Are The Dead Pious?

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Webers.Home

Webers.Home

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May 28, 2018
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• Ps 115:17 . .The dead do not praise The Lord, nor do any who go down
into silence

"The dead" in this Psalm likely refers to the folks spoken of in verses 2-8

"any who go down into silence" are again the folks described in verses 2-8.

Psalm 115 tells me that those folks in verses 2 thru 8 might just as well be
mute in the afterlife because The Lord no longer lends them His ear, i.e.
they're dead to God and permanently cut off from His benevolence, viz: The
Lord has no interest whatsoever in either hearing their prayers, nor
regarding their worship.

Compare them to the folks spoken of in verse 18 which reads:

"It is we who extol The Lord, both now and forevermore."

Ergo: the time to seek God's favor is now in this life, rather than later after
people have passed on and realized their mistake.

The primo parallel to that is Jacob's brother Esau. Upon realizing the loss of
his father Isaac's blessing, Esau broke down sobbing like a little girl, begging
for another chance; but to no avail.

• Isa 55:6 . . Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is
near.
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NOTE: Webster's defines "pious" as marked by, or showing reverence for, deity
and devotion to divine worship.
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There is physical death, and there is religious death, for example:

• Ps 6:4–5 . . Return, O Lord, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies’
sake. For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall
give thee thanks?

"in death" speaks of folks dead to God, i.e. the undelivered and the unsaved.
(cf. John 5:24 and Eph 2:1-5)

The "grave" is translated from the Hebrew word she'owl (sheh-ole') a.k.a.
sheol (sheh-ole'). Those words speak of the afterlife rather than a grave.

For example Jacob expected to end up in the afterlife (Gen 37:35) but he
also expected to end up in a grave. (Gen 50:5)

Jacob's afterlife is translated from sheol; whereas his grave is translated
from qeber (keh'-ber) a.k.a. qibrah (kib-raw'). So we really can't expect
sheol to always indicate a grave while there exists a specific Hebrew word
for it. (The plot where Abraham laid Sarah to rest is called a qibrah (Gen
23:4) which in that event was a cave. (Gen 23:9)

Now, sheol is equivalent to the New Testament Greek word haides (hah'
dace) which we know from Luke 16:19-31 is an afterlife where people are
conscious of their circumstances. One side of haides is where people dead to
God are stored-- i.e. the religious dead --and no doubt it's the location
spoken of in Ps 6:4-5 where it says: "in [sheol] who shall give thee thanks?"

Well; I think it goes without saying that folks on the wrong side of the
afterlife have no good reason to thank God for anything-- anything at all.

BTW: A specific Greek word for grave is mnemeion (mnay-mi' on) which
first appears at Matt 8:28, and thereafter forty-one places in the New
Testament; including Christ's tomb.
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