Be not afraid when a man becomes rich,
    when the glory of his house increases.
For when he dies he will carry nothing away;
    his glory will not go down after him.
For though, while he lives, he counts himself blessed
    —and though you get praise when you do well for yourself—
his soul will go to the generation of his fathers,
    who will never again see light.
Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.—Psalm 49

Introduction

Good morning, church. My name is Seth Porch and I am student here in the seminary program. I am grateful for the opportunity to share with you today from Scripture a hope-filled message from Psalm 49 that the Lord has been applying to me in recent months. In order to do that, I want to give you a little insight into my heart.

Allow me to set the stage …

It is Saturday morning. Late Fall. That point in the season when all the brilliant color has been drowned by flat brown. Leaves have fallen. All is ready for winter.

South Minneapolis. Curran’s Family Restaurant. An early breakfast with my older brother and two cousins. It is our regular monthly routine to meet and catch up with each other on last Saturdays. As per usual, we were taking turns sharing about what we had been up to over the last few weeks.

My older brother shared about his work. He is the chief pilot at a flight school in Minneapolis, second-in-command at a company that is quickly gaining a reputation for providing some of the best flight training in the area. He shared that morning about new opportunities for the company and for him, and the exciting level of success that they are achieving.

Next, one of my cousins, a few years older than I, shared about the new company that he was working for. He’d been head-hunted for a management position with a company in a budding industry. The new job meant opportunity to do what he loves in a field he is excited about, career advancement, and a much higher paycheck. He was thrilled to share this news with us.

Finally my other cousin, the same age as myself, shared his update. He is a the Chief Technical Officer at a company that is working on a method for fighting and curing a specific type of brain cancer. He could probably retire completely by the time I finish seminary. He shared about trips to the East Coast and to Europe for meetings and conferences.

I drove away from that breakfast fighting hard with discontent. Here is my brother and my cousins: young and successful, able to provide well for themselves and their families ... and what was my task for that Saturday? Rake dead, brown leaves for an hourly wage and probably earn less in full day of work than my cousin spent on lunch in Washington, D.C. last week.

A little while ago, I was fighting the same battle after another such breakfast (realizing that maybe those are unhealthy for my soul) when in my reading plan I came across Psalm 49 and the Lord immediately applied it to the battle raging in my heart.

I’m eager to share this message with you. 

Let’s seek the Lord’s help as we turn to the text. 

In Psalm 49, the psalmist is answering a question that arises from pondering a proverb. The point he wants his hearers to walk away with is this:

Main point: Don’t be like the beasts. (repeat) 

The psalm naturally progresses in three stages ...

Outline:

1. The Call (vv. 1–4)
2. The Question (vv. 5–6)
3. The Answer in Two Parts (vv. 7–20)

1. The Call (vv. 1–4)

To the choirmaster. A psalm of the Sons of Korah.

I want to camp out here for just a moment ...

Book II of the psalter begins with eight psalms written by the Sons of Korah. We know from 1 Chronicles 6 that these were some of the men “David put in charge of song in the house of the LORD after the ark rested there” (1 Chronicles 6:31). They began this service after David brought up the ark from the house of Obed-edom. (See 2 Samuel 6:12–15.)

In the flow of the psalter, Book II is set during the time after David’s reign has been established. The new king is enthroned. The ark has been brought into the holy city. Enemies have been and will be vanquished.^[1]

And yet, the psalmists know that David is not the one in whom they hope.

Psalms 42–43 open Book II and reveal that there is still oppression from enemies.

As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”—Psalm 42:10 

Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people, from the deceitful and unjust man deliver me!—Psalm 43:1

Psalm 44 is a plea to God, the King, to save his people, to redeem them as he did in the past. “Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!” (Psalm 44:26).

Then Psalms 45–48 celebrate the rule of God as King over all the nations.^[2] 

Psalm 45: Your throne, O God, is forever and forever!

Psalm 46: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. ... Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Psalm 47: God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne.

Psalm 48: Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God! ... Within her citadels God has made himself known as a fortress. ... As your name, O God, so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth.

There is a decidedly universal flavor to these psalms as they look beyond the reign of David, king of Israel, and place their hope in God who reigns as King over all. 

Psalm 49 continues this ...

