English · KJV

Psalm 49:15

“The Grave Awaits the Wealthy Fool”Psalm 49:13–15
King James Version
But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah.

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

KJV (with Strong's)
But God H430 will redeem H6299 my soul H5315 from the power H3027 of the grave H7585: for he shall receive H3947 me. Selah H5542.

Bible text: King James Version with Strong's numbers · Public domain

Berean Standard Bible
But God will redeem my life from Sheol, for He will surely take me to Himself. Selah

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain

American Standard Version
But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol; For he will receive me. [Selah

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

World English Bible Messianic
But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me. Selah.

Bible text: World English Bible, Messianic edition · Public domain

Geneva Bible (1599)
But God shall deliuer my soule from the power of the graue: for he will receiue me. Selah.

Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain

Young's Literal Translation
Only, God doth ransom my soul from the hand of Sheol, For He doth receive me. Selah.

Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain

King James Version — Interlinear
9 Hebrew words
  1. אַךְ'akhsurelyH389AdvAdverb
  2. אֱלֹהִים'E·lo·HimGodH430N-mpNoun Plural Masculine Absolute
  3. יִפְדֶּהyif·Dehhe will redeemH6299V-Qal-Imperf-3msVerb Qal Imperfect 3rd Singular Masculine
  4. נַפְשִׁיNaf·shimy lifeH5315N-fsc ¦ 1csNoun Singular Feminine Construct with suffixנַפְשִׁlifeיmy
  5. מִיַּדmi·yadfrom [the] hand ofH3027Prep-m ¦ N-cscNoun Singular common gender Constructמִfromיַּד[the] hand of
  6. שְׁאוֹלshe·'olSheolH7585N-csNoun Singular common gender Absolute
  7. כִּיkiforH3588PrtParticle Conditional
  8. יִקָּחֵנִיyi·ka·Che·nihe will take meH3947V-Qal-Imperf-3ms ¦ 1csVerb Qal Imperfect 3rd Singular Masculineיִקָּחֵhe will takeנִיme
  9. סֶלָהSe·lahSelahH5542PrtParticle Interjection
English is a literal word-by-word gloss of the Hebrew, not the KJV's wording. Why?

This is the original text the KJV's translators worked from — each Hebrew word with its own literal English meaning in this verse, prepared by scholars at Tyndale House, Cambridge. The KJV translates whole sentences, not word by word, so its wording differs: one Hebrew word can become several English words, and the KJV may choose “the LORD” where the gloss reads “Yahweh”. Both are faithful — they answer different questions. For the KJV's own rendering, switch to the KJV text.

Words in [ ] are added by the English.

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In the KJVVerse 14,664 of 31,102 · 47.1%

Study this verse

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This verse

The psalmist rests his hope in God, who will ransom his soul out of the grasp of the grave and take him to himself.

“But God will redeem my soul”

The turn of the passage. God ransoms the whole person, nephesh, where a brother’s ransom was beyond reach.

“from the power of the grave:”

Literally “from the hand of Sheol”, the grip in which the rich of verse 14 are held.

“for he shall receive me.”

God takes the psalmist to himself, as he took Enoch.

“Selah.”

The second pause, set after the promise of redemption.

The Grave Takes the Rich, but God Redeems

Psalm 49:13–15

Summary

Having shown that death takes the wise and the foolish alike, the psalm names the way of those who trust in their wealth for what it is: folly, and a folly their children go on to approve. Like sheep they are laid in the grave, death feeds on them, and their beauty wastes away there, while the upright have dominion over them in the morning. Then the psalmist turns to his own hope. God will redeem his soul from the power of the grave and receive him. In three verses we see where riches end, and we see the God who pays the ransom that wealth could never buy.

