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Commentary on Psalms 49 verses 6–14
In these verses we have,
I. A description of the spirit and way of worldly people, whose portion is in this life, Psa 17:14. It is taken for granted that they have wealth, and a multitude of riches (Psa 49:6), houses and lands of inheritance, which they call their own, Psa 49:11. God often gives abundance of the good things of this world to bad men who live in contempt of him and rebellion against him, by which it appears that they are not the best things in themselves (for then God would give most of them to his best friends), and that they are not the best things for us, for then those would not have so much of them who, being marked for ruin, are to be ripened for it by their prosperity, Pro 1:32. A man may have abundance of the wealth of this world and be made better by it, may thereby have his heart enlarged in love, and thankfulness, and obedience, and may do that good with it which will be fruit abounding to his account; and therefore it is not men's having riches that denominates them worldly, but their setting their hearts upon them as the best things; and so these worldly people are here described. 1. They repose a confidence in their riches: They trust in their wealth (Psa 49:6); they depend upon it as their portion and happiness, and expect that it will secure them from all evil and supply them with all good, and that they need nothing else, no, not God himself. Their gold is their hope (Job 31:24), and so it becomes their God. Thus our Saviour explains the difficulty of the salvation of rich people (Mar 10:24): How hard is it for those that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God! See Ti1 6:17. 2. They take a pride in their riches: They boast themselves in the multitude of them, as if they were sure tokens of God's favour and certain proofs of their own ingenuity and industry (my might, and the power of my hand, have gotten me this wealth), as if they made them truly great and happy, and more really excellent than their neighbours. They boast that they have all they would have (Psa 10:3) and can set all the world at defiance (I sit as a queen, and shall be a lady for ever); therefore they call their lands after their own names, hoping thereby to perpetuate their memory; and, if their lands do retain the names by which they called them, it is but a poor honour; but they often change their names when they change their owners. 3. They flatter themselves with an expectation of the perpetuity of their worldly possessions (Psa 49:11): Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue for ever, and with this thought they please themselves. Are not all thoughts inward? Yes; but it intimates, (1.) That this thought is deeply rooted in their minds, is rolled and revolved there, and carefully lodged in the innermost recesses of their hearts. A godly man has thoughts of the world, but they are his outward thoughts; his inward thought is reserved for God and heavenly things: but a worldly man has only some floating foreign thoughts of the things of God, while his fixed thought, his inward thought, is about the world; that lies nearest his heart, and is upon the throne there. (2.) There it is industriously concealed. They cannot, for shame, say that they expect their houses to continue for ever, but inwardly they think so. If they cannot persuade themselves that they shall continue for ever, yet they are so foolish as to think their houses shall, and their dwelling-places; and suppose they should, what good will that do them when they shall be no longer theirs? But they will not; for the world passes away, and the fashion of it. All things are devoured by the teeth of time.
II. A demonstration of their folly herein. In general (Psa 49:13), This their way is their folly. Note, The way of worldliness is a very foolish way: those that lay up their treasure on earth, and set their affections on things below, act contrary both to right reason and to their true interest. God himself pronounced him a fool who thought his goods were laid up for many years, and that they would be a portion for his soul, Luk 12:19, Luk 12:20. And yet their posterity approve their sayings, agree with them in the same sentiments, say as t hey say and do as they do, and tread in the steps of their worldliness. Note, The love of the world is a disease that runs in the blood; men have it by kind, till the grace of God cures it. To prove the folly of carnal worldlings he shows,
1.That with all their wealth they cannot save the life of the dearest friend they have in the world, nor purchase a reprieve for him when he is under the arrest of death (Psa 49:7-9): None of them can by any means redeem his brother, his brother worldling, who would give counter-security out of his own estate, if he would but be bail for him: and gladly he would, in hopes that he might do the same kindness for him another time. But their words will not be taken one for another, nor will one man's estate be the ransom of another man's life. God does not value it; it is of no account with him; and the true value of things is as they stand in his books. His justice will not accept it by way of commutation or equivalent. The Lord of our brother's life is the Lord of our estate, and may take both if he please, without either difficulty to himself or wrong to us; and therefore one cannot be ransom for another. We cannot bribe death, that our brother should still live, much less that he should live for ever, in this world, nor bribe the grave, that he should not see corruption; for we must needs die, and return to the dust, and there is no discharge from that war. What folly is it to trust to that, and boast of that, which will not enable us so much as for one hour to respite the execution of the sentence of death upon a parent, a child, or friend that is to us as our own soul! It is certainly true that the redemption of the soul is precious and ceaseth for ever; that is, life, when it is going, cannot be arrested, and when it is gone it cannot be recalled, by any human art, or worldly price. But this looks further, to the eternal redemption which was to be wrought out by the Messiah, whom the Old Testament saints had an eye to as the Redeemer. Everlasting life is a jewel of too great a value to be purchased by the wealth of this world. We are not redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver and gold, Pe1 1:18, Pe1 1:19. The learned Dr. Hammond applies the Psa 49:8 and Psa 49:9 verses expressly to Christ: "The redemption of the soul shall be precious, shall be high-prized, it shall cost very dear; but, being once wrought, it shall cease for ever, it shall never need to be repeated, Heb 9:25, Heb 9:26; Heb 10:12. And he (that is, the Redeemer) shall yet live for ever, and shall not see corruption; he shall rise again before he sees corruption, and then shall live for evermore," Rev 1:18. Christ did that for us which all the riches of the world could not do; well therefore may he be dearer to us than any worldly things. Christ did that for us which a brother, a friend, could not do for us, no, not one of the best estate or interest; and therefore those that love father or brother more than him are not worthy of him. This likewise shows the folly of worldly people, who sell their souls for that which would never buy them.