Verse 1: “Hear this, all peoples!”

Listen up, everyone who is under the reign of God the king! He is a great king over all the earth! (Psalm 47:2). He reigns over the nations ... the shields of the earth belong to (him); he is highly exalted!” (Psalm 47:8–9).

Listen up, subjects of the King! Will you respond rightly to his reign?

Here is a call to the Lord’s subjects to come and listen.

Give ear, all inhabitants of the world, both low and high, rich and poor together!—Psalm 49:1–2

Notice the repetition. The psalmist emphasizes that this is a call to every single person in the world. The call is all-inclusive. And he commands them to “give ear.” This is not simply a command to listen, but also to pay close attention to what he says.

Church, this is for us this morning. We, too, live under the reign of the Great King. And he is telling us to listen to what he says. 

Verses 3–4:

My mouth shall speak wisdom; the meditation of my heart shall be understanding; I will incline my ear to a proverb; I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre. 

Come, church, hear the way of wisdom.

This psalm is in the tradition of biblical wisdom literature. Hear the parallel with the opening call of Proverbs.

Let the wise hear and increase in learning,
     and the one who understands obtain guidance,
to understand a proverb and a saying,
     the words of the wise and their riddles.—Proverbs 1:5–6 

We expect wisdom literature to highlight two ways of living: The way of the righteous and the way of the wicked. Proverbs highlights this all over the place.

Psalm 1 points us in a similar direction. The righteous flourish like trees planted by streams of water. But the wicked are chaff that the wind blows away. Only the righteous will stand in the judgment. (See Psalm 1.)

Psalm 49 is another window through which we see this same reality.

I want to draw your attention to one more important piece to notice in these verses: The psalmist has heard a proverb.^[3] Verse 4: “I will incline my ear to a proverb.” He has heard this pithy statement that led him to meditate. He considered it, he pondered the truth it reveals. He understood and gained wisdom. And now he calls us to pay close attention to the wisdom he has gained through his meditation.

These four introductory verses invite all people who live under the reign of God into the psalmist’s song, to listen to truth, to understand, and then to respond wisely.

Brothers and sisters, there is a constant clamor of competing calls in our ears. The sirens in Homer’s Odyssey sang beautiful, alluring songs.^[4] Songs of folly that seemed like wisdom but led only to the grave. 

I wonder, what song rings in your ears this morning? Will you listen to the sirens? You will seem wise to the world. But there is a way that seems right to a man, yet leads to death (Proverbs 14:12). Or will you heed the psalmist and give your ear to wisdom?

2. The Question

Why should I fear in times of trouble, when the iniquity of those who cheat me surrounds me, those who trust in their wealth and boast of the abundance of their riches?—Psalm 49:5–6

Note that this is not the proverb he has pondered. This question has risen in his mind after he considered the proverb. He is preaching to himself. The effect is a rhetorical question. In essence, he is saying, “Don’t fear.” 

Perhaps the psalmist has encountered a specific troubling occurrence. But I think his point is broader.^[5]

Why do you fear, soul, when you are surrounded by the wrong-doing of those who place all their confidence in their wealth?

Why do you fear, soul, when you live in the midst of people who will stop at nothing for gain?

Why do you fear, soul, when it seems that all the world is set against you?

Wisdom sayings do more than speak to a specific circumstance, they cause us to reconsider how we think about life. Here he has called us to listen and consider wisdom and then walk in its paths. Instead of a specific circumstance, this is the world in which we live. One in which people put their trust in wealth, boast in abundance, and have very little time for those who do not.

So what have we seen? The psalmist heard a riddle. He meditated on it and gained understanding, and he draws us in by setting up the riddle with a question: why should I fear?

3. Answer in Two Parts

He answers his question in two parts.

Part 1 (vv. 7–12) is an honest evaluation of life. In part 2 (vv. 13–20), he differentiates between the way of the wicked and the way of the righteous, answers his question, and warns us to pay heed.

He closes each part with the proverb that is at the heart of this psalm:

Man in his pomp is like the beasts that perish.

Part 1: An honest evaluation of life.

Look at verse 7.

Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the cost of his life, for the ransom of his life is costly and can never suffice, that he should live on forever and never see the pit.

This is the state of people before God, is it not? Who among us can pay to God the cost of our lives, let alone someone else’s?

