"Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah." [Psa 88:10]

Psalms 88 was written by “Heman the Ezrahite,” [Psa 88:1] a man whose name means “faithful.” [Gesenius] Within his Psalm he asks an interesting question to The LORD, which is highlighted for us today: “wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? Shall the dead praise thee?” Let us think seriously upon his question. Shall the dead indeed be able to see God’s wonderful works? Shall they rise up from the grave and give praise to God? What say you, dear reader? Is the God you serve able to do such things, or does death function as an impassable barrier to our Lord and Christ? Is death to God, like Hades is to men, of which Abraham said to the rich man who was being tormented, “between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence[?]” [Lk 16:26] What is your conclusion; come on, now, and think a while upon it; think upon the power of your God and what He is able to do and what He is not able to do. If God were to say the dead might hear His word and see His glory; if He were to say He could raise them up, would you do as those did when Christ said regarding the little girl, “weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth[?]” [Lk 8:52] For those who were present at these words of Jesus, “laughed Him to scorn knowing that she was dead.” [Lk 8:53] Those in the home, when Christ would raise up the girl, mocked our Lord and His words: for they “knew” altogether more than Him; they “knew” that the girl was dead. And what of you, dear Christian, do you speak as the Psalmist regarding The LORD, doubting of His ability to do anything? Have you forgotten what is written, “for with God nothing shall be impossible[?]” [Lk 1:37]

You have had your time to ponder and think upon the words in our verse for today, and now has come the time for us to answer Heman’s questions to God. What was veiled to the Old Testament saints has been gloriously revealed in Christ to the New Testament saints. What looked impossible and hard for them, is easy and simple for us. For we have seen The Lord Jesus and have tasted of His power. My good man, if The LORD were not able to “shew wonders to the dead;” if He were utterly incapable of making it so that the “dead [might] arise and praise [Him],” then I shall frankly conclude for you that we should all be dead and in hell. For which man among us was not dead at some point? Yea, though he were living in the flesh, he was utterly dead: much like those Paul spoke of when he said, “she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she lived;” and again when Christ wrote, “I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.” [1 Tim 5:6, Rev 3:1] But praise be to God; for, “even when we were dead in sins, [God] hath made us alive together with Christ, (by grace are ye saved)…” [Eph 2:5]

What Heman could not fathom under the law, we enjoy and glory in, under grace. Jesus says,

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as The Father hath life in Himself; so hath He given the Son to have life in Himself.” [Jn 5:25-26]

And truly, as those who are Christ’s can bear witness to, we indeed have heard His words and have received His life. We who were dead have seen the wonders of God, of salvation, and have heard the words of Christ, and have been resurrected as it were to praise Him. Yes, because again as it is written regarding our resurrection in Christ, “[God] hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus;” [Eph 2:6] and again, “if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection.” [Rom 6:5]

So then, if death cannot stop The Lord from showing men wonders; if death cannot stop Him from giving life, then what shall? To men, death is the end-all of every earthly thing. It is that fearful object which is like a concrete wall between men and all things living. But to God, death is not so. For just as Jesus spoke many a time to those who were dead, and raised them up, (as He said to Lazarus, “Lazarus, come forth.” [Jn 11:43]), so too He can and does to us. There is nothing, neither death or any other thing, which can separate us from God’s power, work, influence, or anything else He has. Even as it says of His love given to us in Christ, so too He could say for anything that originates from Him:

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?...I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” [Rom 8:35, 38-39]

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