Are The Dead Pious?

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• Ps 115:17 . .The dead do not praise The Lord, nor do any who go down into
silence

"The dead" in this Psalm likely refers to the folks spoken of in verses 2-8

"any who go down into silence" are again the folks described in verses 2-8.

Psalm 115 tells me that those folks in verses 2 thru 8 might just as well be mute in
the afterlife because The Lord no longer lends them His ear, i.e. they're dead to
God and permanently cut off from His benevolence, viz: The Lord has no interest
whatsoever in either hearing their prayers, nor regarding their worship.

Compare them to the folks spoken of in verse 18 which reads:

"It is we who extol The Lord, both now and forevermore."

Ergo: the time to seek God's favor is now in this life, rather than later after people
have passed on and realized their mistake.

The primo parallel to that is Jacob's brother Esau. Upon realizing the loss of his
father Isaac's blessing, Esau broke down sobbing like a little girl, begging for
another chance; but to no avail.

• Isa 55:6 . . Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.
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There are physical dead and there are religious dead. The religious dead are all
around us every day of our lives, and they all speak very well; for example:

• Ps 6:4–5 . . Return, O Lord, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies’ sake.
For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee
thanks?

"in death" speaks of folks dead to God, viz: the undelivered and the unsaved. (cf.
John 5:24 and Eph 2:1-5)

The "grave" is translated from the Hebrew word she'owl (sheh-ole') a.k.a. sheol
(sheh-ole'). Those words speak of the afterlife rather than a grave.

For example Jacob expected to end up in the afterlife (Gen 37:35) but he also
expected to end up in a grave. (Gen 50:5)

Jacob's afterlife is translated from sheol; whereas his grave is translated from qeber
(keh'-ber) a.k.a. qibrah (kib-raw'). So we really can't expect sheol to always
indicate a grave while there exists a specific Hebrew word for it. (The plot where
Abraham laid Sarah to rest is called a qibrah (Gen 23:4) which in that event was a
cave. (Gen 23:9)

Now, sheol is equivalent to the New Testament Greek word haides (hah' dace)
which we know from Luke 16:19-31 is an afterlife where people are conscious of
their circumstances. One side of haides is where people dead to God are stored--
i.e. the religious dead --and no doubt it's the location spoken of in Ps 6:4-5 where it
says: "in [sheol] who shall give thee thanks?"

Well; I think it goes without saying that folks on the wrong side of the afterlife have
no good reason to thank God for anything-- anything at all.

BTW: The specific Greek word for grave is mnemeion (mnay-mi' on) which first
appears at Matt 8:28, and thereafter forty-one places in the New Testament;
including Christ's tomb.
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• Ps 146:2–4 . .While I live will I praise The Lord: I will sing praises unto my God
while I have any being. Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in
whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that
very day his thoughts perish.

"his thoughts perish" speaks of one's cares rather than their cognitive processes,
i.e. whatever was on their minds before they passed away is now null and void.

When my eldest nephew was paroled from prison, he quit drinking, and began
going to college with the goal towards becoming a counselor. For 2½ years all went
well. His parole officer was happy, and he was on track and getting good grades.
My nephew's future looked assured. And then on the morning of Sept 25, 2015, he
suddenly passed away of natural causes.

My nephew's passing was a terrible disappointment to everybody; but actually we
all kind of expected it. He was grossly overweight, had high blood pressure and
high cholesterol, rarely exercised, and smoked. But the point is; my nephew's
dream ended just as abruptly as flipping a light switch. And all of our hopes for his
success ended the same way, viz: our thoughts perished right along with his.
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