Why the way of the rich is folly

Psalm 49 is a wisdom psalm of the sons of Korah, a mashal or proverbial saying, and it opens by calling every people on earth to listen (Psalm 49:1–4). Its subject is the man who trusts in his wealth and boasts in his riches (Psalm 49:6). Against him it sets two facts. Money can buy no life back from death (Psalm 49:7–9), and death comes to the wise and the foolish, the rich and the poor, who all leave their wealth to others and are like the beasts that perish (Psalm 49:10–12). So the psalmist can say plainly, “This their way is their folly.”

Their “way” is their whole course of life: gathering riches, relying on themselves, and living as though the grave were far off. The Hebrew for folly, keçel, comes from the root kâçal, and it describes a foolishness of heart and life, a misjudging of what matters and what lasts. That is a strong word for people who look wise in their own eyes and successful in everyone else’s. In that day wealth meant land, flocks, silver and gold, and it was widely taken as a sure sign of God’s favour and a guarantee of safety. The psalm meets that belief head on, as Job and Ecclesiastes also do. The confidence of the rich is folly because it rests on what death will take from them.

Proverbs gives the same warning, that the one who trusts in his riches will fall (Proverbs 11:28). Jesus told of a rich man to whom God said, “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee” (Luke 12:20–21).

What their children approve

“Yet their posterity approve their sayings.” The word behind “posterity”, ʼachar, properly means the hind part, and it marks what is behind or after, so the posterity of the rich are those who come after them. “Approve” is râtsâh, to be pleased with or to accept. Their “sayings” are the words they lived by: their maxims and outlook on life, their boasts of what they made of themselves, and perhaps the inscriptions on monuments built to keep their names alive. Death empties every one of them.

The children have watched their fathers die and leave everything behind, and they still take up those sayings gladly. So the folly passes from one generation to the next, and the lesson the grave teaches goes unlearned. Ecclesiastes grieves over the same thing, the labour of a lifetime left to whoever comes after (Ecclesiastes 2:18–19), and its opening chapter weighs the vanity of all human toil (Ecclesiastes 1).

Does the psalm condemn wealth itself?

The psalm condemns trust in wealth, the confidence that riches can protect a person from death or secure his eternal destiny. Its quarrel is with the heart that serves wealth as a god, an idol that promises what only God can give. Wealth held as a steward, in the light of God’s rule and his eternal purposes, is another matter. The grave makes the difference plain, because rich and poor alike leave their possessions behind (Psalm 49:10), and “Riches profit not in the day of wrath” (Proverbs 11:4).

Why Selah stands after verses 13 and 15

Selah is a Hebrew word found often in the Psalms and in Habakkuk. It is usually understood as a musical or liturgical instruction, perhaps a pause, an instrumental interlude, or a change in tempo or emphasis. In this passage it closes verse 13 and again verse 15, so the hearer stops twice: once at the folly that fathers hand down to their children, and once at the promise that God will redeem the psalmist’s soul. The first pause lets the weight of a wasted life sink in, and the second gives the hope of redemption the same room.

What death does to those who trust in riches

“Like sheep they are laid in the grave.” In a land of shepherds and flocks the picture needed no explaining. Sheep are herded to their end and cannot resist, and the rich, for all their power, are as helpless before death. They are “laid” there, appointed to the grave, whatever their standing in life.

The grave is shᵉʼôwl, Sheol, the world of the dead, pictured as a place beneath the earth. The KJV renders it “grave”, “hell” and “pit” in different places. It is where all the dead go, a realm of shadow and silence, and here it stands for the finality of death, which wipes out every earthly distinction.

“Death shall feed on them” carries the picture of the sheep further. Death becomes the shepherd of this flock, and a ravenous one, which feeds on them and devours them. Their possessions and their self-reliance give them no protection from it.

“And their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.” Their beauty, tsiyr, is their form and strength: their bodily vigour and outward splendour, and with it the fine houses and possessions they boasted in. The verb bâlâh means to fail, and so to wear out and decay. All of it wears away in the grave, along with every trace of their proud dwelling.

Who are the upright, and what is their morning?

