to learn more and more of the absolute spiritual death there is in the old nature. ‘Could ever God dwell here?’ is a perennial question. While the Lord never regenerates the old nature, He works resurrection power in the new man of grace, which acutely feels the deadness and barrenness of the old. How often a living soul, groaning under the deadness and lifeless condition of the old nature, cries out with this question, and how the words of the psalmist suit them. ‘Quicken us, and we will call upon thy name’ (Psalm 80.18) and ‘Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; and let thy judgments help me’ (Psalm 119.175).

3. Is there no way of escape?

Thirdly, when a soul is brought under the condemning sentence of the broken law the sinner cries under a sense of God’s justice in condemning them, ‘is there no way of escape?’ How welcome are the good tidings so aptly expressed in the poet’s language.

In guilt’s dark dungeon where we lay,
Mercy cried ‘spare’ and Justice ‘slay’.
Jesus answered, ‘Set them free,
Pardon them and punish Me’.¹

4. At wits' end corner

Fourthly, when the child of God is at wits’ end corner, or like Jonah in the belly of the whale, how suitable to their feelings is such a question. How impossible did the resurrection of Lazarus seem to Martha as she stood at his grave! But what wonders did Christ show to the dead as He called Lazarus forth with Divine power.

5. Victorious over death

Fifthly, how in living faith the child of God waits around the tomb of the Saviour to see the wonders shown to and by the Son of God as He rose victorious over death and the grave. The disciples had inwardly if not outwardly given the answer ‘no’ to the question of the psalmist, but God gave the answer ‘yes!’

6. Anticipation: with Christ which is far better

Sixthly, what wonders may be believingly anticipated for those souls who die in the Lord. They are ‘with Christ which is far better’. With sweet surprise they find themselves at home at last, and the wonder of it fills their soul to a never-ending eternity.

7. Resurrection

Finally, what a wonder God will show to the body and soul of His people who have passed on before His return: ‘For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord’ (1 Thessalonians 4.16–17). But how solemn will be the awesome, terrifying wonder of those who lived and died without living faith in Christ.

Yes, God does show wonders to the dead. May we be found among those favoured souls to whom the wonder of His resurrection is a saving reality.

First published in Quarterly Record 645. Updated for online publication.