Psalm 88 – A Song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. To the Chief Musician. Set to “Mahalath Leannoth.” A Contemplation of Heman the Ezrahite.
“‘A Psalm of the sons of Korah.’ Korah, Dathan and Abiram are infamously known for coveting the positions of Moses and Aaron… By stubbornly standing their ground, they met their tragic end when God opened up the earth beneath them. Most people familiar with this story assume that the family of Korah died with him. But this is actually not the case. It is clear that all those who stood with Korah died. This included a group of men as well as the households of Dathan and Abiram (Num 16:27, 31-33). Yet these children of Korah apparently did not stand with their father as the Bible clearly states that they did not die (Num 26:10-11).” (Daniel Buxton)
“‘To the chief Musician,’ occurs at the beginning of 53 psalms, and at the close of the hymn in Habakkuk 3:19.” (Albert Barnes) There it is part of a response to the message of the second coming of Jesus from chapter 2 of the same book. “It is uniformly rendered ‘to the chief Musician,’ and means that the psalm was intended for him, or was to be given to him, probably to regulate the manner of performing it.” (Albert Barnes)— Set to “Mahalath Leannoth” rendered by... Luther, ‘to sing, of the weakness of the miserable;’ by Prof. Alexander, ‘concerning afflictive sickness.’” (Albert Barnes) Some people think that the sickness is something like leprosy or some disease that the Psalmist had since his youth. I think that the sickness of sin unto death common to all.
Set to “Mahalath Leannoth.” “The word ‘Mahalath’ seems here to be a form of מחלה machăleh which means properly, ‘sickness, disease.’ It is rendered, with a slight variation in the pointing, ‘disease’ in 2 Chronicles 21:15; Exodus 15:26; ‘infirmity,’ in Proverbs 18:14; and ‘sickness’in Exodus 23:25; 1 Kings 8:37; 2 Chronicles 6:28. It does not occur elsewhere, and would be properly rendered here, therefore, ‘disease, sickness, or infirmity.’ —
'Leannoth.'- The Hebrew which is rendered ‘Leannoth,’ לענית le‛anoyth is made up of a preposition (ל l ) and a verb. The verb - ענה ‛ânâh - means: (1) to chant or sing; (2) to lift up the voice in any way - to begin to speak; (3) to answer...The... allusion would be to something which was said or sung in respect to the sickness referred to; as, for example, a mournful melody composed for the occasion; and the purpose would be to express the feelings experienced in sickness.” (Albert Barnes)
“‘A Contemplation of Heman the Ezrahite.’
"Heman was known for his wisdom and understanding or Bible knowledge. ‘God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore. Solomon’s wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the East, and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt. He was wiser than anyone else, including Ethan the Ezrahite—wiser than Heman, Kalkol and Darda, the sons of Mahol. And his fame spread to all the surrounding nations.’ (1 Kings 4:29-31).” (William Tyndale)
Heman’s knowledge was based on experience. He knew that he had been saved from the wrath of God. Moreover, he had the Hebrew view of the grave. He had no belief in the spirit or souls of man living on after death before the time of the end. The idea of immortal souls going immediately to a place of reward while others go to a place of punishment is completely foreign to the Bible “The idea doesn’t have any roots in the Hebrew Bible…. One thing is clear: the writers of the Hebrew Bible thought everyone at death goes to the same place, and this place is most often described by the Hebrew word sheol.” (“Heman, the afterlife and the ‘shades’ of the dead (Psalm 88)” by Stephen Cook) But Heman the Ezrahite knew that the righteous were safe— considered metaphorically to be in the bosom of their spiritual father in faith, Abraham.
1 O Lord, God of my salvation, I have cried out day and night before You.
“The poet finds himself in the midst of circumstances gloomy in the extreme-- [perhaps trapped in fire in the midst of the earth with these infamous sinners], but he does not despair; he still turns towards Jahve with his complaints, and calls Him the God of his salvation. This actus directus of fleeing in prayer to the God of salvation, which urges its way through all that is dark and gloomy, is the fundamental characteristic of all true faith.” (Keil & Delitzsch)
2 Let my prayer come before You; incline Your ear to my cry. 3 For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to the grave. 4 I am counted with those who go down to the pit; I am like a man who has no strength, 5 adrift among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom You remember no more, and who are cut off from Your hand.6 You have laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the depths.
