Charles H. Spurgeon on Psalms 115:17

The dead praise not the LORD, etc. David considers not here what men do, or do not, in the next world; but he considers only that in this world he was bound to propagate God's truth, and that he could not do so if God took him away by death. Now there is a double reason given of David's and other holy men's deprecation of death in the Old Testament; one in relation to themselves, qui promissiones obsurae, because Moses had conveyed to those men all God's future blessings, all the joy and glory of heaven, only in the types of earthly things, and said little of the state of the soul after this life. And therefore the promises belonging to the godly after this life, were not so clear that in the contemplation of them they could deliver themselves confidently into the jaws of death: he that is not fully satisfied of the next world, makes shift to be content with this. The other reason was quia operarii pauci, because God had a great harvest in hand, and few labourers in it, they were loath to be taken from the work; and this reason was not in relation to themselves, but to God's church, since they would not be able to do God's cause any more good here. This was the other reason that made those good men so loath to die. Quid facies nomini tuo? says Joshua in his prayer to God. If the Canaanites come in to destroy us, and blaspheme thee, what wilt thou do unto thy mighty name? What wilt thou do unto thy glorious church, said the saints of God under the Old Testament, if thou take those men out of the world, whom thou hast chosen, enabled, and qualified, for the edification, sustanation, and propagation of that church? Upon this account David desired to live, not for his own sake, but for God's glory and his church's good; neither of which could be advanced by him when he was dead. Abraham Wright.