Psalm 49

Psalms 49:1-4

The Hebrew title, which this page's text does not show, reads To the Overseer, by the sons of Korah, A Psalm, and this one turns from Zion's praise to a wisdom teaching addressed past Israel to all ye people, all ye inhabitants of the world. Both low and high, rich and poor, together sets the psalm's audience before a single line of its argument arrives, no rank exempted from what follows. My mouth shall speak of wisdom names the genre outright, a parable, a dark saying opened upon the harp, riddle and music together carrying a teaching too weighty for plain prose alone.

Psalms 49:5-9

Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil turns from teaching to testimony, the singer's own confidence set against those who trust in their wealth and boast in the multitude of their riches. None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him states the psalm's hard center, since the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever, no payment sufficient to buy back a single life from death. That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption is the wish the rich man's money cannot purchase, its wording close enough to the not see corruption of Psalm 16:10, which the New Testament applies to Christ's resurrection at Acts 2:27, that the older commentators note the echo even though this verse itself is not the one the apostles quote.

Psalms 49:10-13

For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish states the psalm's evidence in the plainest terms, wisdom itself no exemption from the grave, wise and fool sharing the same end and leaving their wealth to others. Their inward thought, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations is named as self-deception, proven false by the very death the thought tries to outrun, even the naming of lands after their own names buying no permanence. Man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish closes the stanza at Selah, a refrain the psalm repeats word for word at its very end.

Psalms 49:14-15

Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them turns the rich man's flock imagery against himself, death cast as a shepherd whose pasture is the grave itself. And the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning is the psalm's flash of hope past that image, morning the hour when death's rule over the wicked is reversed, a hint of resurrection the older commentators read as the brightest this side of the fuller New Testament revelation. But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me answers verse 7 directly, what no man could pay for his brother, God pays for the psalm's own singer, and Selah marks the weight of the claim.

Psalms 49:16-20

Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased turns the psalm's counsel toward its hearers directly, envy answered before it can take root. For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him states the plain fact that undoes every claim the wealthy make on permanence, and even his own self-congratulation, men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself, changes nothing at the end, he shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light. The psalm closes exactly where its middle Selah left it, man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish repeated almost word for word from verse 12, the refrain framing the whole second half of the psalm.