Psalms 6:5

5. In death David had grounded his prayer (Psalms 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, (Psalms 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 Psalms 115:17-18; Psalm 138:10.

In the grave In שׁאול , ( sheol;) Greek, αδης , ( 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 Psalms 9:17; Proverbs 5:5; Proverbs 7:27; Proverbs 9:18; Proverbs 15:24; Proverbs 23:14. (See note on Psalms 16:10.) In the New Testament, hades (which in the Septuagint always stands for sheol) sometimes takes the same restricted sense: as Matthew 11:23; Luke 10:15; Luke 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.