“Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah.”
The absurdity of death: "Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the shades rise up to praise you?" The rhetorical questions express the supplicant's concern that death ends the possibility of worshipping God. The implication is that if God allows the supplicant to die, the opportunity for praise will be lost forever.
Church Fathers on Psalms 88:10
1. The Title of this eighty-seventh Psalm contains a fresh subject for enquiry: the words occurring here, “for Melech to respond,” being nowhere else found. We have already given our opinion on the meaning of the titles Psalmus Cantici and Canticum Psalmi: and the words, “sons of Core,” are constantly repeated, and have often been explained: so also “to the end;” but what comes next in this title is peculiar. For “Melech” we may translate into Latin “for the chorus,” for…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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