Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 6:5
For in death [there is] no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?
5. A further plea. There can be no gain in his death. Nay, Jehovah will be the loser by it. For man is created to praise God, and God delights in his praise. But in the state to which man passes at death, he can no longer gratefully call to mind His goodness (Psa 145:7), or celebrate His praise.
Here, as in Psa 30:9, Psa 88:10-12, Psa 115:17 (cp. Isa 38:18 ff.; the Book of Job; Ecc 9:5; Ecc 6:10); we meet with that dreary despairing view of the state after death, which the Hebrews shared with the rest of the ancient world. They did not look forward to annihilation, but to a dreamy, shadowy, existence which did not deserve the name of life. The dead, they thought, were cut off from all activity and enjoyment, and worst of all, from the consciousness of God’s presence, and from that communion with Him, which is the essence of ‘life’ (Psa 30:5). It is hardly possible for us who live in the light of Christ’s Resurrection (2Ti 1:10), to realise what the lifelong slavery to the fear of death (Heb 2:15) meant to the faithful Israelite, and the bold struggles of his faith to break the fetters. See Introd. p. xciii ff.
in the grave ] It is far better, with the R.V., to retain the He brew word Sh l to denote the abode of the departed. It is the O.T. equivalent of Hades, by which it is rendered in the LXX. It was thought of as a vast subterranean abyss, where all alike were gathered; a place of gloom and silence, but withal of rest, however joyless, for its shadowy denizens have no more power to do harm than good. “There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.” Cp. Job 3:13-19; Isa 14:9 ff. See Oehler’s O.T. Theology, 78.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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 Psa 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 Psa 88:11, Shall thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction? So also in Isa 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, Psa 16:10-11; Psa 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, bishe‘ol, in Sheol. For the meaning of the word, see Isa 5:14, note; Isa 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 Isa 38:18-19. This language implies that David desired to praise God, but that he could not hope to do it in the grave.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 6:5
In death there is no remembrance of Thee.
Does consciousness cease with death
There is some obscurity in these words, literally understood. They at least seem to teach that all thought and consciousness ceased with man at his death. If that be their meaning, they certainly show that Davids views of a future life were quite defective. If that be their meaning, we may well say, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. We can hardly believe, however, that David meant to teach that thought and consciousness ceased with man at death. The death here intended is probably the second death, and the grave intended the prison of the lost: that is the death, and that the grave, from which David prays to be saved–the death and the grave of both body and soul in hell. And surely there is no grateful remembrance of, and giving thanks to, God there. On the contrary, all who have experienced that death, and descended into that grave, gnaw their tongues for pain, and blaspheme the God of heaven. In view of such an issue, well might David pray, Return, O Lord, deliver my soul; O save me for Thy mercies sake. For surely a more terrific thought cannot be presented to the human soul, than the thought that it must remain a pining and suffering creature forever, a moral blot on every part of the universe to which it may flee; hateful in its own eyes, and hateful in the eyes of God. (David Caldwell, A. M.)
In the grave who shall give Thee thanks?—
Death makes life important
This Psalm is the first of those called penitential, and composed in confession of sin. From consideration of birth sin the writer turns to the littleness of man, and the shortness of life compared with Gods greatness and goodness. As references to the silence of the grave and the departure of the dead occur frequently, we may ask in what sense we are to take such words. David evidently understood that this life is our only period of probation. He had apprehensions of a judgment day. David felt that, whatever he was to be, to become, to receive, or to suffer, in the state beyond the grave, was all to be begun while he was in the flesh. David felt how essential to his happiness it was to obtain Gods favour, and that at once, without delay. All our hopes beyond the grave rest on our few years passage through this life. There is no preparation after it. We are hastening on to the unalterable state, where we shall praise God for over, or never. We are like the sculptor, chiselling an inscription upon marble. Well done or badly done, clearly engraved or badly formed, or wrongly spelt, still those letters remain in imperishable characters. The sculptors success, or his mistakes, both remain; no time will fade, no water will wash away, what is engraved in stone. So with our heavenly and eternal work, the time is short; but its records and its effects are lasting; they endure from generation to generation. Let us be stirred up by such thoughts to engrave for ourselves in the imperishable records of the Book of Life the record of a life spent by us, through Gods grace, to His honour and in His service. (W. J. Stracey, M. A.)
The Psalmists Sheol
The second plea is striking both in its view of the condition of the dead, and in its use of that view as an argument with God. Like many other psalmists, the writer thinks of Sheol as the common gathering place of the departed, a dim region where they live a poor shadowy life, inactive, joyless, and all but godless, inasmuch as praise, fellowship, and service with Him have ceased. That view is equally compatible with the belief in a resurrection, and the denial of it, for it assumes continued individual consciousness. It is the prevailing tone in the Psalter, and in Job and Ecclesiastes. But in some Psalms which embody the highest rapture of inward and musical devotion the sense of present union with God bears up the Psalmist into the sunlight of the assurance that against such a union death can have no power, and we see the hope of immortality in the very act of dawning on the devout soul. May we not say that the subjective experience of the reality of communion with God now is still the path by which the certainty of its perpetuity in a future life is reached? The objective proof in the resurrection of Jesus Christ is verified by this experience. The psalmists had not the former, but, having the latter, they attained to at all events occasional confidence in a blessed life beyond. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
A plea for continued life
1. Concerning death, consider first, that there is a necessity of death laid upon all flesh, wise men and fools, king and prophet, etc., neither the grandeur of the king nor holiness of the prophet can exempt them from death.
