Psalms 88:10-12 - 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 certainty of the truth intended to be established is more effectually done by the inquiry, than if it had been said in so many words. Thus our Lord demands, What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? By this question, it is plain, Christ not only meant to say that it should profit him nothing, but, by this method of stating the subject, he intended the most decided conviction of the stupidity and folly of neglecting the care of the soul, upon any and every consideration whatever. So in the present instance: Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise thee? Yes, thy dead men shall live (is the promise of the Father to his Son), together with my dead body, shall they arise. Isaiah 26:19. Jesus by his death hath overcome death: for it was appointed that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man. And as he was delivered for our offences, so was he raised again for our justification. Hebrews 2:9; Romans 4:25. Hence, therefore, God's wonders shall be shown among the dead; for the dead in Christ shall arise. For if we believe that Jesus died, and rose again, even so them also, which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him. 1 Thessalonians 4:16; 1 Thessalonians 4:16. Oh! how blessed the thought: God's faithfulness is engaged, pledged, made over, in covenant engagements, to this assured purpose. The loving-kindness of God is as sure to the dead in Christ, as, to the living in him. Hence that blessed declaration, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For God is not the God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him; Luke 20:37-38. Reader, think what blessed privileges Jesus hath procured by his redemption, and what wonders, even in the regions of darkness and of the grave, have been wrought by his one vast salvation!