Commentaries Dictionaries Concordances

Kretzmann's Popular Commentary

Psalms 88:10

Wilt Thou show wonders to the dead? That is, Did God intend to wait till He had succumbed to death! Shall the dead arise and praise Thee? That is, God surely did not expect praise from ghosts. Selah. The thought is this, that the psalmist, while he was still alive, wanted to praise the Lord for his deliverance from all the misery afflicting him; therefore the Lord should not let his afflictions reach such a climax as to bring him to the realm of death; for then all opportunity for worshiping Him would be past.

Continues after advertising

See also Psalms 88:10 in other biblical comments:

  • Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

    Verse Psalms 88:10. _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 thi...

  • Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

    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, a...

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    Psalms 88 The Deepest Soul Misery Poured Out _ 1. In deepest misery and distress (Psalms 88:1)_ 2. Crying and no answer (Psalms 88:8) This is a Maschil Psalm by Heman the Ezrahite. See...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    LXXXVIII. A LEPER'S PRAYER. This Ps. has striking peculiarities. The suffering here portrayed has been long and terrible. The Psalmist has been tormented by sickness from his youth (Psalms 88:15). Yah...

  • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

    DEAD. Hebrew. _Rephaim,_ who have no resurrection. See note on Isaiah 26:14, where it is rendered "deceased"; and 19, where it is rendered "the dead". Compare App-23 and App-25. SELAH. Connecting Psal...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    Again (cp. Psalms 88:1) he pleads the constancy of his prayers. His strength is failing. He will soon be dead; and in the grave he will be beyond the reach of God's love and faithfulness. Cp. Job 10:2...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    This and the two following verses can hardly be, as some commentators suppose, the prayer to which he refers in Psalms 88:9. The connexion of thought seems to be this. He has prayed that God will shew...

  • Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

    WILT THOU SHEW WONDERS TO THE DEAD— The Psalmist in this, and the following verses, exaggerates his own distress, and the seeming impossibility of relief, by representing himself as a dead man, and hi...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    PSALMS 88 DESCRIPTIVE TITLE The Anguished Cry of one Smitten and Forsaken. ANALYSIS Stanza I., Psalms 88:1-2, Urgent Prayer to be Heard. Stanzas II., III., IV., V., Psalms 88:3-4;...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah. -Appeal to God's regard to His own honour as involved in delivering the suppliant; because it is to the living that...

  • Darby's translation notes (1890)

    88:10 wonders (l-4) Lit. 'wonder.' shades (m-10) Or 'the dead,' as Job 26:5 ; Proverbs 2:18 ; Isaiah 14:9 ; not the same as 'dead' in this verse....

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    This is the saddest and most despairing of all the Pss. The writer is apparently the victim of some incurable disease like leprosy, with which he has been afflicted from his youth (Psalms 88:15), and...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    Psalms 73:89 _GORDON CHURCHYARD_ DOWN AMONG THE DEAD MEN PSALMS 88 Jesus went into a town called Nain. Many of his *disciples and a lot of people went with him. Now when he came near to the gate...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

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

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    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...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    _[Psalms 88:11]_ הֲ לַ † מֵּתִ֥ים תַּעֲשֶׂה...

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    Psalms 88:1 A PSALM which begins with "God of my salvation" and ends with "darkness" is an anomaly. All but unbroken gloom broods over it, and is densest at its close. The psalmist is so "weighed upon...

  • Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

    A CRY FROM THE WAVES Psalms 88:1 Most of the psalms which begin in sorrow end in exuberant joy and praise. This is an exception. There seems to be no break in the monotony of grief and despair. In Ps...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    This is a song sobbing with sadness form beginning to end. It seems to have no gleam of light or of hope. Commencing with an appeal to Jehovah to hear, it proceeds to describe the terrible sorrows thr...

  • Geneva Study Bible Commentary

    Wilt thou shew (i) wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise [and] praise thee? Selah. (i) He shows that the time is more convenient for God to help when men call to him in their dangers, than to tar...

  • George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

    _Power. Hebrew, "pride." Thou canst raise a storm, or restore a calm. (Calmet)_...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    If I mistake not, the force and beauty of these expressions are intended to confirm the certainty of the things they seem to inquire after. We meet with many such passages in Scripture, where the cert...

  • John Calvin's Bible Commentary

    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 de...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    Psalms 88 puts the remnant under the deep and dreadful sense of a broken law, and God's fierce wrath, which, in justice comes upon those who have done so. It is not now outward sorrows or oppression o...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    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...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    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 agai...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    _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 a...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    10-18 Departed souls may declare God's faithfulness, justice, and lovingkindness; but deceased bodies can neither receive God's favours in comfort, nor return them in praise. The psalmist resolved to...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    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 l...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Psalms 88:10 work H6213 (H8799) wonders H6382 dead H4191 (H8801) dead H7496 arise H6965 (H8799) praise...

  • Scofield's Bible Commentary

    DEAD (_ See Scofield) - (Ecclesiastes 9:10). _...

  • Spurgeon's Bible Commentary

    A Song or Psalm for the sons of Korah, to the chief Musician upon Mahaloth Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite. I think that this is the darkest of all the Psalms; it has hardly a spot of light in...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: Lamentation over trouble and pleading with God for mercy. CHARACTERS: God, Psalmist. CONCLUSION: Sometimes the best of God's saints are severely exercised with the sorest of inward troubles...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Dr. Lightfoot affirms that this, and the eighty ninth psalm, were written by Heman and Ethan, sons of Zerah, or the Ezrahites mentioned in 1 Chronicles 2:6. Consequently, they lived about the time whe...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _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...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before Thee._ A PORTRAIT OF A SUFFERING MAN I. Depicting his wretched state. He speaks of himself as “full of troubles,” satiated with sufferi...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    PSALM PSALM—NOTE ON PSALMS 88:1. This is an individual lament. It is suited for a person who is so overwhelmed with troubles that even his friends shun him, and who suspects that the Lord has shunned...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    PSALM—NOTE ON PSALMS 88:10 The mention of dying under God’s wrath (vv. Psalms 88:3) leads to the question: DO YOU WORK WONDERS FOR THE DEAD? If one were to die under

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    INTRODUCTION _Superscription.—“A Song or Psalm,” i.e._, combining the properties of both a Psalm and a song. _“For the sons of Korah_,” see Introduction to Psalms 42. “The expression, ‘To the Chief Mu...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION THE most mournful of all the psalms. After one almost formal "word of trust" (_Psalms 88:1_), the remainder is a continuous bitter cry of complaint, rising at times into expostulation (Psal...

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    Psa 88:1-18 is just a sad psalm, all the way through. There just seems to be no hope; it's just miserable. When you really are feeling lower than low, and you think there is absolutely no way out, the...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    1 Corinthians 15:52; Ezekiel 37:1; Isaiah 26:19; Isaiah 38:18;...

  • Wesley's Explanatory Notes

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

Continues after advertising