Written by Sons of Korah. This psalm is a sermon, and so is the next. In most of the psalms we have the psamist praying or praising; in these we have him preaching;
1 Hear this, all you peoples; listen, all who live in this world,
2 both low and high, rich and poor alike:
3 My mouth will speak words of wisdom; the meditation of my heart will give you understanding.
4 I will turn my ear to a proverb; with the harp I will expound my riddle:
5 Why should I fear when evil days come, when wicked deceivers surround me—
6 those who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches?
7 No one can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for them—
8 the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough—
9 so that they should live on forever and not see decay.
10 For all can see that the wise die, that the foolish and the senseless also perish, leaving their wealth to others.
11 Their tombs will remain their houses forever, their dwellings for endless generations,
though they had named lands after themselves.
12 People, despite their wealth, do not endure; they are like the beasts that perish.
13 This is the fate of those who trust in themselves, and of their followers, who approve their sayings.
14 They are like sheep and are destined to die; death will be their shepherd (but the upright will prevail over them in the morning). Their forms will decay in the grave, far from their princely mansions.
15 But God will redeem me from the realm of the dead; he will surely take me to himself.
16 Do not be overawed when others grow rich, when the splendor of their houses increases;
17 for they will take nothing with them when they die, their splendor will not descend with them.
18 Though while they live they count themselves blessed— and people praise you when you prosper—
19 they will join those who have gone before them, who will never again see the light of life.
20 People who have wealth but lack understanding are like the beasts that perish.
SECTIONS:
I. Introduction (49:1-4).
II Stage One: The Common Experience of Death (49:5-12).
Applying Teaching through Reflection (49:5-6);
Explaining Teaching through Important Reminders (49:7-12).
III Stage Two: The Contrasting Experience in Death (49:13-20).
Assurance of the Contrasting Experience in Death (49:13-15);
The Application of This Contrasting Experience in Death (49:16-20).
THEME: In view of facing death and eternity why those who trust in God shouldn’t envy the rich, who trust in their weather instead.
QUESTIONS:
- To whom is the psalmist addressing this psalm?
- Why does the psalmist say he will not fear when evil days come?
- What happens to those who trust only in their wealth and not God?
- When we see other people grow rich, what should be our response & why?
- Can you see a connection between Psalm 37 and this psalm?
This psalm reads almost like a passage from Proverbs, with its bold contrast between the destinies of wicked and righteous. It addresses an age-old question: the prosperity of the wicked. The psalmist lived in a day when many evil men were boasting of their wealth. The psalm was therefore written to enable God’s people to rise above the ungodly drive for riches. There is an invitation to listen because the psalm has a universal application. He demonstrates how woefully inadequate riches are: on the day of one’s death they cannot redeem. The divergent destinies of the wicked and the righteous are vividly stated: the wicked man has no hope beyond this life, but the righteous will be resurrected to eternal life.
The psalm deals with a fact about life – the certainty of death. One of its major lessons is that “you really can’t take it with you.” It has practical lessons about life and death, and is in the category of a didactic or wisdom poem. In places, it sounds very much like portions of Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. It warns the rich and famous and comfort the poor. It’s message undergirds many New Testament passages, such as the accounts about the rich fool in (Luke 12:13-21), or the rich man and Lazarus in (Luke 16). .
Notice what this psalm says. It is not those that are wealthy, but those who trust in their wealth. To trust in your wealth means that you put it ahead of God. Riches are soon past. A person is wealthy, because God has provided wealth. There is then, no reasonable reason to boast of wealth.
They call their lands after their own names”: As Egypt was called Mizraim, Ethiopia was called Cush, and Palestine was called Canaan. From men who were the first possessors of them (Gen. 10:6). Or “they proclaim their names throughout the land”; they seek to get a name, and spread and continue it in all parts of the world. They are unconcerned about their names being written in heaven. This describes a man who names buildings and all his property after himself, as if that will help him last forever. All of this is vanity. One of the worst false religions going around is the religion of self. Secular humanism is one name it is called. Worldly people have wanted to be as God. The truth is we will never be as God. We are His servants. At the best, we are His adopted children, but we are never equal with God.
It isn’t merely the possession of material things that makes one rich in the sense that Psalm 49 means it. It is to trust in that wealth and to boast in their riches. This is simply idolatry. Though the Bible presents several godly rich men to us (such as Abraham and King David, who by modern measures would probably be billionaires), they were men who still trusted in the LORD and made their boast in Him. They did not trust in their wealth or boast in their riches.
One can know if he puts his trust in his wealth if he finds peace and security by his accounts and holdings, and if he despairs when these things decline. What loss in life would most trouble me – material or spiritual?
One can know if he boasts in his riches if he finds deepest satisfaction in gaining and measuring his wealth and looks for ways to display his riches. What am I appropriately proud of – material things or spiritual things?
