Psalms 30:8

DAVID'S EARNEST SUPPLICATIONS

"I cried to thee, O Jehovah;

And unto Jehovah I made my supplication;

What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit?

Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth?

Hear, O Jehovah, and have mercy upon me;

Jehovah, be thou my helper."

"What profit is there in my blood" (Psalms 30:9). This means, "What benefit to God is there in my death?" Dummelow, and many others have commented on this to the effect that, "This verse shows how little the future life counted in Old Testament thought."[15] We do not believe such comments are justified.

As Barnes said, "It must be admitted that the ancient saints knew much less about the hope of eternal life than Christians have in the New Testament, and that they sometimes spoke in such language as that which we have here, due to their despondency; but, upon other occasions they expressed their belief in a future state and their expectation of happiness in a coming world."[16]

Abraham lifted the sacrificial knife against Isaac, "Accounting that God was able to raise him from the dead" (Hebrews 11:19); and many of the Old Testament saints suffered all kinds of hardships, even torture, "that they might obtain a better resurrection" (Hebrews 11:35). David himself gave us Psalms 16:10; and there is no doubt at all that Psalms 23:6 speaks of eternal life. Furthermore, Job gave us that soul-cheering line immortalized in Handel's Messiah, "I know that my Redeemer liveth .... and that after death, I shall see God" (Job 19:25,26)."

We might add that expressions of Old Testament writers expressing such dread of death are still duplicated by the thoughts even of Christians facing the awful extremities of suffering and death.

"Shall the dust praise thee" (Psalms 30:9)...In these verses, David shows that, "His prayer for God's saving his life was not for the sake of worldly possessions and enjoyment, but for the praise and glory of God."[17]

"David does not here speak of death in general, as if Old Testament saints had no hope beyond the grave, but of the kind of death where God hides his face in displeasure. For such a death, there is indeed no hope beyond the tomb."[18]

"Have mercy upon me ... be my helper" (Psalms 30:10). Here we feel that David has thoroughly abandoned all over-confidence in himself and that he now relies solely upon the merciful approval of God. "One feels that at this point, the chastisements have fully accomplished their purpose, and that the psalmist is shaken completely out of his false feeling of `security.'"[19]