“NEGINOTH" in the heading of this. Psalm means "on stringed instruments;" the meaning of "Sheminith" is perhaps "upon the octave" or "with eight strings." Under the stress of sore trial, the Jewish saints of the coming day will plead with God for relief.
Well may God be angry with the Jews, for they rejected and killed their Messiah, and took the guilt of it in their awful words, "His blood be on us, and on our children." Matthew 27:2525Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children. (Matthew 27:25).
For a description of the day that is soon to dawn for this world, and particularly for the Jews, see the prophecy of Zephaniah.
"O Lord, how long?" ask the believing Jews, How long shall it be before their Messiah comes again, and to reign? They do not deny that what shall then have come upon them of affliction from God, is because of the sins of the people. But they are in heart separated from the ungodly, as verses 7, 8 and 10, particularly show, and so they look for mercy.
In the spirit of Matthew 21:9, 13,9And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest. (Matthew 21:9)
13And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. (Matthew 21:13) they wait, not for the resurrection moment (1 Corinthians 15:51, 5851Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, (1 Corinthians 15:51)
58Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. (1 Corinthians 15:58)) as Christians do, or should, but for the promised "end" to which they look.
But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved (Matthew 24:1313But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. (Matthew 24:13)) from wrath, and brought into blessing in the kingdom which the Lord will set up on earth. So they pray that they might live and not die. This is a proper Jewish hope, at such a time, but very different from the Christian hope, as given in Philippians 1:21, 23,21For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21)
23For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: (Philippians 1:23)
Verse 5 is not a revelation by God, but the expression of man's ignorance. In the gospel of Luke, 16:19, 31, the Lord Jesus told about the place where the dead are, and we see there that there is memory after death.
"The grave," (verse 5) is from a Hebrew word, "Sheol," which means the place where the dead are, that is spoken of in Luke 16. This word is translated "the grave" nine times, and "hell" seven times, in the Psalms. This word occurs 65 times in the Old Testament, and the translators 31 Times made it "the grave," and 31 Times they translated it as "hell," 3 times they called it "the pit."
Hell, the place of the lost for eternity, is not often named in God's Word. It is hardly mentioned in the Old Testament, but the Lord Jesus named it 10 times in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, and it is given the awful name of "the lake of fire" in the Revelation (chapters 19, 20 and 21).
Those who are the Lord's and die, are "absent from the body, present with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:88We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:8)). For them to die is "gain," and to be "with Christ" (Philippians 1:21,2321For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21)
23For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: (Philippians 1:23)). Also Luke 23:4343And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. (Luke 23:43); they "sleep in Jesus" their bodies, (not their souls or spirits sleeping), and they will receive the resurrection body at the coming of the Lord in the same moment with those who are living when the Lord comes (1 Corinthians 15;51,53; 1 Thessalonians 4:13,1813But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. (1 Thessalonians 4:13)
18Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:18)).
No one is, we believe, yet in hell (the lake of fire), though those who have died unsaved evidently, (from Luke 16) know that they are under the judgment of God, as truly as those who have known Christ as their Saviour, know and enjoy the presence of the Lord, where they are now. They are entirely separate, the one from the other.
The thought of a "purgatory" is not found in Scripture; nor any opportunity for the unconverted dead to be saved.
The close of our Psalm declares that God has heard the cry of His suffering saints; He will give them their desire, as later Psalms go on to show.