In the middle of this grim picture stands one line of hope: “and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning”. The upright, yesharim, are those who live rightly before God and put their trust in him. The verb for dominion, râdâh, means to tread down, subdue or rule, and so to prevail. Here it describes a reversal. The humble righteous, who may have been overlooked or oppressed, are set over the very people who were once powerful and secure in their riches, and God’s justice prevails.

Morning, boker, is the dawn, and in the prophets and the psalms it often marks a new day of God’s intervention, a time of judgment and vindication. Isaiah’s watchman announces that the morning is coming (Isaiah 21:12), and a psalm says, “weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Psalm 30:5). After the night of the grave comes God’s morning. It points ahead to the resurrection and the day of reckoning, when the dead are raised, some to everlasting life and some to contempt (Daniel 12:2–3). The one who waits on the LORD is promised that God will exalt him (Psalm 37:34).

Will the righteous rule over the wicked after death?

The dominion in this verse is God’s vindication of his people and their triumph when his morning comes. It is a picture of reversal, with the overlooked lifted up and those who trusted in wealth brought down to decay, and it describes no rule of the righteous over the dead in the grave. Jesus speaks the same way when he says that the meek shall inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5) and that the righteous will shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Matthew 13:43).

God will redeem my soul from the grave

Verse 15 opens with “But”, and everything turns on it. After the folly of the rich, their descent like sheep into Sheol and the wearing away of their beauty, the psalmist speaks of himself and of God. The psalm has already said that a man cannot “redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him” (Psalm 49:7). What no man can do for another, God will do.

God here is ʼĕlôhîym, a noun plural in form which, when it names the true God, is read as a plural of majesty, and which usually takes a singular verb. He is the one who acts where wealth and human power fail.

To redeem, pâdâh, is to sever and so to ransom, and more generally to release or preserve. It speaks of deliverance, often by a ransom, from bondage, danger or death. What God redeems is “my soul”, nephesh, the whole person and his life. What he redeems it from is “the power of the grave”. The Hebrew says “the hand of Sheol”, and yâd, the ordinary word for hand, stands broadly for power, means and control. Sheol is pictured with a hand that grasps the dead, and God takes the psalmist out of its grip. The grave here is the same word as in verse 14, shᵉʼôwl, so the place that swallows the rich is the very place from which God rescues his servant.

“For he shall receive me”

These words give the reason for the psalmist’s hope, and they are its heart. The verb lâqach is the common word “to take”, used in a great many ways: to accept, fetch, receive, take up. Here God takes the psalmist to himself, a personal welcome into his presence and his care. The verse recalls the rare men whom God took, Enoch, of whom Scripture says that God took him (Genesis 5:24), and Elijah. Another psalm holds the same hope: “Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory” (Psalm 73:24). Hosea, too, speaks of God redeeming his people from the power of the grave (Hosea 13:14).

This hope was bold. In Israel Sheol was thought of as a shadowy realm from which there was generally no return, and the righteous and the wicked alike went down there. Resurrection would be spoken of more plainly later, as in Daniel. Into that darkness the psalmist declares that God will set his destiny apart from the common fate of those who trust in their wealth.

Does this verse promise that believers will never die?

What the verse promises is redemption from the power and finality of death, and a personal welcome by God. It leaves the fact of dying in place and looks beyond it, to a life with God that outlasts death. It is a step toward the clearer revelation of bodily resurrection that came later, and it already sets the destiny of the righteous apart from those who perish without hope.

Christ, the ransom and the morning

The ransom that silver could never buy has been paid. Peter says that we were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, where silver and gold were of no use (1 Peter 1:18–19). He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). So the hope of the upright rests on Christ’s righteousness counted to them.

