Isaiah 38:18-19 For the grave cannot praise you, death can not celebrate you: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for your truth.… 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.) Parallel Verses KJV: For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. |
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