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Psalm 49

The Folly of Trust in Riches

To the leader. Of the Korahites. A Psalm.

Hear this, all you peoples;

give ear, all inhabitants of the world,

both low and high,

rich and poor together.

My mouth shall speak wisdom;

the meditation of my heart shall be understanding.

I will incline my ear to a proverb;

I will solve my riddle to the music of the harp.

Why should I fear in times of trouble,

when the iniquity of my persecutors surrounds me,

those who trust in their wealth

and boast of the abundance of their riches?

Truly, no ransom avails for one’s life,

there is no price one can give to God for it.

For the ransom of life is costly,

and can never suffice,

that one should live on forever

and never see the grave.

When we look at the wise, they die;

fool and dolt perish together

and leave their wealth to others.

Their graves are their homes forever,

their dwelling places to all generations,

though they named lands their own.

Mortals cannot abide in their pomp;

they are like the animals that perish.

Such is the fate of the foolhardy,

the end of those who are pleased with their lot. Selah

Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol;

Death shall be their shepherd;

straight to the grave they descend,

and their form shall waste away;

Sheol shall be their home.

But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol,

for he will receive me. Selah

Do not be afraid when some become rich,

when the wealth of their houses increases.

For when they die they will carry nothing away;

their wealth will not go down after them.

Though in their lifetime they count themselves happy

—for you are praised when you do well for yourself—

they will go to the company of their ancestors,

who will never again see the light.

Mortals cannot abide in their pomp;

they are like the animals that perish.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

16 Be not thou afraid The Psalmist repeats, in the form of an exhortation, the same sentiment which he had formerly expressed, that the children of God have no reason to dread the wealth and power of their enemies, or to envy their evanescent prosperity; and as the best preservative against despondency, he would have them to direct their eyes habitually to the end of life. The effect of such a contemplation will be at once to check any impatience we might be apt to feel under our short-lived miseries, and to raise our minds in holy contempt above the boasted but delusory grandeur of the wicked. That this may not impose upon our minds, the prophet recalls us to the consideration of the subject of death — that event which is immediately at hand, and which no sooner arrives than it strips them of their false glory, and consigns them to the tomb. So much is implied in the words, He shall not carry away all these things when he dieth ²³²²³² “Heb. ‘take of all;’ that is, ought of all that he hath. ‘For we brought nothing into the world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing out.’” — Ainsworth. Be their lives ever so illustrious in the eyes of their fellow-creatures, this glory is necessarily bounded by the present world. The same truth is further asserted in the succeeding clause of the verse, His glory shall not descend after him Infatuated men may strain every nerve, as if in defiance of the very laws of nature, to perpetuate their glory after death, but they never can escape the corruption and nakedness of the tomb; for, in the language of the poet Juvenal, -

“Mots sola fatetur Quantula sint hominum corpuscula,” —

“It is death which forces us to confess how worthless the bodies of men are.”

²³² “Heb. ‘take of all;’ that is, ought of all that he hath. ‘For we brought nothing into the world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing out.’” — Ainsworth.