Money itself can’t rescue a soul because the redemption of their souls is costly – that is, beyond the ability of material things to purchase. The redemption of their souls is a spiritual work, accomplished only by God’s atoning sacrifice. Voltaire was a French atheist and enemy of Christianity, and his popularity made him very wealthy. “Yet when Voltaire came to die, it is reported that he cried to his doctor in pained desperation, ‘I will give you half of all I possess if you will give me six months more of life.’” (Boice) Voltaire died in despair. He is like the beasts that perish: “It is the ability to think and reason that sets human beings apart from the remainder of creation. Yet how animal-like we are when we fail to consider the shortness of our days and prepare for how we will spend eternity!” (Boice)
As a wisdom psalm, this shares many characteristics as the Book of Ecclesiastes. Yet the words “But God..” begin a significant difference. “The great But God…(Psalm 49:15) is one of the mountain-tops of Old Testament hope…it brings out into the open the assurance of victory over death which Ecclesiastes leaves concealed.” (Kidner)
For He shall receive me: The assurance and confidence of the psalmist should be an example for us. He was confident that God would receive the one who trusted in Him and made his boast in the LORD. For those who trust and boast in riches, this world is the best they will ever have it. For the upright who look to God for their redemption, this world is the worst they will ever have it.
https://bible.org/seriespage/psalm-49-psalm-recession
I’ll always remember November 1980. After being awake most of the night cleaning up the vomit from both of our little girls and their bedding, we were awakened at 4 a.m. by a phone call from a neighbor. Her husband was a volunteer fireman. She called to warn us that the fire department would have us evacuate our house at 7 a.m. because of the danger of the nearby Panorama Fire.
We had three hours to go through everything that we owned and decide what to take with us, realizing that whatever we left behind could go up in smoke. Our only car was a 1968 Mustang, which did not have much cargo space. And my office was at home, so what we took included some of my books and files, which went on the top rack.
We were out of our home for three days. Thankfully, the fire did not reach our house. But the experience was an unforgettable lesson in clarifying what is really important in terms of material possessions. What really matters and what could we live without?
It is my prayer that the current recession would be a life-changing, unforgettable lesson in values and clarification for all American Christians. Perhaps God will use it to pry us loose from our love of the things that so easily tempt us. Maybe we will begin to identify with the majority of people in the world for whom life is a perpetual recession. Maybe we will grow in our understanding of what it means to seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness. Maybe we will be more faithful to lay up treasures in heaven. Maybe in light of the shortness of life, we will shift our focus on being rich toward God.
The theme pf Psalm 49 is the futility of living for this world’s possessions, status, and fame, in light of the certainty of death. It is a “wisdom” psalm, similar in theme to Psalms 37 and 73. Rather than focusing directly on praise to God, the psalm gives instruction that will ultimately result in praise to God. It gives us the understanding that we need to live rightly in light of eternity. The message is: Because we all will die, our focus should not be on riches and fame in this life, but on eternity with God.
Several commentators observe that Jesus probably based the parable of the rich fool on this psalm (Luke 12:16-21). He prefaced the story with a warning (12:15), “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.” Then He told the story of the man who was very successful. His barns were full, so he decided to build bigger barns. He congratulated himself by thinking (12:19), “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.” But God told him (12:20): “You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?” Jesus’ conclusion is (12:21), “So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
The poor can be just as materialistic as the rich, because materialism is a desire of the heart, not just a matter of owning things. You may think, “I am too poor to worry about living for possessions.” But his message applies to all people in every culture.
The psalmist claims that he is going to speak wisdom and give us understanding. Proverbs 2:6 tells us, “For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.” So the psalmist is not giving us the wisdom and understanding of a sage, who has assimilated man’s wisdom. Rather, he is giving wisdom that he’s gained by inclining his ear to God.
The psalmist also says that he is going to open up to us a riddle on the harp. The word riddle is used of Samson’s riddle of the lion and the honey (Judges 14:12-15) and of the difficult questions that the Queen of Sheba brought to Solomon (1 Kings 10:1). In our psalm, the riddle seems to be the age-old question, why are evil people rich and comfortable, while the godly are often poor and oppressed? The psalmist’s answer to the riddle is that no amount of money can buy a person an escape from death and judgment. We all must stand before God, who will either condemn us because we lived for this world or redeem and receive us because we lived wisely in light of eternity.
Some have commented that the psalm’s message doesn’t seem very profound. Calvin’s Commentaries on Psalm 49 comments that even worldly philosophers have pointed out the shortness of human life and the vanity of putting you confidence in things. But Calvin says that the real scope of the psalm is to comfort God’s suffering people and teach us to trust God to right all wrongs at the judgment. The psalm urges us to be patient when it seems that God is not governing the world, realizing that He will rectify all wrongs in His good time.
While the message is very basic, something that every Christian knows, it’a a message that we need to hear and think about often. Although I know intellectually that life doesn’t consist of possessions, it’s easy to forget and be tempted by greed. On our recent trip, we drove by many casinos, none of which was hurting for business. Even Christians can be tempted to gamble, especially when times are tough, thinking that if we just hit the jackpot, we would be happy. Because we’re all susceptible to this, we need to ponder the message of Psalm 49.
