For not Sheol shall praise thee, nor death celebrate thee; they that go down into the pit do not hope for thy truth.
Hezekiah has just escaped death, and his written song explains why he wanted to live: the dead do not sing. Does that mean the soul simply stops at death? And what does a believer lose by dying?
The verse gives a reason, and it rests on what he had just said: God had put his sins out of sight for good.
Grace, while it puts away our sin, leads the soul into deep humbling because of it. That is how it was with Hezekiah... Here was a blessed discovery of God! It was not merely, "You have delivered the kingdom out of the hand of the king of Assyria." No, but "in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back." So Hezekiah gets away from himself, away from his sins, away from the pit. He takes his happy place among "the living" who alone can "praise and celebrate" the name of the Lord.
Hezekiah's praise was tied to a place and to people he would leave behind.
A godly Israelite wanted to celebrate His praises on earth, to bring up children for the service of His sanctuary, and to go up to that temple where the glory of Jehovah visibly dwelt. In his mind these belonged to every thought of Jehovah's praise. You see it in that quotation from Isaiah: "the father makes known to the children your faithfulness." Death would cut short that declaration and stop those praises. Death could not celebrate in that sense.
There was a second weight on him. Under the law a long life was a mark of God's favour, so dying early carried a verdict with it.
Besides this, length of days was one of the blessings of the law. So to be cut off in the middle of one's days, as God threatened Hezekiah, meant to a Jew that God was angry.
Some use verses like this to argue that death is the end of a person. Commentators answer that you cannot settle it from the part of the Bible that was still dark on the subject.
The New Testament plainly teaches that the gospel brought life and immortality (incorruption) to light. Why then, to prove your point, do you go back to what was admittedly dark on the subject?... And you bring your proofs from the Old Testament. There, the apostle assures us, the full revelation on this subject was not given, and the truth about it was not yet brought to light. Is this not a strange way of getting at the truth, especially since the Lord Himself declares that the soul does not perish with the body?
The tone of Hezekiah's song is exactly what you would expect before that light came.
In the past, death was a shadow over souls. We see it in the earlier part of the chapter. We find it in the wail of a Hezekiah, or in Job's picture of "the land of gloom like thick darkness... where light is as thick darkness" (Job 10:22). But now with the Life the Light has come, and the shadow of death is pierced by it. He who had the power of death has been met and defeated, and the captives are freed (Heb. 2:14-15).
Hezekiah dreaded the very thing the apostle preferred.
Death was to him the most painful prospect. What could differ more sharply from this than the triumphant language of 2 Corinthians 5:1-8? There the apostle says, "We are always of good courage... we would rather be away from the body [the very thing good Hezekiah did not want] and at home with the Lord." Living here, "we are away from the Lord." You do find the king turning his face to the wall. But who could imagine such a thing of dying Stephen?
Commentators also read the sick king as a picture of his nation.
Israel, like Hezekiah, brought back from death, will sing their song of thanksgiving to the Lord by and by... A living God praised by a living people through the knowledge of a living Saviour.
If only the living can praise, praise had to wait for resurrection. Christ went into death with that morning in view.
The inspired heading of Psalm 22 is "Aijeleth Shahar" — the hind of the morning. It shows that the blessed Saviour had the resurrection day in His heart before He entered the awful darkness of abandonment. When that darkness had passed we hear the triumphant note, "I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you" (v. 22).
- Pit. His dread of the grave was real. But forgiven sins are what lifted him out of it and put him among the living.
- Praise. For an Israelite, praise meant temple, song, and children taught God's truth. Death ended his share in all of it.
- Shadow. The verse shows death as it looked before the light came. It is not a statement that the soul stops existing.
- Light. The gospel brought life and incorruption to light, and that Light pierces the shadow Hezekiah wailed under.
- Living. Only the living praise — so the risen Christ leads the song, and a living people will yet sing it.
The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I this day the father to the children shall make known thy truth.
King Hezekiah has just been brought back from death, and this line is the high point of his song of thanks. The dead say nothing, so the living must speak. Two questions follow: why did death look so bleak to this godly king, and what is a father meant to hand on?
One writer explains the verse from inside the mind of a believing Israelite. His hope was fixed on the temple and on the children he would train to serve there.
A godly Israelite's ambition was to swell that great chorus of praise. The last psalms look forward to just such a scene. For him, every thought of Jehovah's praise carried these things with it. He would celebrate His praises on earth. He would train up children to serve in His sanctuary. He would go up to that temple where the glory of Jehovah could be seen. You see it in this line from Isaiah: "the father makes known to the children your faithfulness." Death would cut short that declaration and make those praises cease. Death could not celebrate in that sense. Only the living, the living, could do it.
Why did dying feel unbearable to a man who truly served God? One writer answers by looking at where Hezekiah's blessings lay.
Hezekiah, no doubt, was a true servant of God; still, all his links were down here on this earth. Therefore, to him death was intolerable. It was the severance of every tie that bound him here.
Another writer sets Hezekiah's dread beside the apostle's confidence in 2 Corinthians.
Death was to him the most painful prospect. What can differ more sharply from this than the triumphant language of 2 Corinthians 5:1-8? There the apostle says, "we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling." He also says, "we are always of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord." That was the very thing good Hezekiah did not want. Old Testament believers could not have that rest and peace and joy of heart. It comes from the revelation of Christ's work and His glorified Person.
The second half of the verse is a plain charge to parents. One writer asks whose father Hezekiah became in those extra years.
Manasseh was twelve years old when he succeeded his father Hezekiah. So he was born during the fifteen extra years Hezekiah received in answer to his prayers and tears. Manasseh surely received careful teaching in the ways of God, for Hezekiah said, "the father makes known to the children your faithfulness." Let every Christian father note this and follow Hezekiah's good example. Despite his early advantages, Manasseh became the wickedest king Judah had ever known.
Teaching has a limit, and another writer names it.
The fathers are to make known the truth to the children, but each man must be born again or he cannot see the kingdom of God.
One writer reads Hezekiah's rescue as a picture of Israel's future. In the song, Sheol means the grave.
Israel, brought back from death like Hezekiah, will one day sing their song of thanksgiving to the Lord. They will say, "you have in love delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back. For Sheol does not thank you… the living, the living, he thanks you." A living God praised by a living people through the knowledge of a living Saviour.
One writer carries Hezekiah's words forward to Christians today.
Long ago Hezekiah the king said, "For Sheol does not thank you; death does not praise you… The living, the living, he thanks you." In His infinite mercy God has numbered us among those who are "alive to God in Christ Jesus" (Romans 6:11). So we form part of that living structure where the living God dwells in the praises of His saints.
- Silence. Death ends a man's thanksgiving and his teaching of his children. That is why it looked so bleak to Hezekiah.
- Recovery. The fifteen added years were not just more time. They meant more praise and one more child to teach.
- Handover. A father makes God's faithfulness known to his children. That is how praise passes to the next generation.
- Limit. Manasseh was born in those very years and well taught. He still became the worst king Judah knew. Teaching is a duty; new birth is personal.
- Horizon. Hezekiah's hope was tied to this earth; the Christian's reaches past death. Praise still belongs to the living, and God has made Christians alive.