Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Psalms 6:5

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Psalms 6:5. In death there is no remembrance of thee — Man is to glorify thee on earth. The end for which he was born cannot be accomplished in the grave; heal my body, and heal my soul, that I may be rendered capable of loving and serving thee here below. A dead body in the grave can do no good to men, nor bring any glory to thy name!

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Psalms 6:0 Anxiety in a time of trouble

Through either illness or some other depressing situation, David is distressed, in both body and mind. This has caused him to search his life to see if God is using this affliction to punish him for some sin. Humbly he asks God for mercy (1-3). He fears death, and his pain and sorrow become more distressing through the personal attacks that his opponents make on him (4-7). The thought of these ungodly enemies, however, gives David confidence that God will heal him. He knows that God opposes the wicked but helps those who humbly seek him (8-10).

State of the dead

The Old Testament shows us that people do not cease to exist when they die, but it tells us little about the condition of life after death. The Hebrew word used for the unseen place and unknown state of the dead is sheol. Sheol was to the Israelites a place of darkness, silence and shadowy existence (Job 10:21-22; Psalms 39:13; Psalms 88:3,Psalms 88:10-12; Psalms 94:17; Psalms 115:17). Death was something unpleasant and fearful, on account of the mysterious existence that followed in sheol (Psalms 6:5; Psalms 31:17; Ecclesiastes 8:8). English Bibles have translated the Hebrew sheol by such words as ‘the grave’, ‘the pit’ and even ‘hell’.

Certainly sheol would bring nothing but terror for the wicked (Deuteronomy 33:22; Psalms 16:10; Psalms 55:15; Isaiah 14:9-11; Ezekiel 32:18-32). The righteous, however, could expect that life after death would bring them joy in the presence of God (Psalms 16:11; Psalms 49:15; Psalms 73:24; cf. 2 Kings 2:11; 2 Kings 2:11). But the name ‘sheol’ itself signified neither a hell of torment nor a heaven of happiness. It was simply ‘the world of the dead’ (GNB).

Death was the great leveller. Rich and poor, good and bad, oppressor and oppressed, kings and slaves were all subject to death. All died and went to sheol, the world of the dead (Job 3:13-19; Isaiah 14:19-20; Ezekiel 32:18-32). Sheol therefore became a synonym for death, and this is usually the way the word is used in Psalms.

By the end of the Old Testament era, believers were more fully convinced that beyond death lay the resurrection (Daniel 12:1-2). This confidence grew into bold assurance through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. Christ conquered death and sheol (Matthew 16:18; Revelation 1:18; the Greek equivalent of sheol was hades), so that people no longer had any need to fear them (Hebrews 2:14-15). Through Jesus Christ, God clearly showed immortal life to be a certainty (2 Timothy 1:10).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

PRAYER FOR MERCY IN SICKNESS
(FOR THE CHIEF MUSICIAN, ON STRINGED INSTRUMENTS,
SET TO THE SHEMINITH. A PSALM OF DAVID)

For ages, Christian scholars have considered this Psalm to be one of the seven Penitential Psalms, namely, Psalms 6; Psalms 32; Psalms 38; Psalms 51; Psalms 102; Psalms 130; and Psalms 143. However, no sin whatever is mentioned in the Psalm; and it is not exactly clear why David felt that he was under the wrath of God.

Based upon the fact that David’s enemies are mentioned, Leupold supposed that, “It was the opposition of David’s enemies that made him feel that God was angry with him to such an extent that his health was badly impaired.”H. C. Leupold, The Psalms (Baker Book House), p. 83. However, Rhodes believed that David’s illness, from whatever cause, might have caused David’s feelings of sinful guilt. He cited the common belief in those ages that, “Men suffered in proportion to their sins.”Arnold B. Rhodes, The Psalms (Atlanta: The John Knox Press, 1978), p. 33. Certainly Job’s “comforters” attributed his sickness to sin; and even the apostles of Jesus Christ indicated their acceptance of that generally-accepted opinion (John 9:1-3).

Our own view of the passage is that David was indeed guilty of some specific sin, or sins, which had, for a season alienated him from the love of God. The fact that we have no idea whatever regarding the exact nature of such sin has nothing whatever to do with it. Certainly, David himself was conscious of his own guilt and the ensuing wrath of God.