2. Next, that it interrupts the service and praise of God, as it destroys mans nature, albeit it interrupteth it only for a time, and in a part; the soul in the meantime praising God under the altar, till that both soul and body meet together and praise Him world without end.
3. That it is lawful to crave the continuance of our life, to the end that we may praise God. Would we desire the continuance of our life, that we may continue in sin? God forbid. Likewise we may desire death, not for being weary of temporal pain, or fear of shame; but with the apostle, that we may be dissolved and be with Christ, and be freed of the burthen of sin by our death, yet in both our desires let us submit ourselves to the good pleasure of God, and say with our Saviour, Thy will be done, not as I will, but as thou wilt.
4. We see in his sickness he seeks the continuation of his life at Gods hands, who hath the issues of death in His will, thereby teaching us, neither with Asa to put our trust in the physicians, neither with Ahaziah to go ask counsel at Beelzebub; but with good Hezekiah turn to the wall, and with David here beg the prorogation of our lives from God.
5. Observe the difference between the godly and the wicked, in their contrary desires of the continuation of their lives: for the wicked, being tied to the bed of sickness, crave longer life, to the end they may enjoy their riches longer, and use, or rather abuse them; in the meantime never conceiving or nourishing an hope of celestial good things. But the godly, that they may record fruitfully the praises of God in the congregation of the righteous; besides, the fear of death in the reprobate, is because they see by it an end put to all their earthly felicities. (A. Symson, B. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 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!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
In death; amongst the dead; or in the grave, as it follows.
There is no remembrance of thee; to wit, by me David, consisting both of soul and body; and no such remembrance, to wit, in way of thankfulness and praise, as the next clause of the verse limits and explains it; which he might fear would be true, not only because he should not have occasion to praise God for this deliverance, but also because he was in grievous agonies of conscience, and under terrors of Gods wrath, and his eternal damnation; which being oft incident to the saints of God under the New Testament, it is not strange if it were so also under the Old Testament. Besides he speaks of the remembrance or celebration of Gods name and grace in the land of the living, to the enlargement and edification of Gods church, and the propagation of true religion among men; which is not done in the other life, and was justly prized at so high a rate by David and other holy men, to whom therefore it must needs be a great grief to be for ever deprived of such opportunities. For otherwise David very well knew, and firmly believed, that souls departed were not extinct, but did go to God, Ecc 12:7, and there remember, and adore, and enjoy God, though quite in another way than that of which he here speaks.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. (Compare Psa 115:17;Psa 115:18; Isa 38:18).There is no incredulity as to a future state. The contrast is betweenthis scene of life, and the grave or Sheol, the unseen worldof the dead.
give . . . thanksor,”praise for mercies.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on 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 Ps 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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire 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, (Isa 38:3.)
(87) “ Ascavoir que sentant la main de Dieu contraire, veu qu’il l’advertissoit de sa vengence contre le peche.” — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(5) For in death.As in Psa. 30:9, the sufferer urges as a further reason for Divine aid the loss Jehovah would suffer by the cessation of his praise. The Israelites natural dread of death was intensified by the thought that the grave separated him from all the privileges of the covenant with God. (Comp. Isa. 38:18.) There can be neither remembrance of His past mercies there, nor confession of His greatness. The word translated grave, in exact parallelism with death, is shel, or underworld, in the early conception merely a vast sepulchral cave, closed as rock-tombs usually were by gates of stone or iron (Isa. 38:10; Job. 17:16). The derivation of the word is disputed, but the primary meaning appears to have been hollowness. It occurs sixty-five times in the Bible, and is rendered in the Authorised version three times pit, and then with curious impartiality thirty-one times grave, and as many hell. When it ceased to be merely a synonym for grave, and began to gather a new set of ideas we cannot ascertain. It was before the time of which we have any contemporary records. But it acquired these new ideas very slowly. Sheol was for a very long time only a magnified grave, into which all the dead, bad and good alike, prince and peasant, went; where they lay side by side in their niches, as the dead do in the loculi of eastern tombs now, without sense of light or sound, or any influence from the upper world (1Ki. 2:2; Job. 30:23; Psa. 89:48). It is something more than death, put it is not life. The sleep of death expresses it. As in Homers Hades, the dead are men without the minds or energies of mensoulless men; so the dead in the Hebrew conception are rephaim, that is, weak, shadowy existences. Indeed, the Biblical representation is even less tolerable than the Greek. Homers heroes retain many of their interests in the living world; they rejoice in the prosperity of their friendstheir own approval or disapproval makes a difference to those still on earthand, apart from this continued connection with the upper air, they had gone to a realm of their own, with its sovereign lord, its laws and customs, its sanctions, and penalties. Not so in the Jewish beliefthe dead know not anything; there is no wisdom in sheol. It would be of no use for God to show any wonders among those incapable of perceiving them (Ecc. 9:5-10; Psa. 88:10). They have passed altogether from all the interests and relations of life, even from the covenant relation with Jehovah. (Comp. Isa. 38:18; Psa. 115:17.) How the Hebrew conscience, helped, possibly, by the influence of foreign ideas, gradually struggled into a higher light on these subjects, belongs to the history of eschatology. The fact that Psalms 6 reflects the earlier undeveloped doctrine, is an argument against any very late date for it.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. In death David had grounded his prayer (Psa 6:4) on the mercy of God, that it might be honoured by his deliverance; now, he rests it on the state of the dead, as unable to praise Him. The language shows, that to human appearance death is now so near, that from it God alone can deliver him.
