“David enim in sua generatione cum administrasset, voluntati Dei dormivit : et appositus est ad patres suos, et vidit corruptionem.”
“For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption: after: or, after he had in his own age served the will of God”
“For when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep. His body was buried with his fathers and saw decay.”
“For David, after he had in his own generation served the counsel of God, fell asleep, and was laid with his fathers, and saw decay.”
“For David, after he had in his own generation served the counsel of God, fell asleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption:”
After he had served in his generation. That is, in his life-time, saw corruption, or was corrupted in the grave. (Witham)
(a.) It could not be accomplished in David himself (v. 36), for David, after he had served his own generation, by the will of God, who raised him up to be what he was, fell asleep, and was laid to his fathers, and saw corruption. Here we have a short account of the life, death, and burial, of the patriarch David, and his continuance under the power of death. [a.] His life: He served his own generation, by the will of God, before he slept the sleep of death. David was a useful good man; he did good in the world by the will of God. He made God's precepts his rule; he served his own generation so as therein to serve God; he so served and pleased men (as whatever the king did pleased the people, 2 Sam 3 36), as still to keep himself the faithful servant of God. See Gal 1 10. He served the good of men, but did not serve the will of men. Or, by the will of God's providence so ordering it, qualifying him for, and calling him to, a public station, he served his own generation; for every creature is that to us which God makes it to be. David was a great blessing to the age wherein he lived; he was the servant of his generation: many are the curse, and plague, and burden of their generation. Even those that are in a lower and narrower sphere must look upon it that they live to serve their generation; and those that will do good in the world must make themselves servants of all, 1 Cor 9 19. We were not born for ourselves, but are members of communities, to which we must study to be serviceable. Yet here is the difference between David and Christ, that David was to serve only his own generation, that generation in which he lived, and therefore when he had done what he had to do, and written what he had to write, he died, and continued in the grave; but Christ (not by his writings or words upon record only as David, but by his personal agency) was to serve all generations, must ever live to reign over the house of Jacob, not as David, for forty years, but for all ages, as long as the sun and moon endure, Ps 89 29, 36, 37. His throne must be as the days of heaven, and all generations must be blessed in him, Ps 72 17. [b.] His death: He fell asleep. Death is a sleep, a quiet rest, to those who, while they lived, laboured in the service of God and their generation. Observe, He did not fall asleep till he had served his generation, till he had done the work for which God raised him up. God's servants have their work assigned them; and, when they have accomplished as a hireling their day, then, and not till then, they are called to rest. God's witnesses never die till they have finished their testimony; and then the sleep, the death, of the labouring man will be sweet. David was not permitted to build the temple, and therefore when he had made preparation for it, which was the service he was designed to, he fell asleep, and left the work to Solomon. [c.] His burial: He was laid to his fathers. Though he was buried in the city of David (1 Kings 2 10), and not in the sepulchre of Jesse his father in Bethlehem, yet he might be said to be laid to his fathers; for the grave, in general, is the habitation of our fathers, of those that are gone before us, Ps 49 19. [d.] His continuance in the grave: He saw corruption. We are sure he did not rise again; this Peter insists upon when he freely speaks of the patriarch David (ch. 2 29): He is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. He saw corruption, and therefore that promise could not have its accomplishment in him. But,
Verses 32-37 The resurrection of Christ was the great proof of his being the Son of God. It was not possible he should be held by death, because he was the Son of God, and therefore had life in himself, which he could not lay down but with a design to take it again. The sure mercies of David are that everlasting life, of which the resurrection was a sure pledge; and the blessings of redemption in Christ are a certain earnest, even in this world. David was a great blessing to the age wherein he lived. We were not born for ourselves, but there are those living around us, to whom we must study to be serviceable. Yet here is the difference; Christ was to serve all generations. May we look to Him who is declared to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead, that by faith in him we may walk with God, and serve our generation according to his will; and when death comes, may we fall asleep in him, with a joyful hope of a blessed resurrection.
“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return.”