Psalm 88

The subtitle wasn’t part of the original psalm. Korah was a musical family in the tribe of Levi, one of the 12 tribes that made up the original nation of Israel. Levite families worked as priests and worship leaders and assistants for the Jewish nation.

“An enlightening psalm” is a guess. The original Hebrew word is maskil (mass-KEEL). Scholars say they aren’t sure what it means. They say they don’t even know if the word refers to the lyrics or the music. Maskil sounds a bit like another Hebrew word, askilkha, which means “let me enlighten you.” Some scholars associate maskil with a root word, sakal, which generates a lot of words with various meanings such as: thoughtful, instructive, wise, and proper. One theory is that the word relates to both lyrics and music. It could, for example, describe the lyrics as “thoughtful” and the music as a harmony fit for that theme.

A man named Heman shows up in Israelite history as a famous advisor to King Solomon (1 Chronicles 25:5) and a singer (1 Chronicles 6:33). “Ezrahite” is apparently another name for the Zerahites, an extended family in the tribe of Judah.

It’s unknown what mahalath leannoth means. It could be the tune to which the song is sung or recited. It might be a style of music. It might be the name of the songwriter. Guesses are based mainly on context clues, which are few and not especially helpful.

Literally, Sheol, a word Old Testament writers used to describe the place of the dead. It is a kind of underworld where the dead are cut off from the living—and from God—and there is no coming back.

The word in the original language of Hebrew is selah. Bible scholars haven’t figured out what it means yet, so all we can do is guess. It could mean “pause for effect,” “instrumental interlude,” or “choir singing ‘Amen.’” We’re offering a guess instead of selah. Though selah might be the better way to go because it’s always correct, it’s also always incomprehensible. “Instruments” has a good chance of being wrong, but at least we convey the idea that the Hebrew word behind it probably has something to do with enhancing the song.

No. That’s the presumed answer to both rhetorical questions. Many seemed to believe what the writer of Ecclesiastes expressed: that the dead know nothing (9:5).