Psalm 6 · a question people ask
"For in death there is no memory of you. In Sheol, who shall give you thanks?" (6:5). What is the psalmist saying about death?
He gives it as a reason, beginning "For" (6:5), right after "Return, LORD. Deliver my soul, and save me" (6:4) (tap memory, Sheol, thanks). Other prayers in Scripture ask the same kind of question: "Shall the dust praise you? Shall it declare your truth?" (Psalm 30:9), and "Do the departed spirits rise up and praise you?" (Psalm 88:10). In both, praise is the verb of Psalm 6:5's give you thanks. Hezekiah wrote, "For Sheol can’t praise you" (Isaiah 38:18), and "The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do today" (Isaiah 38:19). Psalm 6 says no more about death or Sheol than this one verse, and these notes don't add to it.
The verses
“Return, LORD. Deliver my soul, and save me for your loving kindness’ sake. For in death there is no memory of you. In Sheol, who shall give you thanks?”
““What profit is there in my destruction, if I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise you? Shall it declare your truth?”
“Do you show wonders to the dead? Do the departed spirits rise up and praise you? Selah.”
“The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered of his sickness:”