July 3, 2015
Tom Lowe
PSALM 49
Title: An Intimation of Immorality
(A psalm for the sons of Korah)
Theme: The end of those who boast of their riches.
Psalm 49 (KJV)
1 Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world:
2 Both low and high, rich and poor, together.
3 My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.
4 I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp.
5 Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?
6 They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;
7 None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him:
8 (For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:)
9 That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption.
10 For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.
11 Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names.
12 Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish.
13 This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.
14 Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.
15 But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah.
16 Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased;
17 For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him.
18 Though while he lived he blessed his soul: and men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself.
19 He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light.
20 Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.
Introduction
This psalm is classed as a wisdom psalm the subject of which is the prosperity of the wicked, as contemplated by the righteous; that is to say, why do the wicked prosper, while the righteous are poor and afflicted? This was a frequent cause of wonder to these Hebrew thinkers (compare Psalm 37). And the psalmist presents to us the only consolation within the reach of those times—that the glory and success of the ungodly was only temporary, and would pass away like a shadow; while the righteous might count upon an eternity of unbroken blessedness in the presence of God. The purpose of the author, like that of other writers of wisdom psalms, is to instruct and exhort men about the fundamental issues of life. The instruction which the psalmist offers here as the solution for the issue, “why do the wicked prosper, and the righteous suffer,” came to him as he brooded over the matter, more by a mystical communication or by inspiration than by the process of reason.
This is an anonymous psalm. Sometimes the anonymous psalms are called “orphan psalms” because they stand alone on the page of Scripture without their human parentage being known. All we know about this psalm is that it was “for the sons of Korah,” who descended from a father who perished under the wrath and curse of God because of his arrogance and pride. The fact that he was a Levite, the grandson of Kohath, great-grandson of Levi, and kin to Moses and Aaron, only aggravated his fault. The psalm serves to underscore the wickedness and pride of the rich man who makes money his god. The psalm does not make being rich a sin. The sin lies in trusting in riches. In the long run it is stupid to trust in money rather than in the Lord! That is the gist of the message of Psalm 49. It is not money that is the root of all evil, but the love of it.
The inequities of life may never be corrected here in this world. But death is the great equalizer. Rich and poor, high and low, prince and pauper, all come to the same end. Once men grasp the fact that riches hold no assurance for eternity, much of the problem disappears. The fundamental idea is, that the pious have no reason to fear under such circumstances in this transitory world, because the poor rich man—people who have money, but that is all they have; family, fortune, friends, and future; nothing matters but money—cannot with all his gold purchase exemption from death, but by his vanity and foolishness becomes more and more like mere animals that perish. The money of the rich before whom men are awed, can buy all that the world has to offer, but it cannot buy off death. They can offer no ransom [the price of one’s life] great enough to free themselves from the common plight of men. The psalmist proclaims a very necessary truth which is more pointedly set forth in the Parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:6-21).
It will quickly become evident that Psalm 49 does not exactly philosophize about the uncertainty of riches, and the shortness of life; it is not just a sweet little dissertation which bids us to bear bravely our perils and our sufferings, and tells us that virtue is its own reward, and that justice will triumph at the end. Rather, this psalm shows us not only the vanity of riches but the end of those who boast about themselves and their riches. This psalm may sound a bit revolutionary to you according to the thinking of today, but it is one that should be given special consideration in the days in which we live.
Commentary
1 Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world:
2 Both low and high, rich and poor, together.
3 My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.
4 I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp.
The unknown psalmist begins in verses 1-2 by summoning all to listen, both “low (poor) and high (rich).” He deals with one of the thorniest problems of Hebrew “wisdom,” that is, the balance between personal character and one's lot in life. He has agonized over the leading problem with evil and has come up with conclusions to which he attaches great value. He is captivated by what he has to say, and as he opens his psalm, he seeks to capture the attention of all mankind of all nations, the inhabitants of the world, the rank and file of men, including the nobility. He has a bit of wisdom to express—a product of his own mind (put there by the Holy Spirit), and it concerns the problems of life—which he states in a serious moralistic “poem”—the literary product of his own struggle with life’s problems. He sings his psalm with the accompaniment of music, which he views as an aid to incite and interpretation. Prophetic utterances were sometimes accompanied with music (1 Samuel 10:5; 2 Kings 3:15), but nowhere else are we informed that “instruction” was accompanied by music.