Jesus is the upright one of verse 14 in the fullest sense. “Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor” (2 Corinthians 8:9), and he trusted his Father in everything. He had power to lay down his life and to take it again (John 10:18), and God raised him up, because death could not hold him (Acts 2:24). His resurrection is the morning of verse 14, the dawn of eternal life and of the new creation. He was taken up into heaven (Acts 1:9), the fullest picture of what “he shall receive me” hoped for. Death has no more dominion over him (Romans 6:9–11), and in him believers share that dominion over sin and death.

The body whose beauty wears away in the grave is changed for those in Christ, who wait for the Saviour to make their lowly body like his glorious body (Philippians 3:20–21). Jesus is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25–26), and God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus (1 Thessalonians 4:14). Death is swallowed up in victory: “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:54–57). The inheritance of his people is incorruptible, undefiled and unfading, reserved in heaven for them (1 Peter 1:3–4).

Jesus also warned about the riches this psalm warns about. He said that “a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth” (Luke 12:15), and that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God (Mark 10:25). He told his disciples to lay up treasure in heaven, safe from moth and thieves (Matthew 6:20). In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3), and whoever follows him trades the folly of verse 13 for true wisdom.

Two ends and the God who receives

These three verses set two ends side by side. Those who trust in wealth leave it behind, go down like sheep into Sheol, and see their beauty wear away there, and their children still praise the way that brought them there. The one who trusts in God is ransomed out of the grave’s hand and taken by God to himself. Rich and poor alike die, so the whole difference lies in whom they trust.

The passage shows us a God who pays a ransom beyond any man’s means, who reaches into the realm of the dead and takes his own out of it, and who brings a morning when the upright are lifted up. Everything gathered in this life stays behind at the grave, and the one who belongs to God goes into his presence. In Christ, who was raised and taken up, that hope stands sure for all who are his.

Last revised

Public-domain commentary

Matthew Henry

From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry wrote on whole passages, and this entry covers Psalm 49:15–20. He set out his notes in a four-level outline, kept here as he numbered it.

1662–1714 · 6 verses
Passage under commentPsalm 49:15–20
I. II. Main points1. 2. Sub-points(1.) (2.) Details[1.] [2.] Fine details

Good reason is here given to good people,

I.Why they should not be afraid of death.

There is no cause for that fear if they have such a comfortable prospect as David here has of a happy state on the other side death, Psalm 49:15. He had shown (Psalm 49:14) how miserable the dead are that die in their sins, where he shows how blessed the dead are that die in the Lord. The distinction of men's outward condition, how great a difference soever it makes in life, makes none at death; rich and poor meet in the grave. But the distinction of men's spiritual state, though, in this life, it makes a small difference, where all things come alike to all, yet, at and after death, it makes a very great one. Now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. The righteous has hope in his death, so has David here hope in God concerning his soul. Note, The believing hopes of the soul's redemption from the grave, and reception to glory, are the great support and joy of the children of God in a dying hour. They hope,

I.That God will redeem their souls from the power of the grave, which includes, (1.) The preserving of the soul from going to the grave with the body. The grave has a power over the body, by virtue of the sentence (Genesis 3:19), and it is cruel enough in executing that power (Song of Solomon 8:6); but is has no such power over the soul. It has power to silence, and imprison, and consume the body; but the soul then moves, and acts, and converses, more freely than ever (Revelation 6:9, Revelation 6:10); it is immaterial and immortal. When death breaks the dark lantern, yet it does not extinguish the candle that was pent up in it. (2.) The reuniting of the soul and body at the resurrection. The soul is often put for the life; that indeed falls under the power of the grave for a time, but is hall, at length, be redeemed from it, when mortality shall be swallowed up of life. The God of life, that was its Creator at first, can and will be its Redeemer at last. (3.) The salvation of the soul from eternal ruin: "God shall redeem my soul from the sheol of hell (Psalm 49:15), the wrath to come, that pit of destruction into which the wicked shall be cast," Psalm 49:14. It is a great comfort to dying saints that they shall not be hurt of the second death (Revelation 2:11), and therefore the first death has no sting and the grave no victory.

