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Shabbat Shalom. Today we will be continuing our series through the psalms with another of my favorite psalms. Now the last few weeks we have seen the heights of prayer in God’s Word. Beautiful and moving Psalms that praise the Lord and His glory revealed in the heavens above. Today though we come back down to the Earth and below with our psalm this morning. By one study this psalm was ranked 121 out of 150 in popularity and I believe it is a portion of God’s Word that is sadly overlooked. But our psalm this morning is very relevant for the times we live in; a time of death and inequality being confronted by many people. Our psalm for this morning is Psalm 49.
My title for today’s message should give you a good idea what the psalm is about and maybe why it is overlooked. My title for today’s message is Psalm 49: We’re All Gonna Die.
I must confess this title comes from conversations with a friend dealing with the panic caused from Covid-19. It was a comfort to us both as we dealt with the craziness and fear found at the beginning of this pandemic.
As people shared their conspiracies from someone’s brothers’ friends dog about how we were one step away from martial law and troops on the streets.
We are all going to die, but as followers of Messiah we know where we are going. Death is an uncomfortable truth that Covid-19 has shown many do not want to deal with. But Psalm 49 forces us to look at death directly and consider it in the light of the Lord.
Let’s first read through this amazing Psalm before we dive in properly.
Hear this, all 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 lyre.
Why should I fear in times of trouble,
when the iniquity of those who cheat me surrounds me,
those who trust in their wealth
and boast of the abundance of their riches?
Truly no man can ransom another,
or give to God the price of his life,
for the ransom of their life is costly
and can never suffice,
that he should live on forever
and never see the pit.
For he sees that even the wise die;
the fool and the stupid alike must perish
and leave their wealth to others.
Their graves are their homes forever,
their dwelling places to all generations,
though they called lands by their own names.
Man in his pomp will not remain;
he is like the beasts that perish.
This is the path of those who have foolish confidence;
yet after them people approve of their boasts. Selah
Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol;
death shall be their shepherd,
and the upright shall rule over them in the morning.
Their form shall be consumed in Sheol, with no place to dwell.
But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol,
for he will receive me. Selah
Be not afraid when a man becomes rich,
when the glory of his house increases.
For when he dies he will carry nothing away;
his glory will not go down after him.
For though, while he lives, he counts himself blessed
—and though you get praise when you do well for yourself—
his soul will go to the generation of his fathers,
who will never again see light.
Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.
Just from hearing this psalm read you can see how it is different than most others. Psalm 49 would sit well in the book of Proverbs or Ecclesiastes as wisdom literature. These are teachings to help us guide our lives and make good decisions. So let us begin to consider the wisdom of Psalm 49.
We can see from the title that this psalm was written by the Korahites. These are the descendants of Korah, the rebellious leader from the time of Moses. Some of his family survived and from their line came the prophet Samuel. The Korahites were warriors and also worship leaders during the time of King David. It is from this time period that they wrote several psalms in Scripture. Their psalms tend to emphasize a longing to experience the glory of the Lord and to be restored and redeemed by Adonai. So this psalm was written by the descendant of a prideful rebel. A rebel who was swallowed up by the Earth straight to Sheol, the place of the dead. Keep this in mind as we walk through this psalm.
Psalm 49 begins with the unknown Korahite inviting us all to gather around and consider the wisdom given to Him by the Lord.
Hear this, all peoples!
Give ear, all inhabitants of the world,
2 both low and high,
rich and poor together!
3 My mouth shall speak wisdom;
the meditation of my heart shall be understanding.
4 I will incline my ear to a proverb;
I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre.
The Psalmist invites everyone, rich or poor, high status and low status, to come together and hear his psalm. His message is for all peoples, not just Jewish or rich. This is a song on the lyre, but it is also a proverb and a hidden teaching. Not how most psalms start! So, this is less a prayer and more a story in the style of proverbs or Ecclesiastes for teaching us how to live.
But this is more than good teaching from a wise man. The Psalmist is listening to what is going on around him, meditating on the Lord through music, and feels the Lord moving as he deals with a pressing issue.
We too need to incline our ears, to listen and hear what the Lord is saying. We live in a society with too easy access to so many different opinions. From the news to social media, everyone wants to give us their thoughts and each believes they are right. As an example, sometimes we pay more to those who are rich and powerful about spiritual matters even when they have no relationship with the Lord. While human beings can have some truth, it is only with the Lord, the author of Truth do we get complete wisdom. The Bible is our first and best guide to dealing with any issue in our lives.
Our next verses share with us the issue we need to consider the Lord’s truth about.