The psalmist not only speaks of what he has heard with his ears—he sings about what he has learned from God—even His darkest sayings. He explained that the words, though wise, would be “dark,” that is, they would be like a riddle in that discernment and understanding are necessary for perception. Indeed many of life’s difficulties require spiritual perception to forestall despair. The expression dark saying denotes (1) an enigma or “riddle”; (2) a parable or simile; (3) any profound or obscure utterance. The prosperity of the godless was one of the great enigmas of life to the pious Israelites, demanding a solution which could only be partially given before the fuller revelation of Christ brought life and immortality to light.
5 Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?
6 They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;
Immediately you wonder who is asking the question. Is it the psalmist? Or is this question asked by the self-confident rich? But perhaps it is asked by the righteous who suffer unjustly or by a poor man. I was a poor boy, and I confess that I have always looked at the rich with a bit of suspicion. I question their motives. Why does God permit some people to become so rich? What is going to happen to them? Why do they seem not to have the same trouble as other men? The question is, “Why does God permit them to get by with so much? Why doesn’t God do something about it?” The answer, I believe, will be found in the rest of the psalm.
The question the psalmist has been struggling with is now stated in graphic terms. He speaks here like a teacher would speak to his students. He sees them in awe of the “wealth” and strongly attracted by the pleasures and extravagances in which these material-minded men engage. “Why do you permit yourselves to be duped by these men?” the psalmist asks. “Why are you envious of carousing wine drinkers, men whose happiness rests upon them accumulating possessions, and who “boast” about how much money they have in the bank?” This is no small problem, because he describes being surrounded (compass me about) by such people—i.e., the violent and injurious schemes and practices of his ungodly and malicious enemies.
The psalmist’s question, “Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil” refers to either (1) “days of sin,” when inequity of all sorts abounds, which is in many ways grievous and distressing to every good man. Or, (2) “days of misery”; in times of great distress and calamity, either public or private, when wicked men flourish, and good men are oppressed and persecuted. The question becomes more meaningful when he adds “When the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?—The Amplified Bible may provide a better translation: “When the iniquity of those who would supplant [unseat; displace] me surrounds me on every side.” These are the deceivers, who dogged his “heels” and made his life difficult.
The word translated “heels” can just as readily be rendered “footsteps.” The picture is that of a man being trailed by the injustice of his wealthy neighbors, dogged by those who are wickedly planning to get the better of him. The psalmist sees this as a real problem. Often wealthy people are eager to take advantage of others and scheme accordingly. The world has its con men on the lookout for a sucker—the weaker and more defenseless the better. A better translation may be “my supplanters” (Genesis 27:36), or “my oppressors”; I am surrounded by the evils my oppressors inflict.
The answer to the question asked in verse 5 is given in verse 6, where the psalmist declares the futility of placing confidence in “wealth, and . . . the multitude of their riches.” Jesus had a great deal to say about “the deceitfulness of riches.”
Men put their hope and “trust” in their money. The psalmist intends to show that this is a foolish thing to do. Money can buy a castle, but not a mansion in the sky; it can buy pleasure, but not peace; it can purchase service, but not salvation; it can buy men (the rich man cynically says that every man has his price), but it cannot buy God. God is not impressed by the size of a man’s bank balance.
They that trust in wealth.—Men are very foolish to take airs on themselves, because they are rich. After all, money cannot do much for its owners. It will not enable a man to redeem either his brother (v. 7) or himself from untimely or sudden death. “A million of money for a moment of time!” cried Queen Elizabeth on her deathbed. Paul had this to say to young Timothy, “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment” (1 Timothy 6:17, NIV).
