Remember yesterday I said that Psalm 49
is a sermon. It is a message warning us about the futility and vanity of
thinking that wealth can buy you happiness or even life itself. Even Solomon,
probably the wealthiest person who ever lived, found out that money and wealth
and all the things it could purchase did not bring him satisfaction. He
declared: “For the wise and the foolish both die. The wise will not be remembered
any longer than the fool. In the days to come, both will be forgotten. So I
came to hate life because everything done here under the sun is so troubling.
Everything is meaningless—like chasing the wind” (Ecclesiastes 2:16-17).
Especially today, we live in the age of
the “rat race”. We live in a “Madison Avenue” culture driven by social media
with an obsession to have things and be popular. Someone said it this way: “We
buy things we do not need, with money we do not have, to impress people we don’t
even know or like”. There are several
lessons we should learn from Psalm 49. The first one is that wealth cannot
prevent death (Psalm 49:5-12).
It isn't a sin to be wealthy if we
acknowledge God as the Giver of everything we have. God was concerned Israel
would forget Him after they became wealthy, and He reminded them in Deuteronomy
8:18: “And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you
power to get wealth…”. God gives us
wealth to help others and glorify His name (1 Tim. 6:7-19; Matt. 6:33). But an
increase in wealth often leads to an increase in evil. It's good to have things
that money can buy, if we don't lose the things money can't buy. It's sad when
people start to confuse prices with values.
Jesus concluded a sermon on riches by
saying, "For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the
sight of God" (Luke 16:15). The psalmist feared that the wealthy in
the land would start to take advantage of poorer people. It was easy for the rich
to bribe judges and rob the poor of their rights. (See James 2:1-9; 5:1-6; Amos
4:1-3; 5:10-15.)
Those who boast of their wealth have a
false sense of security, because their wealth can't protect them from "the
last enemy"—death (1 Cor. 15:26). Jesus had this truth in mind when He
spoke about the rich farmer in Luke 12:13-21. If a relative was poor, a Jew
could redeem him by paying his debts (Lev. 25:23ff), but if a relative was
dying, no amount of money could come to the rescue—and to whom would you give
the money? A murderer could not be redeemed (Num. 35:31), even if you could
calculate the worth of a human life.
So, money can't rescue you on this side
of the grave, nor can it rescue you on the other side of the grave, because you
can't take your money with you (vv. 10-12 and 17; Eccl. 2:18, 21; 7:2; 9:5).
Whether you are rich or poor, wise or foolish, you leave everything behind.
Many wealthy people think they will go on forever and enjoy their houses and
lands, only to discover that death is a great leveler. After death, the rich
and the poor stand equal before God. Hebrews 9:27 reminds us that, “It is
appointed unto a man once to die, and after this the judgement.”
The rich may call their lands after
their own names, but the names engraved in stone will outlast the owners. The
phrase "he is like the beasts that perish" (v. 12, and see
Eccl. 3:10, 19, and 7:2) doesn't suggest that humans are on the same level as
brute beasts, but only that both face ultimate death and decay.
Yes, my friend, we have eternal souls
that only the blood of Jesus Christ is sufficient to redeem from the power of
the grave! Today we should make sure we are living for Him and laying up
treasures in heaven where they will last forever! (Matthew 6:20-21).
God bless!