5 Why should I fear in times of trouble,
when the iniquity of those who cheat me surrounds me,
6 those who trust in their wealth
and boast of the abundance of their riches?
These are the questions we are grappling with in this Psalm. When those with power and riches cheat others to get ahead in life how should we respond? When we experience fear during bad times caused by others what are we to do? When we see these same people cheat time and time again and get away with it confidently, what should be our response? What is the result of trusting in our own power and understanding?
These are issues that are sadly timeless, human beings are not any different from the time of King David. We are not given in this psalm an answer that fixes these issues. Instead, we will see what sort of perspective we should have on life in this world and how it relates to anyone who would abuse their blessings in life. As we continue the facts of life are bluntly told to us.
7 Truly no man can ransom another,
or give to God the price of his life,
8 for the ransom of their life is costly
and can never suffice,
9 that he should live on forever
and never see the pit.
The reality of life is whether you are the poorest beggar or the CEO of Amazon, no one lives forever. We are all going to die. When I read these verses about life, I am reminded of one of my favorite songs, Dust In The Wind by Kanas “It slips away, and all your money won’t another minute buy.” So many people try to live their lives as if they will never die. Many with money do extreme things to try to extend their lives, even freezing themselves. But all these things fall short and all of us eventually pass away.
It is a sobering truth that each of us will die and must give an account of our lives before the Lord. When the Lord chooses for us to pass on, that is the end.
God is the author and source of life and we cannot pay Him enough to extend our time. The price is infinite. After all, how can you value a single life? We may choose with things like abortion and how we treat others to devalue human life, but the undisputable fact is that each of us have infinite worth. Life is precious and you cannot give God enough to force Him to let you live forever. There is no eternal life in this world, and the Psalmist knows that those in his day will descend to Sheol, swallowed up in the Pit like his ancestor Korah.
The Lord continues with how death is the great equalizer.
10 For he sees that even the wise die;
the fool and the stupid alike must perish
and leave their wealth to others.
The one who trusts in their wealth, the fool, must also admit that even the wise die. Those who are foolish will also die as well. All those riches carefully gathered in life will be left for others to enjoy and not them. You know many cultures like the Egyptians would bury slaves and items with them to be used in their afterlife.
You can look online for pictures and descriptions of beautiful pyramid tombs, which are symbols of their power and wealth. Yet, except for a few tombs, most were robbed, for others to sell and use their possessions. All that careful planning and work, but even in their own graves their wealth was still left to others. We can acquire so many possessions in this life, gold, houses, money, clothes, etc. but when we pass away all these things are left behind. They will rot and be used up, they do not endure.
11 Their graves are their homes forever,
their dwelling places to all generations,
though they called lands by their own names.
Those who are rich, but do not respect the Lord, live as if they will enjoy their lands and homes forever. However, the truth is that their grave is their final destination in this life. It doesn’t matter if a person owns one house or a city. It does not matter if you own one acre or an island. You may be able to enjoy it all for a time but compared to eternity it is just a moment.
The conclusion so far is clear. Everyone will die, we cannot take the things of this world with us as we go, and no matter how vast our properties we all end up in a grave. This is summarized for us beautifully in the next verse.
12 Man in his pomp will not remain;
he is like the beasts that perish.
Here we come to the refrain and summary of the first part of this psalm. All of us with our status of having been made higher than animals by the Lord, we still will all die. We may rule over the animals of this world, raising them for food as cattle, but in this way, we are like the sheep and cows, we perish just like them. This truth should be a powerful check on our arrogance and pompousness. If you are getting Ecclesiastes vibes from this verse it is probably intentional. These are uncomfortable, sobering thoughts, we tend to avoid in our society. But this is the truth of our lives from the source of truth, each of us needs to understand what life in this world is like.
We live in a society that avoids death, we fetishize youth, and obsess over it as well. Just look at most ads for proof. We live in a world with tons of distractions, so we never have to face the hard questions of life, and life in the world-to-come. Covid-19 in many ways has stripped away this layer of avoidance and forced many to think about their lives. The result has been a lot of fear and panic. Many are trying to regain control of their lives in small and mean ways towards others. It is hard to let go of control, to turn away from our desire for more in this life, but all of us must place our trust in the Lord.
Up until now we have been talking about the common fate of all people. But now we are going to get a bit more specific. What differences are there in the fates of those who are wise and love the Lord, and those who are foolish and love their riches and power?
13 This is the path of those who have foolish confidence;
yet after them people approve of their boasts. Selah
14 Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol;
death shall be their shepherd,
and the upright shall rule over them in the morning.
Their form shall be consumed in Sheol, with no place to dwell.
