Psalm 88:12
“Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?”
KJV
Read in Psalm 88Meaning
The sequence of questions reaches its bleakest imagery. Darkness and forgetfulness represent the psalmist’s sense of approaching death, intensifying the plea that God act while life remains.
Questions from the edge of death
The psalmist asks whether God’s wonders, love, faithfulness, and righteousness are proclaimed in the realm of death.
Read carefully
They belong to this lament’s rhetorical presentation of mortality.
Reflection
Let the image communicate the sufferer’s urgency rather than rushing to neutralize it.