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, 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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