Was David speaking about himself or about Christ when he said death could not hold him?
David was not speaking concerning himself; he spoke concerning Christ—that death could not hold Him and hell could not hold Him, because God was going to raise Him from the dead. Scripture says David, seeing this before, spoke of the resurrection of Christ, whose soul was not left in hell and whose flesh did not see corruption.
Les explains that David was not speaking about his own resurrection but prophetically about Christ’s resurrection. The passage says David saw this beforehand and spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that His soul was not left in hell and His flesh did not see corruption. Death and hell could not hold Him because God was going to raise Him from the dead. This also relates to why Mary Magdalene did not recognize Him on resurrection morning: it was pre-dawn darkness, and she remembered His horrible disfiguration from the cross—the blood, the 39 lashes, and the load of sin laid upon Him. Isaiah says He was more disfigured than any human being in history. He had been healed of all that abuse, looked more or less normal, still had the nail prints, and Mary could not put it all together. It was the same Christ crucified and buried, now in a resurrected body, the same Person, the same Christ.
He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.