2.That with all their wealth they cannot secure themselves from the stroke of death. The worldling sees, and it vexes him to see it, that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, Psa 49:10. Therefore he cannot but expect that it will, at length, come to his own turn; he cannot find any encouragement to hope that he himself shall continue for ever, and therefore foolishly comforts himself with this, that, though he shall not, his house shall. Some rich people are wise, they are politicians, but they cannot out-wit death, nor evade his stroke, with all their art and management; others are fools and brutish (Fortuna favet fatuis - Fools are Fortune's favourites); these, though they do no good, yet perhaps do no great hurt in the world: but that shall not excuse them; they shall perish, and be taken away by death, as well as the wise that did mischief with their craft. Or by the wise and the foolish we may understand the godly and the wicked; the godly die, and their death is their deliverance; the wicked perish, and their death is their destruction; but, however, they leave their wealth to others. (1.) They cannot continue with it, nor will it serve to procure them a reprieve. That is a frivolous plea, though once it served a turn (Jer 41:8), Slay us not, for we have treasures in the field. (2.) They cannot carry it away with them, but must leave it behind them. (3.) They cannot foresee who will enjoy it when they have left it; they must leave it to others, but to whom they know not, perhaps to a fool (Ecc 2:19), perhaps to an enemy.
3.That, as their wealth will stand them in no stead in a dying hour, so neither will their honour (Psa 49:12): Man, being in honour, abides not. We will suppose a man advanced to the highest pinnacle of preferment, as great and happy as the world can make him, man in splendour, man at his best estate, surrounded and supported with all the advantages he can desire; yet then he abides not. His honour does not continue; that is a fleeting shadow. He himself does not, he tarries not all night; this world is an inn, in which his stay is so short that he can scarcely be said to get a night's lodging in it; so little rest is there in these things; he has but a baiting time. He is like the beasts that perish; that is, he must as certainly die as the beasts, and his death will be as final a period to his state in this world as theirs is; his dead body likewise will putrefy as theirs does; and (as Dr. Hammond observes) frequently the greatest honours and wealth, unjustly gotten by the parent, descend not to any one of his posterity (as the beasts, when they die, leave nothing behind them to their young ones, but the wide world to feed in), but fall into other hands immediately, for which he never designed to gather them.
