Old Testament

Psalms 49

No Ransom Against Death

6 passages

Overview

Summoning all peoples and classes to attention, the psalmist teaches that no earthly wealth can purchase escape from death, contrasts the descent of the self-trusting fool into Sheol with the confident hope that God himself will redeem the faithful soul, and closes with the solemn refrain that a person who accumulates riches without wisdom perishes like a beast.

Passages

1–4The Sage's Universal Summons: Wisdom Calls All to Listen 5–9No Ransom But Grace: The Poverty of Wealth Before Death 10–12The Folly of Building Forever: Mortality and the Illusion of Permanence 13–15The Destiny of the Foolish Contrasted with God's Redemption 16–19You Cannot Take It With You 20Closing Refrain: Man Without Understanding

Study Resources

No study guides, devotionals, or teaching outlines have been created for this chapter yet.

Psalms 49

¹For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by the sons of Korah. Hear this, all you peoples. Listen, all you inhabitants of the world,

²both low and high, rich and poor together.

³My mouth will speak words of wisdom. My heart will utter understanding.

⁴I will incline my ear to a proverb. I will solve my riddle on the harp.

⁵Why should I fear in the days of evil, when iniquity at my heels surrounds me?

⁶Those who trust in their wealth, and boast in the multitude of their riches—

⁷none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give God a ransom for him.

⁸For the redemption of their life is costly, no payment is ever enough,

⁹that he should live on forever, that he should not see corruption.

¹⁰For he sees that wise men die; likewise the fool and the senseless perish, and leave their wealth to others.

¹¹Their inward thought is that their houses will endure forever, and their dwelling places to all generations. They name their lands after themselves.

¹²But man, despite his riches, doesn’t endure. He is like the animals that perish.

¹³This is the destiny of those who are foolish, and of those who approve their sayings. Selah.

¹⁴They are appointed as a flock for Sheol. Death shall be their shepherd. The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning. Their beauty shall decay in Sheol, far from their mansion.

¹⁵But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me. Selah.

¹⁶Don’t be afraid when a man is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased;

¹⁷for when he dies he will carry nothing away. His glory won’t descend after him.

¹⁸Though while he lived he blessed his soul— and men praise you when you do well for yourself—

¹⁹he shall go to the generation of his fathers. They shall never see the light.

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

Psalms 48 Psalms 50