For the grave cannot praise Thee
The praiseful life
Bacon says, “Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament, adversity is the blessing of the New.
” He would have been nearer the truth had he said, that temporal blessings were the promise of the Old Testament, spiritual blessings the promise of the New. The remark, however, suggests thoughts introductory to the consideration of our text from a Christian standpoint.
1. The Jews were for the most part influenced by the prospect of temporal rewards and punishments. Hezekiah in this place seems to have no thought of a future life, and to be moved only by the prospect of leaving this. There is a development in revelation, in this as in other matters.
2. When our Lord came, the germ of the doctrine of the future life, only dimly discernible to the spiritual mind, was developed.
I. THE DEAD CANNOT PRAISE GOD.
1. This is true of natural death. The hands once strong to labour are now nerveless and still, there is no “disquisition” in the eyes, and the heart is unmoved by the things of joy and grief that thrilled it in life.
2. It is true of spiritual death, of which natural is in the New Testament the constant type.
II. THE LIVING MUST PRAISE GOD.
1. The natural duty of praising God is recognised by Hezekiah; and it would be strange if it were not so, for we have a loathing of ingratitude from man to man.
(1) The pagans would shame us if we did not praise God; for they gave the first fruits of their corn and the best of the prey taken in hunting as offerings to their gods, and before a feast made libations to them.
(2) The Psalmist is an eminent example of a praiseful spirit.
2. But those who have been partakers of the spiritual resurrection can alone truly praise God, for they alone can fully realise all His bounty.
(1) God has designed all things to His praise, and looks for it in His people.
(2) We must thank Him for all things, for “the blessings of this life, but above all for His inestimable love in the redemption of the world.” Nay, for miseries as well as for mercies.
(3) A stimulus to praise will be found in the remembrance of God’s bounty. In the Greek mythology, Mnemosyne was the mother of the Muses; memory is the mother of praise.
3. But the most perfect praise will be in the spiritual body after the resurrection. (J. G. Pilkington, M. A.)
Hezekiah in prospect of death
Hezekiah was, in the full sense of the word, a good king. His piety is shown--
(1) In his conduct with reference to idolatry.
(2) In his conduct in the matter of the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib. But there are two passages in his life which show the weak side of his character. One is his parading his treasures before the ambassadors of the king of Babylon; the other is his conduct in the matter of his severe illness.
I. The essence of the history is this, that IN THE PROSPECT OF DEATH HEZEKIAH’S STRENGTH OF MIND QUITE BROKE DOWN. He looks upon death as a thing to be dreaded and shunned; he speaks of it in a way in which no Christian who has learned the Lord’s prayer could ever venture or even wish to speak of it. Hezekiah knew that he must serve God while life lasted; he had manifestly no express revelation beyond, and therefore he looked upon the grave with dismay.
II. WE HAVE GREATER SPIRITUAL HELP THAN HEZEKIAH, and brighter light, and clearer grounds of hope, and it is incumbent on us to act, not like those who groped their way in the twilight of the old dispensation, but like those upon whom the brightness of the knowledge of the glory of God has shined in the face of Jesus Christ. (Bp. Harvey Goodwin, D. D.)