Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 88:11-12

"Shall thy lovingkindness 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?" — Psalms 88:11-12 (ASV)

In these verses appear three prominent features of the Hebrew conception of the underworld. It is a place of “destruction” (Job 28:22), of “darkness” , and of “forgetfulness,” which may imply not only that the dead are forgotten by both God and men (compare Psalms 31:12 with Psalms 88:5), but also that they themselves have, to borrow the pagan figure, drunk of the water of Lethe. (Psalms 30:9, and for both ideas combined, Ecclesiastes 9:5–10.)