Note that the words “trust” (meaning, “to confide in’) and “boast” in verse 6 occur elsewhere only with reference to God. So here they must be used in sarcasm to show that people worship their possessions as if they were gods.
7 None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him:
8 (For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:)
9 That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption.
These men who fascinate you so much, are wealthy. They can buy whatever they want, but they cannot buy their way out of the solemn experience of death, nor can they avoid standing before the great Judge who will sentence them to eternal punishment in the place prepared for the devil and his angels. Wealthy men, who are accustomed to ransoming themselves out of punishment, cannot rescue themselves from the common lot of all men who reject Jesus. And his money cannot “redeem his brother,” nor enable the rich man to “live for ever.” Nothing less than the sacrifice of God’s own Son could redeem the soul and give eternal life: “Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God” (1 Peter 1:17-21, NIV).
Anyone who dies without having accepted Christ as their Savior, is left with a tomb for a house. He will never know when others see his fancy grave or hear his name connected with some property he owned or other possessions. A common image of the ancient people was of death (personified) devouring the living (Job to 18:13; 24:19). In some cultures the perception of death was that of a ravenous monster always on the prowl.
Since a rich man can never bribe God, there is no reason for people like us to be afraid of him. He is not eternal; only God is eternal. Nor can being a believer exempt you from dying.
10 For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.
11 Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names.
12 Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish.
13 This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.
Highly intelligent professors who teach in our great universities and “fools” are alike in this respect: both will eventually “die” and go to their graves, which will remain their abodes until they decay and turn to dust. “Their names,” though, will live on, for the buildings and companies which they leave to others continue to be called by their names. But they themselves pass away, and their “wealth” passes into other hands. Even the richest man becomes poor at death, because you can’t take anything with you. Moreover, because of their wealth such men are honored by others during their lifetime. Yet if they lack moral discernment, and they use their wealth to browbeat others, they are no better than dumb animals and are doomed to the same fate as all other unbelievers. This is particularly the case with those who lack moral discernment and therefore make wrong decisions, and yet take delight in silver and gold. But it is also the case with those whom, regardless of whether or not they possess it, consider material wealth as something essential to their happiness. Since worldly wealth produces spiritual blindness it is a very perilous thing. It can have a deadly effect upon the person who owns it. He tends to confuse truth with error and time with eternity.
The inescapable truth is that man with all his honor must “perish.” In that respect he is like the “beasts.” In other respects, of course, man is quite different from the animals. For example, though man’s body goes to the grave, his spirit and soul do not perish. And his body will be raised from the grave, either for eternal judgment or for eternal blessing. Man has endless being while the animals do not.
When we come to verse 13, we are beginning to see that the writer uses the word “death” in two ways. He groups together all the various types of people he has mentioned so far as those who are pleased with their portion. By that he refers to that secularist view of life which declares that you should enjoy your days on earth as if there were no meaning in life. The rich man, may invest in the stock market, but God gives us this life so that we can invest in eternity
There is no doubt that successful worldly people are shrewd. They have to be to get where they do in this life. But their cleverness is only “for their generation.” It comes to an end at the grave. The masses of mankind, however, are so spiritually blind that they take up the worldly “sayings” of the wealthy and mouth them as though they were able to make a man rich toward God. The psalmist says, “Their posterity approve their sayings,” referring to those who are pleased with their own talk.
14 Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume the grave from their dwelling.
Now he reverses the image of God as the Good Shepherd gathering his trusting “sheep” into the fold. Death, the Grim Reaper, the Great Leveler, is now the shepherd of the Hedonist (reprobate; degenerate), and he will sweep all HIS sheep into their true home—Sheol! But, with God all things are possible: “Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God” (Luke 18:24-27, NIV). God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol (something that no man, either secularist or believer, can do for himself, v. 7), and he will receive me (v. 15). The righteous are assured of triumph in “the morning” of God’s coming day, that is, God’s day of reckoning—the tables will be turned, as with the rich man and Lazarus. Remember that Abraham said to the rich man: “Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented” (Luke 16:25).
