Understanding

DEVOTION

PSALMS

UNDERSTANDING

Ps 49

49:1 For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm.

Hear this, all you peoples; listen, all who live in this world, 2 both low and high, rich and poor alike: 3 My mouth will speak words of wisdom; the utterance from my heart will give understanding. 4 I will turn my ear to a proverb; with the harp I will expound my riddle:

5 Why should I fear when evil days come, when wicked deceivers surround me — 6 those who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches? 7 No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him — 8 the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough — 9 that he should live on forever and not see decay.

10 For all can see that wise men die; the foolish and the senseless alike perish and leave their wealth to others. 11 Their tombs will remain their houses forever, their dwellings for endless generations, though they had named lands after themselves.

12 But man, despite his riches, does not endure; he is like the beasts that perish.

13 This is the fate of those who trust in themselves, and of their followers, who approve their sayings. Selah 14 Like sheep they are destined for the grave, and death will feed on them. The upright will rule over them in the morning; their forms will decay in the grave, far from their princely mansions. 15 But God will redeem my life from the grave; he will surely take me to himself. Selah 

16 Do not be overawed when a man grows rich, when the splendor of his house increases; 17 for he will take nothing with him when he dies, his splendor will not descend with him. 18 Though while he lived he counted himself blessed — and men praise you when you prosper —  19 he will join the generation of his fathers, who will never see the light [of life].

20 A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish.

NIV

To begin we first start with the end. This whole psalm is not about having to be poor in order to get to heaven, but it is about putting trust in wealth rather than God. There is a contrast between the pagan and the believer throughout this song. The pagans have nothing but their wealth, but no matter how much they accumulate it is not enough to buy them eternal life. Their lot at the time of their death is the grave, which is their home. This sort of implies they will not live on in any fashion at all. It makes it very clear they are like the beasts of the field,  at death they simply perish. This agrees rather strongly with John 3:16 in the point about whosoever believes will not perish, but has everlasting life. The opposite of everlasting life is perish. Certainly the beasts of the field are not sent to hell to be tormented day and night, or to life in eternal torment in the flames of the lake of burning sulfur. Those who put their trust in wealth, who store it up, like the rich farmer who built bigger barns, are destined to the grave. But the rich and the poor die, it matters not how much we have in the here and now. So why do so many keep trying to make so much and store so much for themselves? Even many believers have taken that approach toward life. It is not clear which scriptures they use to justify investing in the world system, storing wealth for the future. Again, it is not that wealth is bad, God has made some people to have great wealth, but like the rich farmer with the bigger barns, God said that his soul was demanded that night and then who would get all his wealth, but the point was that so would it be for those who had such wealth and were not rich toward God. The rich farmer had the attitude all his stored up wealth was so he could sit back enjoy life and take it easy, in essence retire and live on his stored up wealth. Had he used his wealth for the kingdom of God, he would have lived. But he used it for himself. This is what this song is all about. We need a certain amount of income to live in this world. Some believers have greater income than others, especially when we take a world view. But the point is how much we trust in that income and what we do with it. Our life is in Christ, it cannot be in our income, our wealth. It comes back to the not being able to serve two masters thing. We cannot go about living in the same philosophy as the pagans regarding money and live as if we are Christians, it just doesn’t work. It has to be one or the other. This whole song makes that clear. So we chose understanding.