Ecc 9:
5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.
6 Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.
10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.
Ps 6:5 For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?
Job 7:21 And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity? for now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be.
Ps 30:9 What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth?
Ps 49:15 But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah.
Isa 38:18 For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.
There are many more.
I'd echo my original message: We aren't JUST a body, we have a body, soul AND spirit. The body dies and is asleep, soul is alive and well with the Lord.
But lets assume this is not the case, for argument's sake. Why would we wanna rest our case on PSALMS and ECCLESIASTES instead of plain new testament scriptures? Psalms being SONGS say all sorts of stuff, ever read the imprecatory psalms? Should we take those and say we should curse our enemies cause of it? No? Why not? New Covenant.
You are free to believe what you wish on this topic as I see this is as something that believing one way or another doesn't really make a difference at all in how we live our life or present the gospel. But could you respond to these new testament verses, how do those work with lets say, Ecc 9:5?
2 Cor 5:8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. [This I have heard explained like this: You are dead, sleep, the very next moment you are aware you are in God's presence, that works for me, OK I get it]
Rev 6:9-10 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” [This one gonna be impossible to explain, here we have DEAD people, (souls) TALKING and saying something, one of many examples in the NT]
The story of the rich man and Lazarus, where once the rich man dies he opens up his eyes in torment and FULLY AWARE of whats going on. [Once again, kind of impossible to say this is soul sleep]
In my opinion (you are free to disagree friend, just saying my view here) these verses are IMPOSSIBLE to reconcile literally with Ecclesiates 9:5. Therefore, I take the view, that Ecclesiastes is talking about things "under the sun" as it says in the book. So that is the POV!