Psalms 49 · ESV Study Bible

Why Should I Fear in Times of Trouble?

PSALM 49 [†] g Hear this, all peoples!

Give ear, all inhabitants of the world,

2 h both low and high,

rich and poor together!

3 My mouth shall speak i wisdom;

the meditation of my heart shall be understanding.

4 I will incline my ear to j a proverb;

I will solve my k riddle to the music of the lyre.

5[†] l Why should I fear in m times of trouble,

when the iniquity of those who cheat me surrounds me,

6 those who n trust in their wealth

and boast of the abundance of their riches?

7[^] Truly no man o can ransom another,

or p give to God q the price of his life,

8 for r the ransom of their life is costly

and can never suffice,

9 that he should live on forever

and s never see the pit.

10 For he sees t that even the wise die;

u the fool and the stupid alike must perish

and v leave their wealth to others.

11 Their w graves are their homes forever, [1]

their dwelling places x to all generations,

though they y called lands by their own names.

12 Man in his pomp z will not remain;

a he is like the beasts that perish.

13[†] This is the path of those who have b foolish confidence;

yet after them people approve of their boasts. [2] Selah

14 Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol;

death shall be their shepherd,

and the upright c shall rule over them in the morning.

d Their form shall be consumed e in Sheol, with no place to dwell.

15[†] But God will f ransom my soul from the power of Sheol,

for he will g receive me. Selah

16 Be not afraid when a man becomes rich,

when the glory of his house increases.

17 h For when he dies he will i carry nothing away;

his glory will not go down after him.

18 For though, while he lives, he counts himself j blessed

—and though you get praise when you do well for yourself—

19 his soul will k go to the generation of his fathers,

who will never again l see light.

20 m Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.

A Psalm of n Asaph.

PSALM—NOTE ON 49:1–4 Call to Pay Attention. This section indicates that the message is for all sorts of peoples, low and high, throughout the world. The terms wisdom and understanding are used in the Wisdom Books for genuine spiritual perception, the ability to approach life from God’s perspective; they are features marking those who have true faith. The song will expound a proverb and solve a riddle, i.e., the puzzle presented in vv. 5–6.

PSALM—NOTE ON Psalm 49. This is a wisdom psalm, i.e., a hymn that reflects on topics typically covered in the Bible’s Wisdom Literature. In particular, it addresses the perplexity that the pious often feel when they encounter trouble, while unfaithful people seem to get along so well. Is not God expected to show his favor for the pious in how he treats them? The answer is that God will distinguish between the faithful and the unfaithful in what happens to them when they die. The psalm follows a very simple argument: it calls everyone to pay attention (vv. 1–4); then it reminds the singers that everyone has a common outcome, namely, all will die (vv. 5–12); and it finishes by stressing the contrasting destinations for the faithful and the unfaithful (vv. 13–20). Verses 12 and 20 are very similar, the key difference being in the words translated “remain” and “understanding,” which sound almost the same in Hebrew (yalin and yabin). The element of understanding makes the difference, as the notes will show. Those who sing this will want to continue living faithfully, and will be strengthened against the temptation either to despair or to give up and join the unfaithful. Other psalms that address the same topic include Psalms 37 and 73.

PSALM—NOTE ON 49:15 Quite often in the Bible, “soul” describes the life principle that animates the body, or the person’s inner self, and can simply be another way of saying “the self.” At other times, however, it can describe that inner self as something that survives the death of the body, as it does here, where my soul is parallel to me, the self that after death will not go to Sheol. In the larger picture of the Bible, the separation of body and soul is unnatural, a product of sin (Gen. 3:19), and will be healed with their reunion at the resurrection (Dan. 12:2–3; cf. 2 Cor. 5:1–4).