Here the psalmist depicts these wealthy money lovers descending to the “grave” without two nickels to rub together (penniless), their flesh succumbing to the rot and disintegration that occurs when a heart stops beating. The gruesome picture he depicts shows the humiliation of these men who were once so secure and proud, whose wealth had “shepherded” them. Now, however, they are shepherded only by the “death” dealing processes of disintegration; their once handsome bodies have been reduced to mere dung, and their glory has become like the dust of the earth.
We are also told, “Their beauty shall consume the grave [Sheol] from their dwelling. A person may spend a fortune at the beauty parlor. A person may put on all kinds of lotions, powders, and creams; they may spend thousands of dollars on facelifts; but what they look like after a few years in the “grave” is not a pretty sight. Death is not a beautiful thing by any means.
The picture we are presented with here is of a flock of “sheep,” with “death” as their shepherd—which for a season are fed in large and sweet pastures, but at the shepherd’s pleasure are put together in small and uncomfortable folds—and led away to the slaughter, not knowing where they are going (to the “grave” and then Sheol). In Sheol, death shall feed on them; the first death shall consume their bodies in the grave, and the second death shall devour their souls. They might have had the Lord as their Shepherd; instead, they have death. What a horrifying picture! On that resurrection “morning” when the dead in Christ shall rise, the righteous, so despised now by the unrighteous rich, will triumph at last. Talk about being robbed! What a contrast to Psalm 23:1! The moment of resurrection glory is not far away, with its songs of triumph; lift up your heads, you’re redemption draweth nigh.
15 But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah.
The second meaning of “death” (vs. 10-13) has now become clear. To live in fellowship with God is really life itself, as we have already seen a number of psalm writers assert. Therefore to live a self-satisfied life, one which leaves God out, is in fact the death of the spirit. This is what Jesus meant when he said, “Let the dead bury their dead. But you come and follow me.” Physical death for God’s “little ones” is only a falling asleep, as Jesus said of Jairus’ daughter. That simple child, we discover, did not need to be rescued from the power of Sheol.
The psalmist has maintained that Sheol, the land of the dead, is the common experience of mankind. He has just now vividly pictured what happens to the life that is wealth-centered when death shepherds it in Sheol, but is that the fate of the righteous as well? How about the man who has moral discernment and lives by it? Here it is that our author takes a leap of faith. The psalmist who is just such a man, is aware in his own life of a relationship with God that death cannot end. “The grave shall not have power to hold me, but shall be forced to give me up into my Father’s hands; and hell shall have no power over me.” This unique Hebrew approach to faith in immortality, appears here in shadow form. No man can buy his way out of experiencing death. But God can take His own out of the realm of the dead. Only profound religious experience—vital fellowship of the believing, trusting “soul” with God—can inspire such a thought.
The hope of the righteous is redemption “from the power of the grave.” The pious are delivered from that power—literally, “the hand,” of death, and are taken under God’s care; for [God] “shall receive me.” This is one of the strong intimations of immortality in the Psalms. One explanation for “What the psalmist is saying is that the inequalities of this life will be rectified in the next. The wicked may have good fortune here, but the miseries of Sheol are all that he can look forward to; whereas the righteous may have suffering here, but here after he will have bliss, for God will take him to Himself,” He will deliver his soul from the disembodied state and reunite it with his resurrected body .
The psalmist will live forever; his redeemed and ransomed soul will be received into the mansions of Glory by the Creator Himself. No wonder we meet with another “Selah” at this fantastic statement. [Selah indicates a pause at this point so that you can think over what you have read.] There, what do you think of that! One man robbed, the other man rewarded, one man dead and damned, the other man raptured and redeemed. Who was the REAL rich man?
16 Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased;
17 For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him.
18 Though while he lived he blessed his soul: and men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself.
19 He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light.
20 Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.