The psalmist’s counsel: Do not fear when those who trust in their wealth prosper, because their wealth cannot buy them an escape from death (49:5-12). This section falls into two subsections:
A. The prosperity of the wealthy wicked is brief at best and useless when it comes to staving off death (49:5-9).
The theme of fear pops up in verse 5 and 16. Why is the psalmist prone to fear because of the wealthy? The answer is that often, the wealthy oppress and take advantage of the poor. Power and influence often go along with wealth. The wealthy have close ties with those in political power. They can use their wealth to gain such offices for themselves. You see this often in countries where power is by connections, not by law. Those in power ignore the law, so it is fearful when the wicked rich come to power. Even in our own country, bribery and influence among the rich and powerful can threaten the poor.
The psalmist reflects on the obvious, that no one can use money to redeem his brother or to give God a ransom for him, so as to prolong his life. I thought about this when Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis succumbed to cancer at a relatively young age. Her fabulous wealth could get her the best doctors in the world, but they could not extend her life.
B. The failure of wealth is certain and total (49:10-12).
The psalmist says that it is absurd to trust in riches in light of the certainty of death. Since death is 100 percent certain and no one will be taking anything with him, you’d think that everyone would be living in view of eternity. The psalmist observes that the wise and stupid both perish and leave their wealth to others. They think that their houses will endure forever. (A transposition of Hebrew letters makes the verse read that their graves are their houses [NIV].) They name their lands after themselves. But they die and are soon forgotten.
The Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy, has a story, “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” It’s about a man who keeps longing for more and more land. Finally, he strikes a bargain that for 1,000 rubles, he can have all the land that he can walk around in one day. But the catch is, he must be back at the starting point before sundown or he loses his money and the land. So he starts off early. As the day goes on, his greed drives him to keep going a bit farther.
Finally, he realizes that the sun is getting low, so he turns toward the starting point and picks up his pace. As the sun drops lower in the sky, the man starts running. He is sweating profusely; his heart is pounding. Just as the sun is setting, he sees the finish line. He gives it everything he’s got. He sprints up the hill and across the line just as the sun sets. He falls to the ground and blood spurts out of his mouth. He is dead. His servant digs a grave, just long enough for him to lie in, and buries him. Tolstoy concludes, “Six feet from his head to his heels was all that he needed.” As they say, you never see a hearse pulling a U-Haul! The psalmist’s contrast: The foolish ignore eternity and trust in their wealth, whereas the godly look to God to redeem and receive them (49:13-15).
In verse 13, the psalmist adds a new thought to his theme. He points out that the foolish ignore the transitory nature of riches and the certainty of death, but he adds, “And of those after them who approve their words.” In other words, even though others watch the rich accumulate their wealth only to die and leave it all behind, they don’t learn the lesson. They still want to get rich. As James Boice says, “You do not have to have wealth to perish because of wealth. You can perish equally well merely by making money your goal and forgetting spiritual things.”
Verse 14 anticipates the day of resurrection and reward for the righteous, as well as judgment for the wicked. While the psalmist probably didn’t understand redemption as clearly as it would be revealed in the New Testament, we know that Jesus Christ paid the price that our sin deserved. You have hope that God will receive or welcome you into heaven! One commentator observes, “We leave the world either with God or with nothing” (Murdoch Campbell, cited by Boice, p. 414).
The psalmist’s repeated counsel: Do not fear when the wicked wealthy prosper, because soon they will die like unreasoning animals (49:16-20). Don’t worry when a man becomes rich and famous, because when he dies, he leaves with the same amount as everyone else: Nothing! The point of the psalm is to gain that understanding so that you do not perish! To die without understanding the need to be right with God is to die like an unreasoning beast.
We try to insulate ourselves from harm by heaping up wealth. Television shows try to convince us that money is the way to keep bad things from happening to us. Society tries to make us believe that money will keep us happy. But both the rich and poor experience problems in life.
And all will experience death. Yet it is the world’s pursuit to try to cheat death. The rich think they can put their bodies on ice and live again when technology is good enough to bring them back to life. These are the thoughts of desperate people who have not found a purpose for living. There is no advantage to rich concerning death. We may have large houses, multiple cars, and numerous possessions. So what? What does it mean to our lives? Nothing, for these things are emptiness. What difference is there between man and animal if we reject God? The purpose of their lives becomes the same: to live and die. If riches are where we put our trust, our lives have as much value as a sheep. We will leave, we will enjoy some pastures, and then we will die. Our lives have no purpose except to go to the grave.
God tells us that rule and power will be given to the upright and not to the rich of this world. What can man really rule? At best we see the powerful men and women of this world ruling a corporation or ruling a government/nation. Yet all the wealth belongs to God and God is in control of all the governments. Would you rather rule now for a few years over a small piece of land, or would you rather rule in the kingdom of God, which is far above all powers, rulers, and dominions eternally? The psalmist is encouraging us to keep our eyes on what is most important.
SONG: Redeemed., I Will Sing of My Redeemer, More Precious Than Silver