4.That their condition on the other side of death will be very miserable. The world they dote upon will not only not save them from death, but will sink them so much the lower into hell (Psa 49:14): Like sheep they are laid in the grave. Their prosperity did but feed them like sheep for the slaughter (Hos 4:16), and then death comes, and shuts them up in the grave like fat sheep in a fold, to be brought forth to the day of wrath, Job 21:30. Multitudes of them, like flocks of sheep dead of some disease, are thrown into the grave, and there death shall feed on them, the second death, the worm that dies not, Job 24:20. Their own guilty consciences, like so many vultures, shall be continually preying upon them, with, Son, remember, Luk 16:25. Death insults and triumphs over them, as it is represented in the fall of the king of Babylon, at which hell from beneath is moved, Isa 14:9, etc. While a saint can ask proud Death, Where is thy sting? Death will ask the proud sinner, Where is thy wealth, thy pomp? and the more he was fattened with prosperity the more sweetly will death feed on him. And in the morning of the resurrection, when all that sleep in the dust shall awake (Dan 12:2), the upright shall have dominion over them, shall not only be advanced to the highest dignity and honour when they are filled with everlasting shame and contempt, elevated to the highest heavens when they are sunk to the lowest hell, but they shall be assessors with Christ in passing judgment upon them, and shall applaud the justice of God in their ruin. When the rich man in hell begged that Lazarus might bring him a drop of water to cool his tongue he owned that that upright man had dominion over him, as the foolish virgins also owned the dominion of the wise, and that they lay much at their mercy, when the begged, Give us of your oil. Let this comfort us in reference to the oppressions which the upright are now often groaning under, and the dominion which the wicked have over them. The day is coming when the tables will be turned (Est 9:1) and the upright will have the dominion. Let us now judge of things as they will appear at that day. But what will become of all the beauty of the wicked? Alas! that shall all be consumed in the grave from their dwelling; all that upon which they valued themselves, and for which others caressed and admired them, was adventitious and borrowed; it was paint and varnish, and they will rise in their own native deformity. The beauty of holiness is that which the grave, that consumes all other beauty, cannot touch, or do any damage to. Their beauty shall consume, the grave (or hell) being a habitation to every one of them; and what beauty can be there where there is nothing but the blackness of darkness for ever?
A fool has no discernment, and his thoughts are stupid. The unwise person can think, but what he thinks is bad: “The unwise person has said that there is no God.” He is culpably wicked because he knows what goodness is. Yet, though he knows it, he commits iniquity in the evil of his own heart. He is also dishonest. Again, not because he does not know what honesty is but because he is so twisted that he would wish to destroy honesty.
"For he shall not see death, though he shall have seen wise men dying" [Psalm 49:10]. The man who laboured for ever and shall live till the end, "shall not see death, though he shall have seen wise men dying." What is this? He shall not comprehend what death is, whenever he shall have seen wise men dying. For he says to himself, "this fellow, for all he was wise and dwelled with wisdom and worshipped God with piety, is he not dead? Therefore I will enjoy myself while I live; for if they that are wise in other respects, could do anything, they would not have died." Just as the Jews saw Christ hanging on the Cross and despised Him, saying, "If this Man were the Son of God, He would come down from the Cross:" [Matthew 27:40, 42] not seeing what death is. If they had seen what death is; if they had seen, I say. He died for a time, that He might live again for ever: they lived for a time, that they might die for ever. But because they saw Him dying, they saw not death, that is to say, they understood not what was very death. What say they even in Wisdom? "Let us condemn Him with a most shameful death, for by His own sayings He shall be respected;" for if he is indeed the Son of God, He will deliver Him from the hands of His adversaries: He will not suffer His Son to die, if He is truly His Son. But when they saw themselves insulting Him upon the Cross, and Him not descending from the Cross, they said, He was indeed but a Man. Thus was it spoken: and surely He could have come down from the Cross, He that could rise again from the tomb: but He taught us to bear with those who insult us; He taught us to be patient of the tongues of men, to drink now the cup of bitterness, and afterwards to receive everlasting salvation....
All those great, wise and outspoken will die, not only the foolish and those who gather riches. They are unwilling to have mercy on the ones in need, and they leave their riches behind for others. Although they have many houses, their tombs are their house for eternity. Wretched person. He does not understand that while he is in this body he begins to die.