No remembrance of thee “Remembrance,” here, and the giving of thanks in the next line, are synonymous. It is the memorial of praise and ascriptions due to delivering mercy. The Hebrews believed in a future state and life after death, but had not New Testament conceptions of the place and state of pious souls immediately after death. This shrinking from death, especially premature death, (Psa 102:23-24,) was not from a fear of punishment hereafter, much less of annihilation, but the dread of being cut off from the worship of God among the living, and seeming to be dishonoured by a short life and an unfinished work, which were considered in the light of judgment and calamity. David desires to live only as he desires to honour God before living men in acts of praise and thanksgiving. See notes on Psa 115:17-18; Psalm 138:10.
In the grave In , ( sheol;) Greek, , ( hades;) the under world, the place or region of the dead, the grave. Its literal meaning is, deep pit, then, grave, region of the dead, etc.; but it is sometimes used to denote the state of the wicked, or place of punishment after death, as in Psa 9:17; Pro 5:5; Pro 7:27; Pro 9:18; Pro 15:24; Pro 23:14. (See note on Psa 16:10.) In the New Testament, hades (which in the Septuagint always stands for sheol) sometimes takes the same restricted sense: as Mat 11:23; Luk 10:15; Luk 16:23. The imagination of the Hebrew often united the place of the dead with the fancied region of ghosts, manes, or departed spirits, so that sheol was not a well defined region, but took different limitations of meaning in different places, the connexion, according to a common law in all languages, determining its application.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 6:5. In death there is no remembrance of thee This is meant only of the bodies of persons deceased, not of their souls; which still survive, and do not sleep till the resurrection, as some have vainly imagined; and yet even their souls are incapable of praising God in his church upon earth, of propagating his worship, or of exciting others to piety by their example. Good men, therefore, have often desired to have their lives prolonged, only that they might be capable of worshipping God, and of fully executing his will in this world, in order, as the Hebrews speak, to increase the reward of their souls in the world to come. See Isa 38:18-19 and Fenton on the Psalms.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Hezekiah made use of this very argument, and a sweet one it is, and proved most successful. Isa 38:18 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 6:5 For in death [there is] no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?
Ver. 5. For in death there is no remembrance of thee ] Some heathens were of the opinion that when a man died all died with him; neither was there any further sense of wealth or woe for ever. Socrates doubted, but Aristotle affirmed it to be so, for aught he knew, , (Ethic. 1.3, c. 9). Eusebius and Augustine make mention of certain Arabian heretics, who held that the soul died with the body, and so remained dead to the last day, and then they revived with the resurrection of the body. This was long since exploded as a foul error, contrary to that which the Scripture holdeth forth in many places. All that David would say here is, that dead men remember not, that is, they mention not God’s worthy acts, to the quickening of others; their praises cannot provoke other men to believe in God, or serve him, as in their lifetime they might, therefore David would fain live to do more good. A certain martyr going to suffer said, he was sorry that he was going to a place where he should do God no more work, but be receiving wages only (Sever. Epist. 3). Domine, si adhuc populo tuo sim necessarius non recuso laborem, said a dying saint, Lord, if I may be yet useful to thy people, I should be very well content it might be so. See Isa 38:18-19 . David and Hezekiah prayed hard that they might not yet die, lest religion and the true worship of God, which they had begun to vindicate and establish, should by their decease fall to the ground, through the wickedness of their survivors and successors.
In the grave who shall give thee thanks?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
no remembrance. See Psa 30:9; Psa 88:10-12; Psa 115:17; Psa 118:17. Isa 38:18, Isa 38:19. Ecc 9:10.
the grave. Hebrew Sheol. App-35.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
For: Psa 30:9, Psa 88:10-12, Psa 115:17, Psa 118:17, Isa 38:18, Isa 38:19
in the: Ecc 9:10, Joh 9:4
Reciprocal: Gen 47:29 – must die Ecc 9:5 – the dead Isa 38:11 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
6:5 For in {d} death [there is] no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?
(d) He laments that opportunity should be taken from him to praise God in the congregation.
Fuente: Geneva Bible 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.