Psalms 88:5 - Exposition

Free among the dead; or, "east out among the dead." Placed with corpses, as one that needs burial. Like the slain that lie in the grave. Like those who are thrown into a pit dug on a battlefield, among whom there are often some who have not breathed their last (see the Prayerbook Version). Whom thou rememberest no more. We have already beard the complaint that in death there is no remembrance of God on the part of man ( Psalms 6:5 ); now we have the converse statement, that neither is there then any remembrance of man on the part of God. The psalmist speaks, not absolute truth, but the belief of his day—a belief which vanished when life and immortality were brought to light by the gospel. And they are out off from thy hand; i.e. severed from thee, shut up in a place where thou dwell eat not (see Job 10:21 , Job 10:22 ).