Chances are you have heard the saying that there are two certainties in life – death and taxes. The Bible teaches us about both. For taxes we are told for example to render to Caesar the things that are Caesars. When it comes to death, the Bible has a bit to say as well.
In Psalm 49, we are taught how to live when we are going to die. Psalm 49 teaches us about where to put our confidence given that we will all sadly have to die one day. After calling us to listen to the wisdom on offer, the psalmist directs us away from riches and towards God as our redeemer to rescue us from the power of death. None of us may be able to avoid death, but God can deliver us from its grip.
As with other recent psalms, this psalm has a universal scope. “All inhabitants of the world, both low and high, rich and poor together” are called to listen to the wisdom of this psalm (vv.1-2). Nobody is excluded from the message. His words are wise and come from considerable meditation on life, so we should incline our ears to listen to his teaching (vv.3-4).
When the poor are cheated and oppressed by the wealthy, there is a temptation to fear, especially when it can result in your death (v.5). They can think that if they had more money, they would be safe; after all, that is what the wealthy boast about (v.6).
But the wealthy are wrong. They cannot redeem themselves with their wealth. Nobody, not even the richest alive today, can God the price (such as it is) to avoid their death (v.7). The price to pay for an unbounded life is too high (vv.8-9).
Whether wise or foolish, the psalmist teaches us that everyone dies. “The fool and the stupid alike must perish and leave their wealth to others” (v.10). No amount of money stops that day coming, and someone else will get what is left of what you have. As the author of Ecclesiastes also says, death comes to all (Ecclesiastes 9:1-3).
Even the richest people, owning the largest land holdings, will still end up dwelling in the grave (v.11). At the end of the day, when it comes to death, we are no different from animals (v.12). We all die. There is no hope in wealth.
What money cannot do, God can do. Death is the great leveller.
Some people have foolish confidence, and even find people who follow their silly boasting, but they are on the path to slaughter like sheep in a truck on the way to the meatworks (vv.13-14).
Those that boast in wealth find their “form shall be consumed in Sheol, with no place to dwell” (v.14). But for those who trust in God, “God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me” (v.15).
While God does not accept a ransom of wealth to avoid death, he provides one for the psalmist. The wicked rich cannot take their wealth with them to the grave, and what made him great does not go with him either (v.17). Therefore, we should not be afraid when a man becomes rich, because it is only a temporary thing in light of eternity (vv.16-17).
Even though the rich man might think he is blessed with all his wealth, and even though others might praise his wealth-collecting abilities, death will show their true state (v.18). He will still end up dying like his ancestors before him, to spend eternity in the joyless reality of judgement and separation from God (v.19).
Riches cannot free you from death. When it comes to death, we are “like the beasts that perish” (v.20). We will all die.
The only difference in our destiny is our relationship to God. Is it one where God is not relevant, where we are our own gods, gathering resources like we are playing some board game? Yet when the game is over, all the resources go back into the box.
No, the only way to live when you know you are going to die is to put your confidence in God. It is only God who can redeem us from death. If we put our trust in God, we will never be disappointed, for he will receive us just as he surely received the psalmist.
God can do so because he provided the ransom to free us from death’s power. Jesus’ death on the Cross paid the ransom for sin. He died on our behalf, so our death transforms from a passing from life into lightless misery, to passing into the joyful presence of our God. Just as God redeemed the Son from death by raising him from it, so too will God redeem us by raising us from it, not keeping us from it.
Our hope is not in wealth, or the wealth that we wish we had. Our hope is to be in God.