PSALM 49

The wicked and the votaries of worldly pleasure often enjoy prosperity, while such as fear the Lord are exposed to affliction, and disposed to faint under the pressure of it. To moderate that pride which the one class is apt to feel in the midst of their success, and administer a check to the despondency of the other, the Psalmist shows what little reason we have to envy the supposed happiness of the ungodly, which, even when at its height, is vain and evanescent; and he teaches us that good men, however great their trials may be, are objects of the divine regard, and will be eventually delivered from their enemies.

To the Chief musician, a psalm of the sons of Korah. ²⁰⁷²⁰⁷     Ten psalms bear the inscription, “Of or for the sons of Korah.” As the prefixed preposition ל may be translated either of or for, it has been doubted whether this and other psalms, with a similar inscription, were written by or for the sons of Korah. Some, as Calmet, think it most probable that they were composed by them, from certain peculiarities of style in which they agree with each other, and differ from the psalms which bear the name of David. Others ascribe these psalms to David, and suppose that they were committed by him to the chief musician, to be sung by the posterity of Korah.