Psalm 49 has been interesting to read and think over. It’s different from some of its neighboring Psalms because rather than being addressed to God (Ps. 45), about God, his attributes, faithfulness and glory (Ps. 46-48), or a narrated message from the mouth of God (Ps. 50), Psalm 49 is more of a practical wisdom Psalm. It’s more like the voice of a teacher addressing his students, or a father addressing his children — a voice saying “Listen and pay attention to what I’m about to say! This is how the world works. This is how life is!” So upon thinking about the psalm, I wanted to write about it, but not do any sort of verse by verse explanation or commentary. I just wanted to discuss what I think is its main theme.
What is your starting point?
When you think about life and what it’s all about, where do you start, that is what do you start with? Finish the sentence, “Life is all about…” Money? Relationships? Family? Sex? Success? What is it? What is that one thing that gets you excited about living? What big project are you seeking to accomplish? Why do you live? These are humanity’s biggest questions, right? So what’s your starting point? The psalmist challenges the normal perspective on life as being in general the accumulation of wealth and security and the desire to live forever and enjoy whatever you deem to be good when he says:
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?…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.
If we’re honest, the majority of our culture trusts in wealth, riches and possessions, though very few would even say they have “riches and wealth.” However, In comparison to most countries in the world, every American who ate breakfast this morning is loaded. We think that if we are secure with enough money in the bank account to buy groceries and pay our bills, that we’ll be okay – by definition, this is trust. So it would be wise, according to the psalmist to get a different starting point.
You are going to die.
So perhaps a better perspective is this. Reality tells you that you are going to die. Death is a little fact that we so often sweep away into the back of our minds because it makes us uncomfortable. We’re all very aware that we can’t carry our possessions into death, and our friend the psalmist cheerfully reminds us of this in verse 17. “For when he dies he will carry nothing away; his glory will not go down after him.” So what’s the point? You spend the 45 years of your working life accumulating wealth and contributing to your 401K and Social Security, and then die long before enjoying it all (well, any of the Social Security, but that’s a different blog post), and leave the rest to your kids.
What I’m getting at with all this is that it doesn’t matter what you most value in life, or what you work for the most. Most of the time those are very good things. It’s good to work hard and be efficient and be able to leave a legacy to your children. It’s good to have a great family and enjoy great friendships and to marry the person you love. Those are not bad things. But they become bad things when we trust in them, when we hope in them to give us security and happiness and peace. The psalmist says back in verse 5, “Why should I fear in times of trouble?” His trust is not in possessions, success, or power. His trust is in the God who made him. We would benefit from the psalmist’s perspective on life. This perspective is rooted in reality: You are going to die. You cannot take things of this world with you. You need to know and trust the God who created and rules everything.
So how can I know Him?
Start with the Bible. Get one (I’d recommend an English Standard Version, ESV) and read it. The Gospel of John is a good place to start reading and meet Jesus, the God-Man, who came into human history as a baby, born of a virgin, worked as a humble carpenter, and loved and served the people of his community. This Jesus revealed himself to be God through many signs and wonders, and ultimately by dying on the cross for sin and then resurrecting from death, defeating sin and death. He is now ruling and reigning over all creation and will come again in a physical body to establish his kingdom in a new heavens and new earth.
Cameron Lockey 