Psalm 49

Psalm 49  •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 8
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The dealings of the Lord with His Israel having been traced, and their course from sorrow and degradation up to settled glory and joy (Psa. 47-48), the Prophet of God addresses a word of wisdom and admonition to all the world, taking these ways of God with Israel as his text. He seems to look at them as a parable, and in this Psalm gives us the moral or application of that parable. He shows that God resists the proud, but raises the lowly, and that the upright alone have an abiding portion. And this is, indeed, the great moral of the world’s history, as well as of Israel’s. All shows that what is done “under the sun” is vanity; and that resurrection, comprehending what leads to it in grace, and what follows it in glory, is the only reality. (See Ecclesiastes 12:13-14.) All honor in the world will perish like the beasts (Psa. 49:12). Wise and brutish ones alike die (Psa. 49:10). Wealth is unequal to accomplish redemption from corruption (Psa. 49:6-9). All beauty, short of that which the God of resurrection imparts, shall be consumed in the grave; but there is a morning to arise for the joy and glory of all who are His (Psa. 49:14-15).
Resurrection will interpret all. It is the Lord’s witness. And Israel delivered in the latter day will be Israel as in resurrection.