"Says the Psalmist: "Wilt Thou show wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise Thee?
Shall Thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave?
Or Thy faithfulness in destruction?
Shall Thy wonders be known in the dark?
And Thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?"
(Ps. 88:10-12).
Here the grave, the place of the dead, is called "the land of forgetfulness."
This is strictly in accord with that which we read under our last question, that "the dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten."
They are in the land of "forgetfulness."
"Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished" (Eccl. 9:5);
and "in that very day his thoughts perish" (Ps. 146:4);
and "there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou go" (Eccl. 9:10).
In this respect, therefore, no single expression could better describe the place of the dead than does this one, "The land of forgetfulness."
The Psalmist also speaks of it as "the dark."
On this Job says: "I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death; a land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness" (Job 10:21, 22).
*Those that have been long dead David says, "dwell in darkness" (Ps. 143:3)."
A.T. Jones