The psalmist, warning against envy of the rich, emphasizes once more the fact regarding wealth—that “you can’t take it with you.” Though the man who depends upon his wealth may congratulate himself because of his prosperity, all those who lack moral discernment have to look forward to is the unilluminated darkness of Sheol. The Pharaohs thought they could take their wealth with them to another world. They built tombs to defy the tooth of time and embalmed their bodies to defy the corruption of the grave. They loaded their burying places with the wealth of this world on the premise that they would need this wealth in the next one.
“Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased.” The psalmist is now speaking to believers. He says the believer has nothing to fear from the pride, injustice, and oppression of the “rich” man—no matter how famous that rich man might be. The magnificence and splendor that accompanies worldly wealth can inspire awe and fear. The prosperity of sinners is often a matter of fear and dread to good men because it shakes their faith in God’s providence and promises, and is apt to engender suspicions in men’s minds, as if God was not concerned with the actions and affairs of men, and made no difference between the good and the bad, and consequently all religion was vain and unprofitable. But death awaits the rich man as well as the poor man, and death robs the rich man of the wealth that made him famous.
While the Bible doesn’t say that it is a sin to be “rich,” it does condemn trusting in riches rather than in the living God (and it is hard to have riches without trusting in them!). The Bible condemns the love of money. It condemns the accumulation of wealth through oppression and dishonesty. And it condemns the hoarding of riches in callous disregard of the needs of a lost and suffering world.
Verse 18 describes the self-satisfied humanist again—he “blessed his soul,” i.e., he applauded himself as a wise and happy man (Luke 12:19)—perhaps to emphasize the point that the “praise” of men is a poor substitute for having fellowship with the living God. Only God can keep a person out of the clutches of death and hell.
The “rich” man’s faith is placed in the wrong thing and is focused on the wrong world. As a result he is eternally doomed. “He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light.” The godless dead go out into the blackness of darkness forever, to join the ranks of those irrevocably lost. One translator puts this verse: “But down he goes to where “his fathers” dwell who see no light for all eternity.” He is eternally doomed. In hell he shall meet with his wicked parents, who by their counsel and example led him into his evil ways. The godly also are said to be gathered to their fathers (Genesis 15:15; Deuteronomy 32:50; judges 2:10).
I prefer the way the NIV has translated verse 20: “People who have wealth but lack understanding are like the beasts that perish.” The man who is said to “lack understanding” doesn’t often have enough wisdom to know and contemplate what he is, and what his true business and interest in this world is, and what use he should make of his life, and of all his riches, and honor, and power, and where he is going, and what path to follow in order to attain true and lasting happiness. He is “like the beasts that perish.” He may have the outward shape of a man, yet in truth he is a beast, or a brutish, stupid and unreasonable creature, and he shall “perish” like the brute “beasts” made to be destroyed—“But these people blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like unreasoning animals, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like animals they too will perish” (2 Pieter 2:12).
Rich people today are getting away with murder, and with adultery, and with all kinds of things, and they are elected to office. Poor people are not getting a fair shake in this world today. One of the reasons I cast my lot with the Lord Jesus is because He is going to judge the poor and the righteous. Someday I know I am going to get a fair shake.
This psalm has a missionary purpose. It is not addressed to believing Israel alone. What we find at verse 1 is: Hear this, all peoples! So we hear the loving Word of God to all the simple folk on earth, especially those who do not even know that there is a Gospel at all, that there is no reason for them to go down to Sheol unless, like these rich people in this psalm, they turn their back on what knowledge of God they have received, and worship their own selfish desires. Sheol, the afterlife or place of the dead, was always thought of as being “down.”
The Old Testament never thinks of death as an end of human experience. It is, however, an end of all that makes existence tolerable for the ungodly. Just like all the rest of the Old Testament, this psalm is concerned with this life, and with that fullness of life which God longed to give to his children now. That fullness of life belongs to eternity.
The purpose of this psalm is to challenge people to not allow themselves to become enamored by wealth and splendor. The privilege of the wealthy will not endure. Those who count on their riches have a common end. The upright, however had a different outlook (v. 15). Death is still a certainty, yet they can maintain the hope that God will not leave them in the grave.
