Kabbalah Library

372. “The Lord has chastened me severely, but did not give me over to death.” King David said “The Lord has chastened me severely” for all that he did in this world, and he said about the confidence he had in that world, “but did not give me over to death.” This is because for everything he went through in this world, that he was persecuted and was a fugitive in a foreign land, the land of Moab and the land of the Philistines, the Creator saved him from all of them and did not leave him to die. And he said “but [He] did not let me die” about the confidence in that world, the eternal one.

373. David said, “If I sinned here against the Creator, I was struck here and received my punishment, which purified me from all that I have sinned and did not leave my punishment for that world after death. Indeed, the Lord has chastened me severely in this world to cleanse me, and did not give me over to death in that world, taking His revenge against me there.