1 To the chief musician; for the sons of Korah, a psalm.
2 Hear ye this, all ye peoples; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world,
3 Both low and high, rich and poor together.
4 My mouth speaketh wisdom, and the meditation of my heart [is] understanding.
5 I incline mine ear to a parable, I open upon a harp my riddle.
6 Why should I fear in the days of evil? The iniquity of my supplanters surroundeth me;
7 Those who trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches.
8 In no wise can a man redeem a brother, he giveth not to God a ransom for him
9 (But the redemption price of their soul [is] precious, and it hath ceased for ever),
10 That he should still live for ever and not see corruption.
11 For he seeth that wise men die; together the fool and the brutish man perish, and have left to others their wealth.
12 Their inward thought [is] their houses [shall be] for ever, their dwelling-places to generation and generation; they have called the lands by their names.
13 But man in honor abideth not; he hath become like the cattle; they have been cut off.
14 This their way [is] folly for them; yet those who come after them will take pleasure in their words. Selah.
15 Like sheep they are laid in Sheol; death feedeth on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; but their form consumeth in the grave, from their dwelling [consigned] to it.
16 Surely God will redeem my soul from the hand of Sheol, for he will receive me. Selah.
17 Fear thou not when a man becometh rich, when the glory of his house increaseth.
18 For he taketh not all this away when he dieth; his glory shall not descend after him.
19 Though (for) he blesseth his soul in his life, and men will praise thee when thou doest good to thyself,
20 It (or thou) shalt go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light.
21 Man in honor and that understandeth not hath become like the cattle [that] are cut off.
Notes on Psalm 49
This too is “To the chief musician, for the sons of Korah, a psalm.” It is a grave word of exhortation founded on the moral truth of the crisis just surveyed. The Jews understood not God’s ways more than the Gentiles, and hence the abominable compact at the end of the age which is fast approaching. Both idolize present wealth and power, ease and honor: God will be in the thoughts of neither. But as a vapor all passes away that is not of God and in God and with God, for no good is apart from Christ. Only God can and does raise from the dust of death; and as we know this now for heaven, so the godly Jews at the close will learn and preach as here for the earth, the honored ones to welcome Him when He comes to take Zion and all the earth.
A new series appropriately follows in this cluster of psalms, which opens with God’s summons of His people to judgment (50); and this calls forth the remnant’s confession of corruption and blood-guilt (51): in both acknowledging the insufficiency of legal sacrifice and offering without brokenness of spirit and confidence in divine grace. In 52 we have an instruction which takes the shape of a plaint against their violent and deceitful oppressor with the assurance of his destruction on God’s part, Who will deliver and bless His godly ones in His lovingkindness for ever. Then in 53 comes the moral exposure of the lawless one, but in terms which the apostle in Romans 3 applies to those under the law. For indeed the Jews as a mass will be first as their chief, the son of perdition; and the heart of a sinner, where not law only but Christ in grace is abandoned, is no better than an antichrist; and this is morally true since the cross and the rejection of the gospel. The sense of this in the remnant turns by the Spirit into desire for Israel’s salvation, when God has scattered the bones of the foes who beleaguered the object of His choice. In 54 the Spirit of Christ identifies the godly with Himself in resting every expectation on the name of “God” when covenant mercies are gone; but the end is thanksgiving to “Jehovah” when He has delivered the godly Jew out of all trouble in the displayed judgment of his enemies.