Regarding the ancient superscription (in parenthesis, above), “Set to the Sheminith,” according to the margin in our version, means “set to the eighth,” a reference to some specific tune, much as one of our song leaders would instruct the Church to turn to a certain hymn number.

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

“Return, O Jehovah, deliver my soul: Save me for thy lovingkindness’ sake. For in death there is no remembrance of thee: In Sheol who shall give thee thanks?”

“For thy lovingkindness’ sake.” All mortals must approach God, not upon the basis of their worth, their innocence, or their merit, but solely upon the basis of God’s mercy, God’s grace, and God’s lovingkindness.

“In death there is no remembrance of thee.” Radical critics have tried to use this statement to prove that, “Life beyond the grave is scarcely worthy of the name.”W. E. Addis, Peake’s Commentary on the Bible (Edinburgh: T. C. and E. C. Jack, Ltd., 1924), p. 374.

Whatever this expression means, it cannot reflect upon David’s conviction of life after death, as attested by Psalms 16:10. Furthermore, David was doubtless familiar with Job 19:25 ff and other Old Testament passages that provide fleeting glimpses of life after death. Also, as Leupold said, “There is ample evidence of the Davidic authorship of Psalms 16, and that Isaiah 26 can be attributed to none other than Isaiah.”H. C. Leupold, Ibid., p. 86. This, of course completely frustrates the device of critically late-dating such passages for the false purpose of establishing the alleged late “addition” of the doctrine of the resurrection and life after death to the Divine teaching God granted to the Covenant people. In the New Testament we learn that as far back as Abraham, that patriarch was positively certain of God’s ability to restore life to the dead (Hebrews 11:19).

Despite the certainty of the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead having been effectively mentioned in the Old Testament, as for example in Daniel 12:2-3, it nevertheless remained for the Lord Jesus Christ to bring the full revelation of it to mankind in the New Testament. “According to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal, but hath now been manifested by the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 2:10).

David’s reference here to the inability of the dead to praise God in all likelihood has no other significance than the fact that dead people cannot go to church and worship God.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

For in death - In the state of the dead; in the grave.

There is no remembrance of thee - They who are dead do not remember thee or think of thee. The “ground” of this appeal is, that it was regarded by the psalmist as a “desirable” thing to remember God and to praise him, and that this could not be done by one who was dead. He prayed, therefore, that God would spare his life, and restore him to health, that he might praise him in the land of the living. A sentiment similar to this occurs in Psalms 30:9, “What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth?” So also Psalms 88:11, “Shall thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction?” So also in Isaiah 38:18, in the language of Hezekiah, “The grave cannot praise thee; death cannot celebrate thee; they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.” See the notes at that passage. A similar sentiment also is found in Job 10:21-22. See the notes at that passage. In regard to the meaning of this it may be remarked

(a) that it is to be admitted that there was among the ancient saints much less light on the subject of the future state than there is with us, and that they often, in giving utterance to their feelings, seemed to speak as if all were dark beyond the grave.

(b) But, though they thus spoke in their sorrow and in their despondency, they also did, on other occasions, express their belief in a future state, and their expectation of happiness in a coming world (compare, for example, Psalms 16:10-11; Psalms 17:15).

(c) Does not their language in times of despondency and sickness express the feelings which “we” often have now, even with all the light which we possess, and all the hopes which we cherish? Are there not times in the lives of the pious, even though they have a strong prevailing hope of heaven, when the thoughts are fixed on the grave as a dark, gloomy, repulsive prison, and “so” fixed on it as to lose sight of the world beyond? And in such moments does not “life” seem as precious to us, and as desirable, as it did to David, to Hezekiah, or to Job?

In the grave - Hebrew, בשׁאול bish^e'ôl, “in Sheol.” For the meaning of the word, see Isaiah 5:14, note; Isaiah 14:9, note; Job 7:9, note. Its meaning here does not differ materially from the word “grave.”

