John Calvin Commentary Psalms 6:5

"For in death there is no remembrance of thee: In Sheol who shall give thee thanks?" — Psalms 6:5 (ASV)

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. Reference is made to this gratitude 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 is delivered from death, he will be grateful for it and keep it in remembrance.

And he laments that if he were removed from 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 human society, 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 discussed here but the mutual celebration of the grace of God, in which people 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 purpose 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 have no affection towards God. It is also to be considered that, on the present occasion, David dreaded the judgment of God if death were to befall him, and this made him unable to sing the praises of God. It is only the goodness of God, perceptibly experienced by us, that opens our mouth to celebrate His praise; and whenever, therefore, joy and gladness are taken away, praises also must cease. It is not surprising then 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 given the solution to another question: why David so greatly dreaded death, as if there were nothing to hope for beyond this world. Learned men list three reasons why the fathers under the Law were so greatly bound by the fear of death:

1. First, because the grace of God had not yet been made manifest by the coming of Christ, the promises, which were obscure, gave them only a slight acquaintance with the life to come.
2. Second, because the present life, in which God deals with us as a Father, is desirable in itself.
3. Third, because they were afraid that, after their death, a change for the worse might take place in religion.

But to me, these reasons do not appear 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, since 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, he is overwhelmed with fear and involved in the deepest distress. The same may also be said of Hezekiah, since 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).