Those who foolishly trust in themselves and their own meager power will suffer in Sheol, in the place of the dead. Up until the resurrection of the Messiah there were two areas of Sheol separated by a large chasm. There was the place of suffering where the wicked lived, and Abraham’s Bosom, a place of splendor for the righteous.
Here we see those who trust in their riches and those who follow and support them will suffer in Sheol. They are like beasts and are fated to exist in Sheol with no peace. But those who are upright, who trust in the Lord and are loyal to Him will rule and be blessed. Death is the Shepherd of the foolish, the Lord is the Shepherd of the wise.
We see that the Lord is our shepherd as we continue reading and find out our destiny if we trust in the Lord.
15 But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol,
for he will receive me. Selah
We cannot ransom a life, but the Lord can and did. He has ransomed us all through the Son of God, Messiah Yeshua. He paid the costly price to redeem us through His death. He became a human being, while still being fully God, and went to a grave like us all. But because He is the sinless son of God, death could not hold Him. He rose from the dead and those righteous in Sheol rose with Him to heaven. We have the promise now of eternal life forever with Adonai through the redemption He alone has provided. Each of us needs to make the Lord our shepherd and stop foolishly trusting in human power and understanding.
I do not believe the Psalmist was writing this verse about the Messiah, but he knew that the same God who causes death also causes life. He trusted in the goodness of our Lord and looked at these things from a distance, eagerly awaiting His work.
Only the Lord has the power to save us and redeem us. The shepherd of those who ignore the Lord is death, but our good shepherd is Messiah Yeshua, and if we are His we will hear His voice throughout His Word.
All will die, but the righteous will be redeemed by the Lord, and the unrighteous will suffer in Sheol. Now that we understand the reality of our lives, we can finally answer the questions raised in the beginning of this psalm. What are we to do when there is fear around us, and we see people growing rich through abusing others?
16 Be not afraid when a man becomes rich,
when the glory of his house increases.
17 For when he dies he will carry nothing away;
his glory will not go down after him.
18 For though, while he lives, he counts himself blessed
—and though you get praise when you do well for yourself—
19 his soul will go to the generation of his fathers,
who will never again see light.
When we see the rich getting richer, when inequality is spreading through abusive power, we should know in our hearts that one day these people will die. None of what they have schemed to acquire will go with them into Sheol. Every tyrant from great to small have and will perish, all their glory and power that they had in this life will be snuffed out in an instant. Think of how many powerful people’s graves are forgotten. How many people pass or drive by them without a thought.
Those who are far from the Lord may consider themselves blessed with their lives and may be praised by a hoard of followers, but it is temporary and hollow. All of us will leave the light of this world and move on as every generation has before us.
We should strive to tell people about the Good News of Messiah Yeshua and strive to speak God’s Truth to those who foolishly abuse their positions. But we should also have no fear if it seems things are not changing or getting worse. This life and its sufferings are temporary, the blessings of the Lord are eternal.
We come to the end of Psalm 49 with our final verse, a final reminder and summary of everything found in this Psalm.
20 Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.
Like verse 12 we as human beings are filled with pompousness and prestige. Some of it is earned being made in the image of the Lord, and some of it comes from our foolishness. To live without understanding the purpose of life in this world, understanding our ultimate destiny, and understanding that we cannot avoid or ignore these truths is very sad. It makes us like cattle, killed so very quickly.
We need to have wisdom, which only comes from God. We need to understand that redemption is found only through Him, accomplished through Messiah Yeshua. Everyone needs to have Messiah Yeshua as their good Shepherd, following His teachings for life in this world and the world-to-come. If we make Messiah Yeshua and His teachings the core of our lives, we will see exposed for us the inequality around us, and the ways we also can hurt others. If we are rich and have been blessed with great resources the Lord will move us to use that for His kingdom and others, not just for ourselves. Finally, in a world filled with so much fear and uncertainty we can have the quiet strength that comes from knowing that our destiny is to be with our Lord forever and ever.
I said earlier that my title for this message was Psalm 49: We’re All Gonna Die, but I believe that should only be the first part of my title. When you really understand Psalm 49 and the message within, the meaning is more than just about death, it is also about life, eternal life. So instead my title should be something like Psalm 49: We’re All Gonna Die, But Messiah’s Disciples Will Live With Him Forever.
We know this is a fact because the Lord declared it in John 5:24-25:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.”
May each one of us hear the words of the Lord and believe in Messiah Yeshua. May those who have passed and those now hear the voice of the Son of God and be raised to eternal life with Him forever. May each one of us have a spirit of hope and not fear, longing for the day when the Lord will bring death and injustice to an end.