Who shall give thee thanks? - Who shall “praise” thee? The idea is that “none” would then praise God. It was the land of “silence.” See Isaiah 38:18-19. This language implies that David “desired” to praise God, but that he could not hope to do it in the grave.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

5.For in death there is no remembrance of thee. After God has bestowed all things freely upon us, he requires nothing in return but a grateful remembrance of his benefits. To this gratitude reference is made when David says, that there will be no remembrance of God in death, nor any celebration of his praise in the grave His meaning is, that if, by the grace of God, he shall be delivered from death, he will be grateful for it, and keep it in remembrance. And he laments, that if he should be removed out of the world, he would be deprived of the power and opportunity of manifesting his gratitude, since in that case he would no longer mingle in the society of men, there to commend or celebrate the name of God. From this passage some conclude, that the dead have no feeling, and that it is wholly extinct in them; but this is a rash and unwarranted inference, for nothing is here treated of but the mutual celebration of the grace of God, in which men engage while they continue in the land of the living. We know that we are placed on the earth to praise God with one mind and one mouth, and that this is the end of our life. Death, it is true, puts an end to such praises; but it does not follow from this, that the souls of the faithful, when divested of their bodies, are deprived of understanding, or touched with no affection towards God. It is also to be considered, that, on the present occasion, David dreaded the judgment of God if death should befall him, and this made him dumb as to singing the praises of God. It is only the goodness of God sensibly experienced by us which opens our mouth to celebrate his praise; and whenever, therefore, joy and gladness are taken away, praises also must cease. It is not then wonderful if the wrath of God, which overwhelms us with the fear of eternal destruction, is said to extinguish in us the praises of God.

From this passage, we are furnished with the solution of another question, why David so greatly dreaded death, as if there had been nothing to hope for beyond this world. Learned men reckon up three causes why the fathers under the law were so much kept in bondage by the fear of death. The first is, because the grace of God, not being then made manifest by the coming of Christ, the promises, which were obscure, gave them only a slight acquaintance with the life to come. The second is, because the present life, in which God deals with us as a Father, is of itself desirable. And the third, because they were afraid lest, after their decease, some change to the worse might take place in religion. But to me these reasons do not appear to be sufficiently solid. David’s mind was not always occupied by the fear he now felt; and when he came to die, being full of days and weary of this life, he calmly yielded up his soul into the bosom of God. The second reason is equally applicable to us at the present day, as it was to the ancient fathers, inasmuch as God’s fatherly love shines forth towards us also even in this life, and with much more illustrious proofs than under the former dispensation. But, as I have just observed, I consider this complaint of David as including something different, namely, that feeling the hand of God to be against him, and knowing his hatred of sin, ⁽⁸⁷⁾ he is overwhelmed with fear and involved in the deepest distress. The same may also be said of Hezekiah, inasmuch as he did not simply pray for deliverance from death, but from the wrath of God, which he felt to be very awful, (Isaiah 38:3.)

(87) “Ascavoir que sentant la main de Dieu contraire, veu qu’il l’advertissoit de sa vengence contre le peche.” — Fr.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Psalms 6:1-10

The sixth psalm is to the chief musician on this stringed instrument and upon the Sheminith. Now the Sheminith is a word that means the eighth, and so it was to be played in octaves. So on a stringed instrument played in octaves. So David, no doubt, made these notations on the psalms as he wrote them, and wrote it as a hymnal for the people.

O LORD, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure ( Psalms 6:1 ).

Now here is where David is, I am certain, carrying over a human characteristic to God. For we as parents are often guilty of rebuking our children in anger and chastening them in hot displeasure. That is a human characteristic, and it is a failing many times on the part of us as parents. We are angry, and we sometimes over discipline because of our anger.

Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am weak: O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed. My soul also is sore vexed: but thou, O LORD, how long? 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? ( Psalms 6:2-5 )

Now this is David crying out of a soul that is vexed. According to the words of Jesus, these words of David are not correct. He is expressing, as did Job, his own ideas, his own thoughts of death.

For Jesus tells us that when the rich man in hell lifted up his eyes, being in torment and seeing Abraham afar off and Lazarus being comforted in Abraham's bosom, said unto him, "Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to me that he may take his finger and dip in water and touch my tongue, for I am tormented in this heat." And Abraham said unto him, "Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime had good things and Lazarus evil. Now he is comforted while you are tormented. Besides this, there is a gulf that is between us, and it is impossible for you to come over here or those that are here to go over there." "Then I pray thee, if he cannot come to me, send him back that he might warn my brothers lest they also come to this horrible place."