Let my prayer come before You; incline Your ear to my cry. For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to the grave." etc. “Psalm 88 is interesting because of the number of synonyms it uses for sheol and the way it describes the state of the dead: * my life draws near to Sheol (v.3) * I am counted among those who go down to the pit (v.4) * like one set loose among the dead (v.5) * like the slain that lie in the grave (v.5) * like those whom you remember no more (v.5) * they are cut off from your hand (v.5). * You have put me in the depths of the pit (v.6) (in the regions dark and deep (v.6) …” (“Heman, the afterlife and the ‘shades’ of the dead (Psalm 88)” by Stephen Cook)
7 Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and You have afflicted me with all Your waves. Selah
Given the seeming lack of response by Yahweh and the current situation, Heman felt the load. “The wicked man who is raised for eternal judgment is under the wrath of God. He is represented as crushed for ever beneath the weight of the authority which he has defied, and his 'eternal sin' holds him fast in the bands of death. There is no forgiveness for him either under the law or under the Messiah's kingdom, either in this world or in futurity. The 'wrath of God abide on him,' and its sentence will be executed to 'the uttermost farthing.' He will suffer 'everlasting destruction.' Mark ix. 44—50.” (Edward White. Life in Christ: A Study of the Scripture Doctrine on the Nature of Man, the Object of the Divine Incarnation, and the Conditions of Human Immortality (Kindle Locations 8456-8460). E. Stock. Kindle Edition.)
8 You have put away my acquaintances far from me; You have made me an abomination to them; I am shut up, and I cannot get out; 9 my eye wastes away because of affliction. Lord, I have called daily upon You; I have stretched out my hands to You.
“‘You have put away my acquaintances” or natural relations- “far from me; You have made me an abomination to them; I am shut up, and I cannot come forth— the description of a person trapped with the wicked. “‘I am shut up’ in the earth— miserably inclaved in this forlorn comfortless condition, a perpetual prisoner. ‘And I cannot get out; my eye wastes away [or mourns] because of affliction.’ [seeing new things which ought not be seen]: LORD, I have called daily upon thee,’ which he would not have done if he had cast away his confidence; for ‘how shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed?’ Romans 10:14. The saints, when they want the sun, yet they have the daystar in their hearts. ‘I have stretched out my hands to You.’” (John Trapp)
10 Will You work wonders for the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise You? Selah
“While this description doesn’t tell us a lot about sheol it does suggest that normal consciousness doesn’t continue and that people who go there forget and are forgotten. However, in the midst of this description the writer uses a strange expression in a (rhetorical?) question about whether anyone in sheol praises God (verse 10):
‘Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise you’
The expression here translated ‘the dead’ appears earlier in verse 5 where it is translated the same way – it is a common Hebrew word for the dead, מתים metim from the root meaning ‘to die’. But it is followed here by a term translated variously as ‘the dead’ (KJV), ‘the departed’ (ESV), or ‘the shades’ (NRSV). Here the word is רפאים rephaim. This word is used in the Hebrew Bible as a person’s name, and for a race of giants who inhabited the land before the conquest under Joshua [1]. There are also a few places where it seems to refer to the dead [Isa. 14:9; 26:14, 19; Ps. 88:11; Prov. 2:19; 9:18; 21:16; Job 26:5.]. Its meaning is uncertain and some translations use the term ‘shades’ (a popular Hebrew dictionary gives the translation ‘shades, ghosts, name of dead in She’ôl’ [Brown, Francis, Samuel R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of lthe Old Testament. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.]).
HOWEVER, the Septuagint, an ancient translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, presents a completely different idea:
‘Wilt thou work wonders for the dead? or shall physicians raise them up, that they shall praise thee?’
Where does this translation ‘physicians’ come from? The Hebrew word רפאים rephaim comes from the root רפא rapha = to heal and the plural noun for physician or healer would be spelled the same way as our word for ‘the departed’ in verse 11. It’s understandable why the Septuagint translators thought the writer of Psalm 88 was asking a rhetorical question and saying something like ‘once someone is dead surely it’s too late for a physician to work a miracle!’
