Psalm 88:10-12
“Will you show wonders to the dead? Will the departed rise up and praise you? Selah. Will your loving kindness be declared in the grave? Or your faithfulness in Destruction? Will your wonders be known in the dark? Or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?”
This psalm is a lament, one of the most sorrowful in the Bible. It's written by Heman the Ezrahite, likely a temple musician, crying out to God from a place of deep despair and suffering, feeling abandoned and close to death. The psalmist questions whether God's power and goodness extend to Sheol, the common grave.
What does this passage's depiction of Sheol suggest about the psalmist's understanding of hope and remembrance in life and after death?