There is a consciousness, there is awareness, there is a memory. It isn't an oblivion as some people would like to think. That is from the word of Jesus, and I would say that He probably knows more about it than anybody else. And I'll take His opinion and His word for it above anybody else. I think that is prime when you can get the word of Christ on an issue. Especially issue of death and after death and what lies beyond the grave. Man may speculate, but Jesus speaks.

I am weary with my groaning; all night ( Psalms 6:6 )

Of course, I would have to say that David is exaggerating. He said,

I make my bed to swim [with my tears] ( Psalms 6:6 );

That is a lot of crying, David.

I water my couch with my tears ( Psalms 6:6 ).

So this is what is known as speaking in a hyperbole. It's writer's license. David is just talking about... and David must have been a melancholy, I guess. He speaks a lot about crying. "I am weary with my groaning."

My eye is consumed because of grief; it waxes old because of all of my enemies. Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the LORD hath heard the voice of my weeping. The LORD hath heard my supplication; the LORD will receive my prayer. Let all my enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: let them return and be ashamed suddenly ( Psalms 6:7-10 ).

So David's prayer unto the Lord, out of a spirit that is vexed, that is downcast. But it is interesting how the psalms always seem to end on a high note. "The Lord hath heard my supplication. The Lord will receive my prayer." "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Psalms 6

Many interpreters consider this one of the penitential psalms in which David repented for some sin he had committed and for which he was suffering discipline (cf. Psalms 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143). [Note: See the excursus on the penitential psalms in Chisholm, pp. 301-2.] This is the first of the seven.

"It was the practice of the early Christians to sing and read the [penitential] psalms on Ash Wednesday as part of their penance for sin. In a strict sense, however, it is not a penitence psalm, for there is no confession of sin or prayer for forgiveness. The psalm is now categorized as an individual lament psalm." [Note: VanGemeren, p. 96.]

Other individual lament psalms are 3-5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 22-23, 27, 31-32, 35, 38-39, 41, 51, 57, 63, 69, 71, 88, 102-103, and 130. We do not know what David did to bring on this illness that almost resulted in his death or how this incident fits into the Scriptural record of his life. Having been chastened by the Lord, David asked for forgiveness. Then, with the assurance that God had heard him, he warned his adversaries to leave him alone because God was about to shame them.

". . . the psalm gives words to those who scarcely have the heart to pray, and brings them within sight of victory." [Note: Kidner, p. 61. Cf. John 12:27.]

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

2. Prayer for deliverance 6:4-5

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The second reason David cited was this. If he died, he could not give God public praise for delivering him, and God would therefore not receive as much honor among His people as He would if He spared David’s life. Believers in David’s time had some revelation of life after death (cf. Job 19:25). David’s expression here does not deny that knowledge. He was saying God would lose praise among the living if David died. Sheol was the place where Old Testament saints believed the spirits of the dead went. This term often occurs in the Old Testament as a synonym for death and the grave.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

For in death [there is] no remembrance of thee,.... Of the goodness, truth, power, and faithfulness of God; no notice can be taken nor mention, made either of the perfections or works of God, whether of nature or of grace, by a dead man to others; he is wholly useless to men on earth with respect to these things;

in the grave who shall give thee thanks? for mercies temporal or spiritual; the dead cannot praise the Lord among men, only the living; see Psalms 30:9; wherefore the psalmist desires that he might live and praise the Lord: this argument is taken from the glory of God, which end cannot be answered among men by death, as by life. It does not follow from hence that the soul either dies or sleeps with the body, and is inactive until the resurrection morn, neither of which are true; or that the souls of departed saints are unemployed in heaven; they are always before the throne, and serve the Lord day and night; they remember, with the utmost gratitude and thankfulness, all the goodness and grace of God unto them, and praise him for all his wondrous works: but the sense is, that when a saint is dead, he can no more serve and glorify God on earth among men.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

To the chief musician on Neginoth upon Sheminith. A psalm of David.

      1 O LORD, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.   2 Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am weak: O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed.   3 My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O LORD, how long?   4 Return, O LORD, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies' sake.   5 For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?   6 I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.   7 Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies.