Who among us can purchase a life that goes on forever without death? Answer: NO ONE.

Look at verse 10.

For he sees that even the wise die; the fool and the stupid alike must perish and leave their wealth to others.

Isn’t this what the Preacher of Ecclesiastes discovered? In chapter 2 he said, “I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 2:18–19).

Or think about Jesus’s parable about the rich fool. The man had a year of plenty and thought he was set for life. “But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’” (Luke 12:20).

Reality check: Death is the end of all men. Look at Psalm 49:11. 

Their graves are their homes forever, their dwelling places to all generations, though they called lands by their own names. 

They sought to make a lasting name for themselves here. They built great houses. They conquered territories. They won success and fame and renown. They were respected, feared, sought after. They had all the pleasure and joy that the world could give. 

Which one of us here is not guilty of desiring all this?!

Yet their permanent homes are their graves. Entombed in marble palaces, all that they did, all that they gained ... all has come to naught. 

Two illustrations come to mind ... 

Louis XIV, king of France, died in 1717. Known as “Louis the Great,” he wanted his funeral to be a continued display of his grandeur. So he arranged for all the candles in the cathedral to be put out save for one, burning brightly right on top of his casket as if to say, ‘Even in death my light shines stronger than any other.’ However the preacher before giving the funeral oration descended to the casket, blew out the candle, and proclaimed loudly, “Only God is great!”^[6] 

An even more vivid illustration of this proverb is Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar was ruler of the Babylonian empire at the height of its power and greatness. One day while surveying his great city from the roof of his palace he said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” Immediately God speaks to him and says, “The kingdom has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men and, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will” (Daniel 4:30–32). You know the story. God’s word proves true. Nebuchadnezzar becomes like a beast and he only regains his sanity and his kingdom when he acknowledges that glory belongs to the Lord.

So we see that the proverb is true:

“Man in his pomp will not remain; he is like the beasts that perish.”—Psalm 49:12

This is Part 1 in answering the question: Why should I fear even when I’m surrounded by a world that trusts in wealth?

Part 2 

Part 2 progresses naturally from the end of part one.

Verse 13.

This is the path of those who have foolish confidence.

Which path? The path that leads from wealth and honor and splendor down to the grave. 

Their confidence in their wealth is foolish. They boast in the abundance of their riches, not realizing that these will earn them nothing. 

Jesus said, “Whoever would save his life will lose it ... for what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” (Matthew 16:25–26). 

Answer: NOTHING. 

Yet after them people approve of their boasts. Selah.—Psalm 49:15

Pause. This is the great temptation. To envy others’ success. To point to them and say, “They are making it! That is good! That is my goal! That is what I want! There is value, there is worth!”

Now, I do not want you to think that my relatives are pompous. They are anything but pompous, and that’s not the point. This was in my heart that Saturday morning as I raked leaves. I listened to the siren’s song, and it bred sin in my heart.

The very heartbeat of our culture keeps time with this song. But keep reading, look at their end!

Verses 14–15.

Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol; death shall be their shepherd, and the upright shall rule over them in the morning. Their form shall be consumed in Sheol, with no place to dwell. But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me. Selah.

The upright, those who are ransomed by God, will rule over the ones who had foolish confidence. When? In the morning. But what does that mean? The morning is a common metaphor in the psalms that refers to the day when God will vindicate, or justify, or show to be right those who have put their trust in him.^[7] It is that great day when Jesus returns and sets all things right again.

The wicked will be consumed in Sheol, but God will ransom the souls of the upright. This is the great crescendo of Psalm 49.

Look at how careful the psalmist is to compare the path of the wicked with the path of the upright.

The wicked are appointed to Sheol. The upright are appointed to life. But how is this possible? The psalmist has already told us that no one can pay the ransom of their own life.

Consider another great “But God” in the Bible.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience - among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.—Ephesians 2:1–5 

Or think of 1 Timothy 2:5–6.

There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, who gave himself as a ransom for all.

Jesus is the great fulfillment of this psalm!

Man, who has nothing, yet thinks to make himself great, cannot ransom his soul.

Jesus, from whom and through whom and to whom are all things (Romans 11:36), did not count the infinite greatness of equality with God a thing to be grasped but humbled himself in order to ransom our souls! (Philippians 2:4–6).

