Psalm 49: An Intimation Of Immorality Series

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.