      These verses speak the language of a heart truly humbled under humbling providences, of a broken and contrite spirit under great afflictions, sent on purpose to awaken conscience and mortify corruption. Those heap up wrath who cry not when God binds them; but those are getting ready for mercy who, under God's rebukes, sow in tears, as David does here. Let us observe here,

      I. The representation he makes to God of his grievances. He pours out his complaint before him. Whither else should a child go with his complaints, but to his father? 1. He complains of bodily pain and sickness (Psalms 6:2; Psalms 6:2): My bones are vexed. His bones and his flesh, like Job's, were touched. Though David was a king, yet he was sick and pained; his imperial crown could not keep his head from aching. Great men are men, and subject to the common calamities of human life. Though David was a stout man, a man of war from his youth, yet this could not secure him from distempers, which will soon make even the strong men to bow themselves. Though David was a good man, yet neither could his goodness keep him in health. Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. Let this help to reconcile us to pain and sickness, that it has been the lot of some of the best saints, and that we are directed and encouraged by their example to show before God our trouble in that case, who is for the body, and takes cognizance of its ailments. 2. He complains of inward trouble: My soul is also sorely vexed; and that is much more grievous than the vexation of the bones. The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, if that be in good plight; but, if that be wounded, the grievance is intolerable. David's sickness brought his sin to his remembrance, and he looked upon it as a token of God's displeasure against him; that was the vexation of his soul; that made him cry, I am weak, heal me. It is a sad thing for a man to have his bones and his soul vexed at the same time; but this has been sometimes the lot of God's own people: nay, and this completed his complicated trouble, that it was continued upon him a great while, which is here intimated in that expostulation (Psalms 6:3; Psalms 6:3), Thou, O Lord! how long? To the living God we must, at such a time, address ourselves, who is the only physician both of body and mind, and not to the Assyrians, not to the god of Ekron.

      II. The impression which his troubles made upon him. They lay very heavily; he groaned till he was weary, wept till he made his bed to swim, and watered his couch (Psalms 6:6; Psalms 6:6), wept till he had almost wept his eyes out (Psalms 6:7; Psalms 6:7): My eye is consumed because of grief. David had more courage and consideration than to mourn thus for any outward affliction; but, when sin sat heavily upon his conscience and he was made to possess his iniquities, when his soul was wounded with the sense of God's wrath and his withdrawings from him, then he thus grieves and mourns in secret, and even his soul refuses to be comforted. This not only kept his eyes waking, but kept his eyes weeping. Note, 1. It has often been the lot of the best of men to be men of sorrows; our Lord Jesus himself was so. Our way lies through a vale of tears, and we must accommodate ourselves to the temper of the climate. 2. It well becomes the greatest spirits to be tender, and to relent, under the tokens of God's displeasure. David, who could face Goliath himself and many another threatening enemy with an undaunted bravery, yet melts into tears at the remembrance of sin and under the apprehensions of divine wrath; and it was no diminution at all to his character to do so. 3. True penitents weep in their retirements. The Pharisees disguised their faces, that they might appear unto men to mourn; but David mourned in the night upon the bed where he lay communing with his own heart, and no eye was a witness to his grief, but the eye of him who is all eye. Peter went out, covered his face, and wept. 4. Sorrow for sin ought to be great sorrow; so David's was; he wept so bitterly, so abundantly, that he watered his couch. 5. The triumphs of wicked men in the sorrows of the saints add very much to their grief. David's eye waxed old because of his enemies, who rejoiced in his afflictions and put bad constructions upon his tears. In this great sorrow David was a type of Christ, who often wept, and who cried out, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful,Hebrews 5:7.