So where did the translation ‘the departed’ come from? The references to the race of giants may provide a clue, as do the so-called Rephaim texts from Ugarit. These texts, in Ugaritic, a semitic language which has many similarities with Hebrew, refer to a group of people called rephaim whose identity is still a mystery, but may be a group of princely or divine beings, or the spirits of the dead. Some scholars argue that these Ugaritic texts are ‘conclusive’ in identifying the rephaim as the spirits of the dead [For example, Koehler, Ludwig and Walter Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. Study ed. Leiden: Brill, 2001.], while others argue from the same texts that they are almost certainly gods, minor deities who served as acolytes of Baal, or cultic functionaries who accompany the king [ L’Heureux, Conrad. “The Ugaritic and Biblical Rephaim.” The Harvard Theological Review 67, no. 3 (1974): 265-274. ]. The connection between them, and with the root רפא to heal is most likely that one of the titles of El was ‘the healer’ (which was also a title of YHVH, the god of Israel, e.g. Exodus 25:6), from the same root, so his acolytes were also described as ‘healers’. By extension, it is argued, the term for these gods was eventually also applied to (some of) the dead who also took on a god-like status.
In my view, the Septuagint translation is most convincing. It suggests that at the time it was translated (3rd century BCE), there was still no place in Judaism for ‘departed spirits’ in sheol and that the dead had no memory or ability to ‘praise God.’ (“Heman, the afterlife and the ‘shades’ of the dead (Psalm 88)” by Stephen Cook) Selah.
11 Shall Your lovingkindness be declared in the grave? Or Your faithfulness in the place of destruction? 12 Shall Your wonders be known in the dark? And Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? 13 But to You I have cried out, O Lord, and in the morning my prayer comes before You. 14 Lord, why do You cast off my soul? Why do You hide Your face from me?
“Shall Your lovingkindness be declared in the grave?’ by those sleeping in the earth?—“Or Your faithfulness in the place of destruction (Abaddon)?’ by those who You have resurrected under condemnation in Your end-time Judgement…. And this sentenced to eternal death… and execute, accordingly. Neither of these can praise You. But I will- forever. “i.e. Early, come to thee, before the ordinary time of morning prayer, or before the dawning of the day, or the rising of the sun. The sense is, Though I have hitherto got no answer to my prayers, yet I will not give over praying nor hoping for an answer. ‘Lord, why do You cast off my soul?’ etc. This proceeding seems not to agree with the benignity of thy nature, nor with the manner of thy dealing with thy people.” (Poole)
15 I have been afflicted and ready to die from my youth; I suffer Your terrors; I am distraught. 16 Your fierce wrath has gone over me; Your terrors have cut me off. 17 They came around me all day long like water; they engulfed me altogether. 18 Loved one and friend You have put far from me, and my acquaintances into darkness.
“‘I am afflicted, and ready to die from youth— “brought up in the school of temptations, and kept in this form from my youth.” (John Trapp) And I have been losing the battle of my life, being counted by You amount those who are perishing. “I have been low and expiring from my youth.” (Joseph Benson) Your fierce wrath has gone over me; Your terrors have cut me off. The fire in the middle of the earth has enveloped me, but there is a difference.I have experienced Your forgiveness, but my loved ones and friends haven't. First they will sleep in darkness. (Psalm 88:18)- the first death. But at the end of time, the wrath of God will be poured out (undiluted) at His Second Coming when they will be ressurected unto condemnation... but I unto everlasting life. The Word of God "teaches the wrath of God side by side with the doctrine of his grace, love, and forbearance (Mt 3:7; Lk 21:23; Jn 3:36; Rom 1:18; Eph 5:6; Rv 14:10). Those who do not profess faith in the risen Christ remain in their sins and will be subject to God's wrath, whereas those who believe in Him are delivered from God's wrath (Eph 2:3; 1 Thes 1:10). The good news of the NT is that Jesus has come to deliver us from the wrath of God (Rom 5:9). Those who have been delivered are reconciled with God (v. 10) because they no longer are under condemnation (8:1).” (Tyndale Bible Dictionary)