2.That he will receive them to himself. He redeems their souls, that he may receive them. Psalm 31:5, Into thy hands I commit my spirit, for thou has redeemed it. He will receive them into his favour, will admit them into his kingdom, into the mansions that he prepared for them (John 14:2, John 14:3), those everlasting habitations, Luke 16:9.

II.Why they should not be afraid of the prosperity and power of wicked people in this world, which, as it is their pride and joy, has often been the envy, and grief, and terror of the righteous, which yet, all things considered, there is no reason for.

1.He supposes the temptation very strong to envy the prosperity of sinners, and to be afraid that they will carry all before them with a high hand, that with their wealth and interest they will run down religion and religious people, and that they will be found the truly happy people; for he supposes,

(1.)That they are made rich, and so are enabled to give law to all about them and have every thing at command. Pecuniae obediunt omnes et omnia - Every person and every thing obey the commanding influence of money.

(2.)That the glory of their house, from very small beginnings, is increased greatly, which naturally makes men haughty, insolent, and imperious, Psalm 5:1-12 :16. Thus they seem to be the favourites of heaven, and therefore formidable.

(3.)That they are very easy and secure in themselves and in their own minds (Psalm 49:18): In his life-time he blessed his soul; that is, he thought himself a very happy man, such a one as he would be, and a very good man, such a one as he should be, because he prospered in the world. He blessed his soul, as that rich fool who said to his soul, "Soul, take thy ease, and be not disturbed either with cares and fears about the world or with the rebukes and admonitions of conscience. All is well, and will be well for ever." Note,

[1.]It is of great consequence to consider what that is in which we bless our souls, upon the score of which we think well of ourselves. Believers bless themselves in the God of truth (Isaiah 65:16) and think themselves happy if he be theirs; carnal people bless themselves in the wealth of the world, and think themselves happy if they have abundance of that.

[2.]There are many whose precious souls lie under God's curse, and yet they do themselves bless them; they applaud that in themselves which God condemns, and speak peace to themselves when God denounces war against them. Yet this is not all.

(4.)They are in good reputation among their neighbours: "Men will praise thee, and cry thee up, as having done well for thyself in raising such an estate and family." This is the sentiment of all the children of this world, that those do best for themselves that do most for their bodies, by heaping up riches, though, at the same time, nothing is done for the soul, nothing for eternity; and accordingly they bless the covetous, whom the Lord abhors, Psalm 10:3. If men were to be our judges, it were our wisdom thus to recommend ourselves to their good opinion: but what will it avail us to be approved of men if God condemn us? Dr. Hammond understands this of the good man here spoken to, for it is the second person, not of the wicked man spoken of: "He, in his life-time, blessed his soul, but thou shalt be praised for doing well unto thyself. The worldling magnified himself; but thou that dost not, like him, speak well of thyself, but do well for thyself, in securing thy eternal welfare, thou shalt be praised, if not of men, yet of God, which will be thy everlasting honour."

2.He suggests that which is sufficient to take off the strength of the temptation, by directing us to look forward to the end of prosperous sinners (Psalm 73:17): "Think what they will be in the other world, and you will see no cause to envy them what they are and have in this world."

(1.)In the other world they will be never the better for all the wealth and prosperity they are now so fond of. It is a miserable portion, which will not last so long as they must (Psalm 49:17): When he dies it is taken for granted that he goes into another world himself, but he shall carry nothing away with him of all that which he has been so long heaping up. The greatest and wealthiest cannot therefore be the happiest, because they are never the better for their living in this world; as they came naked into it, they shall go naked out of it. But those have something to show in the other world for their living in this world who can say, through grace, that though they came corrupt, and sinful, and spiritually naked, into it, they go renewed, and sanctified, and well clothed with the righteousness of Christ, out of it. Those that are rich in the graces and comforts of the Spirit have something which, when they die, they shall carry away with them, something which death cannot strip them of, nay, which death will be the improvement of; but, as for worldly possessions, as we brought nothing into the world (what we have we had from others), so it is certain that we shall carry nothing out, but leave it to others, 1 Timothy 6:7. They shall descend, but their glory, that which they called and counted their glory, and gloried in, shall not descend after them to lessen the disgrace of death and the grave, to bring them off in the judgment, or abate the torments of hell. Grace is glory that will ascend with us, but no earthly glory will descend after us.