      III. The petitions which he offers up to God in this sorrowful and distressed state. 1. That which he dreads as the greatest evil is the anger of God. This was the wormwood and the gall in the affliction and the misery; it was the infusion of this that made it indeed a bitter cup; and therefore he prays (Psalms 6:1; Psalms 6:1), O Lord! rebuke me not in thy anger, though I have deserved it, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. He does not pray, "Lord, rebuke me not; Lord, chasten me not;" for, as many as God loves he rebukes and chastens, as a father the son in whom he delights. He can bear the rebuke and chastening well enough if God, at the same time, lift up the light of his countenance upon him and by his Spirit make him to hear the joy and gladness of his loving-kindness; the affliction of his body will be tolerable if he have but comfort in his soul. No matter though sickness make his bones ache, if God's wrath do not make his heart ache; therefore his prayer is, "Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath; let me not lie under the impressions of that, for that will sink me." Herein David was a type of Christ, whose sorest complaint, in his sufferings, was of the trouble of his soul and of the suspension of his Father's smiles. He never so much as whispered a complaint of the rage of his enemies--"Why do they crucify me?" or the unkindness of his friends--"Why do they desert me?" But he cried with a loud voice, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Let us thus deprecate the wrath of God more than any outward trouble whatsoever and always beware of treasuring up wrath against a day of affliction. 2. That which he desires as the greatest good, and which would be to him the restoration of all good, is the favour and friendship of God. He prays, (1.) That God would pity him and look upon him with compassion. He thinks himself very miserable, and misery is the proper object of mercy. Hence he prays, "Have mercy upon me, O Lord! in wrath remember mercy, and deal not with me in strict justice." (2.) That God would pardon his sins; for that is the proper act of mercy, and is often chiefly intended in that petition, Have mercy upon me. (3.) That God would put forth his power for his relief: "Lord, heal me (Psalms 6:2; Psalms 6:2), save me (Psalms 6:4; Psalms 6:4), speak the word, and I shall be whole, and all will be well." (4.) That he would be at peace with him: "Return, O Lord! receive me into thy favour again, and be reconciled to me. Thou hast seemed to depart from me and neglect me, nay, to set thyself at a distance, as one angry; but now, Lord, return and show thyself nigh to me." (5.) That he would especially preserve the inward man and the interests of that, whatever might become of the body: "O Lord! deliver my soul from sinning, from sinking, from perishing for ever." It is an unspeakable privilege that we have a God to go to in our afflictions, and it is our duty to go to him, and thus to wrestle with him, and we shall not seek in vain.

      IV. The pleas with which he enforces his petitions, not to move God (he knows our cause and the true merits of it better than we can state them), but to move himself. 1. He pleads God's mercy; and thence we take some of our best encouragements in prayer: Save me, for thy mercies' sake. 3. He pleads God's glory (Psalms 6:5; Psalms 6:5): "For in death there is no remembrance of thee. Lord, if thou deliver me and comfort me, I will not only give thee thanks for my deliverance, and stir up others to join with me in these thanksgivings, but I will spend the new life thou shalt entrust me with in thy service and to thy glory, and all the remainder of my days I will preserve a grateful remembrance of thy favours to me, and be quickened thereby in all instances of service to thee; but, if I die, I shall be cut short of that opportunity of honouring thee and doing good to others, for in the grave who will give the thanks?" Not but that separate souls live and act, and the souls of the faithful joyfully remember God and give thanks to him. But, (1.) In the second death (which perhaps David, being now troubled in soul under the wrath of God, had some dreadful apprehensions of) there is no pleasing remembrance of God; devils and damned spirits blaspheme him and do not praise him. "Lord, let me not lie always under this wrath, for that is sheol, it is hell itself, and lays me under an everlasting disability to praise thee." Those that sincerely seek God's glory, and desire and delight to praise him, may pray in faith, "Lord, send me not to that dreadful place, where there is no devout remembrance of thee, nor are any thanks given to thee." (2.) Even the death of the body puts an end to our opportunity and capacity of glorifying God in this world, and serving the interests of his kingdom among men by opposing the powers of darkness and bringing many on this earth to know God and devote themselves to him. Some have maintained that the joys of the saints in heaven are more desirable, infinitely more so, than the comforts of saints on earth; yet the services of saints on earth, especially such eminent ones as David was, are more laudable, and redound more to the glory of the divine grace, than the services of the saints in heaven, who are not employed in maintaining the war against sin and Satan, nor in edifying the body of Christ. Courtiers in the royal presence are most happy, but soldiers in the field are more useful; and therefore we may, with good reason, pray that if it be the will of God, and he has any further work for us or our friends to do in this world, he will yet spare us, or them, to serve him. To depart and be with Christ is most happy for the saints themselves; but for them to abide in the flesh is more profitable for the church. This David had an eye to when he pleaded this, In the grave who shall give thee thanks?Psalms 30:9; Psalms 88:10; Psalms 115:17; Isaiah 38:18. And this Christ had an eye to when he said, I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world.

      We should sing Psalms 6:1-7 with a deep sense of the terrors of God's wrath, which we should therefore dread and deprecate above any thing; and with thankfulness if this be not our condition, and compassion to those who are thus afflicted: if we be thus troubled, let it comfort us that our case is not without precedent, nor, if we humble ourselves and pray, as David did, shall it be long without redress.