|
1Hear this, all you peoples;
listen, all who live in this world,
2both low and high,
rich and poor alike:
3My mouth will speak words of wisdom;
the utterance from my heart will give you understanding.
4I will turn my ear to a proverb.
with the harp I will expound my riddle:
5Why should I fear when evil days come,
when wicked deceivers surround me—
6those who trust in their wealth
and boast of their great riches?
7No one can redeem the life of another
or give to God a ransom for him—
8the ransom for a life is costly,
no payment is ever enough—
9 that they should live on forever
and not see decay.
10For all can see that the wise die,
that the foolish and the senseless alike perish and leaving their wealth to others.
11Their tombs will remain their houses b for ever, their dwellings for endless generations,
Though they had c named lands after themselves.
|
|
12But man, despite his riches, does not endure; He is like the beasts that perish.
13This is the fate of those who trust in themselves, and of their followers, who approve their sayings. d
14 Like sheep they are destined for the grave; and death will feed on them
The upright will rule over them in the morning.
Their forms will decay in the grave,
far from their princely mansions.
15But God will redeem my life from the grave;
he will surely take me to himself.
16Do not be overawed when a man grow rich, when the splendour of his house increases.
17for he will take nothing with him when he dies, his splendour will not descend with them.
18Though while he lived he counted himself blessed - and men praise you when you prosper
19 he will join the generation of his fathers,
who will never see the light of life.
20 A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish.
(NIV)
|
|
.
Psalm 49: This psalm is usually described as a wisdom psalm,
The psalm is set in three parts, 1-4 introduction, 5-12 musing on universal death of rich and poor, 13-20 the leap of faith in God. This Psalm deals with the certainty of death.
Compare it to Luke 12:13-21 Jesus’ parable about the rich fool who wanted to take his money with him. Wealth is no good when you die, an old saying when I was small:- there are two things that are a certainty in this world, we are all born in the same way, and we will all die in the same way.
Perhaps the wisdom that come from this psalm is, that you cannot take your money with you when you die. My Gran used to say we all come into this world in the same way, and we all go out in the same way and it does not matter how rich or poor we are.
It is what we do with our money while we are alive is what matters.
Our television is full of charities wanting money for this or that project. Find one that speaks to your heart and support it. No one has enough money to support all the pleas we have on our television these days.
|