Man does not pay the price of his own life. He cannot. He raises himself to reign over lands for a short while, and then he dies.

Jesus ransoms his people with his own life from the power of death. And he will raise us up to reign with him in the heavenly places for eternity where there is no death. (Revelation 21:4).

This leads us right to verse 16.

[Therefore] Be not afraid when a man becomes rich, when the glory of his house increases. For when he dies he will carry nothing away; his glory will not go down after him.

This at last is the satisfying answer to the psalmist’s question posed in verses 5–6. Why should I fear? Answer: If your hope and trust is in God, then you shouldn’t fear because he will receive you.

Verses 18–20.

For though, while he lives, he considers himself blessed - and though you get praise when you do well for yourself—his soul will go to the generation of his fathers, who will never again see light. Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.

Listening to my brother and cousins, I was discontent with what I brought to the table. And I chafed against the work God had given me to do that day because my hope, in that moment, was not in him. My hope was in wealth and success that I did not have ... and may never have.

But what I needed to see and understand that morning last Fall, and what I want us all to walk away with today, is this: It is a foolish confidence that puts hope in personal success.

This is so hard for each of us because we are taught a comparative value system from early on. How do you know how successful you are? By measuring yourself against others.

• Look at that the vehicle he drives. He must be doing well.
  (What a successful man.)
• Wow, their home is so beautiful and clean.
  (What a successful family.)
• Her children are so well-behaved, and she looks so put together.
  (What a successful mom.
• Every time they post on Instagram they get 300 likes.
  (What a successful Instagrammer.)
• Their church has baptisms every Sunday.
  (What a successful ministry.)
• He got a job as a lead pastor right out of seminary.
  (What a successful student.)

But what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?—Mark 8:36

What if, instead, on that morning and every morning thereafter, I looked to the Lord, the great king over all the earth? What if I saw that he who has eternal riches, unfading glory beyond comparison, who rules over the kings of earth ... what if I saw that he who had all this did not grasp it but instead took on the form of a servant and came to serve, not to be served, and to give his life to ransom his sheep from that terrible shepherd Death? 

O church, learn this proverb. Place no hope in wealth and success. Place no hope in grades, accolades, in applause, in future ministry achievements. This is to be without understanding and thus, with the wicked, go the way of the beasts. No, listen to wisdom. Gain understanding. 

The wicked have foolish confidence.

We have solid confidence in God, our rock and our fortress.

The wicked are received by the grave.

We are received by God into everlasting life. 

The wicked have death as a shepherd.

The Lord is our shepherd.

Their path leads to Sheol and darkness.

Our path leads to Life and light.

They, despite all their wealth, all that they achieve, cannot ransom their souls.

Our souls are ransomed by Jesus’s blood, more precious than all the wealth that could ever be dreamed of by men.

Don’t be like beasts. Do not make success at the office, or at home, or on the ball field, or in classes, or in ministry your hope today. All this will fade. 

Hope in God. He alone can ransom your soul.

-------

^[1] I am indebted to Dr. Dieudonne Tamfu for explaining to me how the story of the Psalter unfolds.

Dieudonne Tamfu, “Book Two,” (lecture, Theology of the Psalms, Bethlehem College and Seminary, Minneapolis, MN, June 2018) .

^[2] Robertson, O. Palmer, The Flow of the Psalms: Discovering Their Structure and Theology (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2015), 18. 

^[3] Perdue, Leo G., “The Riddles of Psalm 49” (Journal of Biblical Literature 93.4, 1974), 533.

^[4] Homer’s Odyssey, Book 12

^[5] DeClaissé-Walford, Nancy L., Rolf A. Jacobson, and Beth LaNeel Tanner, The Book of Psalms (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2016), p. 444.

^[6] Kaiser, Walter C., The Majesty of God in the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Academic, 2007), p. 42. My thanks to Dr. Jason Meyer for pointing me to this illustration.

^[7] NET Bible, note 31 on Psalm 49:14. “‘Morning’ here is a metaphor for a time of deliverance ... after the dark ‘night’ of trouble” (Ps 30:5; 46:5; 59:16; 90:14; 143:8; cf. Is 17:14).