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SUMMARY
Psalms 49:10 presents a profound and sobering truth about the universal dominion of death over all humanity, regardless of their wisdom, folly, or social standing. It starkly exposes the ultimate futility of trusting in earthly wealth and possessions, as death inevitably strips away all such temporal accumulations, rendering them meaningless in the face of eternity and forcing their transfer to others. This verse serves as a pivotal statement within a wisdom psalm that challenges the arrogance of the wealthy and calls all to consider the true source of lasting security.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Psalms 49:10 employs several potent literary devices to convey its powerful and sobering message. Parallelism is prominently featured in the structure "wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish," which utilizes a form of synonymous or antithetical parallelism to underscore the universality of death across all human types. The inclusion of "wise men," "fool," and "brutish person" creates a comprehensive triadic structure, encompassing the full range of human intelligence and moral standing, thereby emphatically emphasizing that no one is exempt from mortality's grasp. There is a strong element of irony in the wise, who are supposed to possess understanding and foresight, facing the exact same ultimate end as the foolish, and particularly in the wealthy, who often trust in their riches, being utterly unable to take them beyond the grave. The verse also functions as a direct didactic statement, serving as a clear teaching or instruction within the broader wisdom psalm, aiming to impart a profound and inescapable truth about life, death, and the ultimate vanity of earthly pursuits.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Psalms 49:10 serves as a stark theological declaration of human mortality and the inherent limitations of earthly existence. It powerfully reinforces the biblical truth that all human beings, regardless of their status, intellect, or material possessions, are subject to death. This reality profoundly challenges any worldview that places ultimate security or hope in temporal achievements or accumulated wealth. The verse underscores the vanity of earthly pursuits when viewed from an eternal perspective, prompting a re-evaluation of what truly holds lasting value. It subtly points to the need for a hope that transcends the grave, a hope not found in human wisdom or riches, but in the divine, hinting at God's unique power to redeem from the grave, a theme more fully developed later in the psalm.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
The sobering truth of Psalms 49:10 compels us to profoundly re-evaluate our priorities and the foundations upon which we build our lives. If neither human wisdom nor accumulated wealth can ultimately save us from death or accompany us beyond the grave, then our deepest trust and most fervent pursuits must be directed elsewhere. This verse serves as a powerful call to invest in what is eternal, to cultivate a character pleasing to God, and to foster relationships rooted in divine love and service, rather than accumulating transient material possessions. It encourages a life lived with humility, recognizing our shared human vulnerability and the fleeting nature of earthly glory. It fosters a healthy detachment from the fleeting allure of worldly success and challenges the common human tendency to find identity or security in what we own or achieve. Ultimately, it directs our gaze beyond the temporal horizon, urging us to place our hope and security not in what we can acquire or achieve on earth, but in the immutable character and promises of God, who alone can redeem our souls from the power of the grave.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Does this verse imply that wisdom is useless or that it's wrong to be wise?
Answer: Not at all. The verse does not diminish the value of wisdom but rather clarifies its ultimate limitation. Earthly wisdom, no matter how profound, cannot grant immortality or secure escape from death's grasp. The psalmist is contrasting human wisdom with divine wisdom and the ultimate power of God. True wisdom, biblically understood as the "fear of the Lord" (Proverbs 9:10), leads to eternal life and is indeed invaluable. The point is that even the most insightful human understanding cannot circumvent the universal decree of death or provide ultimate salvation.
Is Psalm 49:10 condemning wealth or the wealthy?
Answer: The verse is not an outright condemnation of wealth itself, nor does it imply that being wealthy is inherently sinful. Rather, it condemns the trust placed in wealth as a source of ultimate security, salvation, or lasting significance. The psalm critiques the arrogance and self-sufficiency that often accompany riches, especially when they lead individuals to believe they are immune to the common fate of humanity or that their wealth can purchase an escape from death. The problem lies in the heart's misplaced allegiance, prioritizing material possessions over God, as exemplified in the parable of the rich fool in Luke 12:16-21.
What is the "hope" that this psalm offers, given the bleak reality of death?
Answer: While Psalms 49:10 emphasizes the universal reality of death and the transience of earthly things, the psalm as a whole is not without hope. The psalmist contrasts the fate of those who trust in their wealth with his own confident expectation. In Psalms 49:15, he declares, "But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me." This statement points to a hope beyond physical death, a belief in God's power to deliver from the ultimate consequence of mortality, implying a future with God. This hope is foundational to the psalm's message, urging readers to place their trust in the living God rather than in fleeting earthly security or human wisdom.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Psalms 49:10, with its stark declaration that "wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others," powerfully sets the stage for the absolute necessity of Christ. It underscores humanity's universal vulnerability to death and its utter inability to secure lasting life or retain possessions through any earthly means, whether human wisdom or material wealth. This verse highlights the ultimate problem that no human effort or earthly resource can solve: the inescapable reality of mortality and the futility of trusting in anything within creation. It is precisely into this hopeless human condition that Christ enters. He is the truly wise one, the very wisdom of God incarnate (1 Corinthians 1:24), and the rightful heir of all things (Hebrews 1:2). Yet, He, too, "died" (Romans 5:8), not as a victim of sin's curse, but as a willing sacrifice, taking on the full weight of human mortality and the penalty for sin. However, unlike all who perish and leave their wealth, Christ did not remain in the grave. His resurrection fundamentally breaks the power of death, offering the only true escape from its dominion (1 Corinthians 15:54-57). Through His death and resurrection, He provides the "inheritance" that no earthly wealth can buy—eternal life and an imperishable kingdom (1 Peter 1:3-4). Thus, the despairing truth of Psalms 49:10 finds its glorious fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ, who conquered death and offers true, lasting security and an eternal inheritance to all who place their faith in Him.