(2.)In the other world they will be infinitely the worse for all their abuses of the wealth and prosperity they enjoyed in this world (Psalm 49:19): The soul shall go to the generation of his fathers, his worldly wicked fathers, whose sayings he approved and whose steps he trod in, his fathers who would not hearken to the word of God, Zechariah 1:4. He shall go to be there where they are that shall never see light, shall never have the least glimpse of comfort and joy, being condemned to utter darkness. Be not afraid then of the pomp and power of wicked people; for the end of the man that is in honour, if he be not wise and good, will be miserable; if he understand not, he is to be pitied rather than envied. A fool, a wicked man, in honour, is really as despicable an animal as any under the sun; he is like the beasts that perish (Psalm 49:20); nay, it is better to be a beast than to be a man that makes himself like a beast. Men in honour that understand, that know and do their duty and make conscience of it, are as gods, and children of the Most High. But men in honour that understand not, that are proud, and sensual, and oppressive, are as beasts, and they shall perish, like the beasts, ingloriously as to this world, though not, like the beasts, indemnified as to another world. Let prosperous sinners therefore be afraid for themselves, but let not even suffering saints be afraid of them.

Historical interpretation

Historical reception

3 surviving comments on this verse. Each one is dated, so this reads as a timeline rather than a list.

3 quotes · AD 407–430
Post-Nicene
400

Select a marker to jump to its quote. Markers stagger vertically where authors wrote within a few decades of each other.

d. AD 407John ChrysostomPost-NiceneSourceCOMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 49:10
Now we walk through faith, not through sight, but then face to face. With the soul ransomed, the body too will share the good things.
d. AD 428Theodore of MopsuestiaPost-NiceneSourceCOMMENTARY ON PSALMS 49:16
God is able to pluck one from the midst of death even if it seems already to have taken hold (the phrase “from the hand of hades” meaning, Even if it has one in its grasp, it is possible and very easy for God to snatch one away).
d. AD 430Augustine of HippoPost-NiceneSourceExposition on Psalm 49
"Nevertheless, God shall redeem my soul" [Psalm 49:15]. Behold the voice of one hoping in the future: "Nevertheless, God shall redeem my soul." Perhaps it is the voice of one still wishing to be relieved from oppression. Some one is in prison, he says, "God shall redeem my soul:" some one is in bond, "God shall redeem my soul:" some one is suffering peril by sea, is being tossed by waves and raging tempests, what says he? "God shall redeem my soul." They would be delivered for the sake of this life. Not such is the voice of this man. Hear what follows: "God shall redeem my soul from the hand of hell, when He shall have received me." He is speaking of this redemption, which Christ now shows in Himself. For He has descended into hell, and has ascended into heaven. What we have seen in the Head we have found in the Body. For what we have believed in the Head, they that have seen, have themselves told us, and by themselves we have seen: "For we are" all "one body." [Romans 12:5] But are they better that hear, we worse to whom it has been told? Not so says The Life Itself, Our Shepherd Himself. For He rebukes a certain disciple of His, doubting and desiring to handle His scars, and when he had handled the scars and had cried out, saying, "My Lord and my God," [John 20:28] seeing His disciple doubting, and looking to the whole world about to believe, "Because you have seen Me," He says, "you have believed: blessed are they that see not, and believe." "But God shall redeem my soul from the land of hell, when He has received me." Here then what? Labour, oppression, tribulation, temptation: expect nothing else. Where joy? In future hope....
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.

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