The Pause That Depresses

(Psa 88:11 KJV)  Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction?

What a depressing chapter in Psalms.  If you look one chapter back or one chapter forward, you find the expected joy in the Lord.  This chapter is nothing but gloom and doom.  It’s as if this writer has never heard of eternal life.  It’s as if he’s never heard any hope beyond the grave.  It’s very possible that that’s the case.

Some people debate whether eternal life was a reality to people in the Old Testament.  You can find evidence on both sides.  This would be evidence that people did not believe in an afterlife, or at least one that had any joy in it.  What a depressing way to live.

So?  We live in a different world.  We live not only having read the positive statements in the Old Testament, but also understanding who Jesus was and how He rose from the dead.  We have the testimony of Paul about our new bodies.  Truly, it is a joy to have the full testament of God.