John Calvin Commentary 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?" — Psalms 30:9 (ASV)

What profit is there in my blood? Some explain the verse in this way: What good will it do me to have lived, unless you prolong my life until I have finished the course of my calling? But this interpretation seems too strained, especially as the term blood here signifies death, not life: as if David had said, What profit will you derive from my death?

This interpretation is further confirmed by the following clause, where he complains that his lifeless body will then be useless for celebrating the praises of God. And he seems expressly to mention the truth of God, to suggest that it would be unsuitable for God's character to take him out of the world by an untimely death, before God had accomplished the promise he had made to him concerning his future heir.

Since there is a mutual relationship between God’s promises and our faith, truth is, so to speak, the means by which God openly shows that he does not merely make generous promises to us in words, only to feed us with empty hopes and afterwards disappoint us.

Moreover, to obtain a longer life, David draws an argument from the praises of God, which we are born and nourished to celebrate: as if he had said, "For what purpose have you created me, O God, but that throughout my entire life I may be a witness and a herald of your grace to declare the glory of your name?" But my death will cut short the continuation of this activity and reduce me to eternal silence.

A question, however, arises here: Does not the death of true believers, it may be said, glorify God as well as their life?

We answer that David is not speaking simply of death, but adds a circumstance which I have already discussed in the sixth Psalm.

Since God had promised him a successor, and the hope of living longer was taken from him, he had good reason to be afraid that this promise might be frustrated by his death, and was therefore compelled to exclaim, What profit is there in my blood? It greatly concerned the glory of God that he should be kept alive until, by obtaining his desire, he would be able to bear witness to God’s faithfulness in completely fulfilling his promise to him.

By asking at the end of the verse, Shall the dust praise thee? he does not mean that the dead are altogether deprived of the power to praise God, as I have already shown in the sixth Psalm. If the faithful, while burdened with the flesh, engage in this pious duty, how could they cease from it when they are unburdened and set free from the body's restraints?

It should be observed, therefore, that David is not primarily discussing what the dead do, or how they are occupied, but rather considers only the purpose for which we live in this world: namely, that we may mutually declare to one another the glory of God. Having been engaged in this activity until the end of our life, death at last comes upon us and shuts our mouths.