Ps 6:5

“It is better to be punished and cleansed now than to be transmitted to the torment to come, when it is the time of chastisement, not of cleansing. For as he who remembers God here is conqueror of death (as David has most excellently sung), so the departed have not in the grave confession and restoration; for God has confined life and action to this world, and to the future the scrutiny of what has been done.”

“For he who has made the inheritance known has also mentioned the octave, which becomes both the boundary of the present time and the beginning of the age to come. Now the characteristic feature of the octave is that it no longer affords those who are in it opportunity to procure things good or bad, but one hands over instead the sheaves from whatever seeds he has sown for himself through his works. For this reason he prescribes here that the one who is exercised in the same victories effect repentance, as such zeal is idle in hades.”

“The saints are not only mindful of God as they hold on to this life but even more so when they are separated from this perishable body. What, therefore, does he say? No one who is mindful of you falls into that death that sin brings forth, that is, that death that separates the sinning spirit from a life of virtue. I desire to be mindful of you by turning toward your kindness. Save me, lest I be consumed in death when my prevailing weakness has turned against me and my spirit is thoroughly distraught. For it is also said, he is not mindful of you who dies; but he who is mindful of you does not fall into that death about which the Savior said: "He who hears my word will not see death in eternity."”

“[When the psalmist says] "for in death there is no one to remember you," [he is] not implying that our existence lasts only as far as the present life: perish the thought! After all, he is aware of the doctrine of resurrection. Rather, it is that after our departure from here there would be no time for repentance. For the rich man praised God and repented, but in view of its lateness it did him no good. The virgins wanted to get some oil, but no one gave any to them. So this is what this man requests, too, for his sins to be washed away in this life so as to enjoy confidence at the tribunal of the fearsome judge.”

“While you are still in this world, I beg of you to repent. Confess and give thanks to the Lord, for in this world only is he merciful. Here, he is able to be compassionate to the repentant, but because there he is judge, he is not merciful. Here, he is compassionate kindness; there, he is judge. Here, he reaches out his hand to the falling; there, he presides as judge.”

“"For in death there is no one that is mindful of You" [Psalm 6:5]. He knows too that now is the time for turning unto God: for when this life shall have passed away, there remains but a retribution of our deserts. "But in hell who shall confess to You?" [Luke xvi] That rich man, of whom the Lord speaks, who saw Lazarus in rest, but bewailed himself in torments, confessed in hell, yea so as to wish even to have his brethren warned, that they might keep themselves from sin, because of the punishment which is not believed to be in hell. Although therefore to no purpose, yet he confessed that those torments had deservedly lighted upon him; since he even wished his brethren to be instructed, lest they should fall into the same. What then is, "But in hell who will confess to You?" Is hell to be understood as that place, whither the ungodly will be cast down after the judgment, when by reason of that deeper darkness they will no more see any light of God, to whom they may confess anything? For as yet that rich man by raising his eyes, although a vast gulf lay between, could still see Lazarus established in rest: by comparing himself with whom, he was driven to a confession of his own deserts. It may be understood also, as if the Psalmist calls sin, that is committed in contempt of God's law, death: so as that we should give the name of death to the sting of death, because it procures death. "For the sting of death is sin." [1 Corinthians 15:56] In which death this is to be unmindful of God, to despise His law and commandments: so that by hell the Psalmist would mean that blindness of soul which overtakes and enwraps the sinner, that is, the dying. "As they did not think good," the Apostle says, "to retain God in" their "knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind." [Romans 1:28] From this death, and this hell, the soul earnestly prays that she may be kept safe, while she strives to turn to God, and feels her difficulties.”

“It is not in death but in life that one recalls God. Likewise, confession and reform do not come to the departed in hades. God confined life and action to this life; there, however, he conducts an evaluation of performance. And in any case this is proper to the eighth day, giving no longer opportunity for preparation by good or bad deeds to those who have arrived at it; instead, whatever works you have sown for yourself you will have occasion to reap. For this reason he obliges you to practice repentance here, there being no practice of this kind of effort in hades.”

“Return (שוב֫ה): – The accent is milra', of which this is one of five instances. O Lord, deliver my soul: – and its interpretation (is): Turn from Thy fierce wrath upon me, and, Turn, deliver my soul that I die not of this sickness. Save me for Thy loving-kindness' sake – not for my righteousness, for I know that I am guilty.”

“Then when he says "For," he shows the imminent danger. And first, the danger of present death, namely natural death. Second, of eternal damnation, from which there is no return. Hence, "For there is none in death," that is, after death, "who is mindful of you," namely by thinking of your goodness, if he was not mindful of it in life. And this is so because the rational soul does not have flexibility of choice after death. Eccl. 11: "Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in whatever place it falls, there it will be." The second danger is that in Hell there is obstinacy, and there is no confession there -- that confession of which the Apostle speaks, Rom. 10: "With the mouth confession is made unto salvation." And therefore he says: "But in Hell, who will confess to you?" Or alternatively: "In death," that is, the death of sin, "who is mindful of you?" As if to say: I beseech you, rescue my soul lest I consent, because in my sin I will not be mindful of you. Dan. 13: "They turned away their eyes so as not to see heaven, nor to remember just judgments." "But in Hell," that is, in the depths of sins, "who will confess to you?" Prov. 18: "When the impious man comes into the depths of sins, he will show contempt."”