Psalm 49 – You Can’t Take It with You

2006030

Topic # 2373 (money)

Introduction:

A.     A 'didactic,' psalm: i.e., a psalm loaded with teaching or instructions.

B.      The date and occasion when the psalm was written are unknown.

C.     Psalm made up in 3 parts.

1.      49:1-4 introduction

2.      49:5-12 – first stanza

3.      49:13-20 – second stanza

4.      Note similarity between 49:12 and 49:20.

a)      two verses similar – but not the same.

b)      49:12 – psalmist did not mention the lack of understanding.

c)      49:20 – mentions the lack of understanding.

5. Key to understanding is seen in 49:13-20.

 

I. 49:1-4 – This word of wisdom applies to everyone.

A.     Exhortation to listen carefully.

B.      The scope of the application:

1.      worldwide – all peoples – all inhabitants of the world

2.      economic class application

a)      both low and high

b)      both rich and poor

C.     The value of this teaching:

1.      wisdom and understanding.

D.    The form of communication:

1.      a proverb – This related to the right use, or the proper value, of wealth, or the estimate in which it should be held by those who possessed it, and by those who did not.

a)      It was very evident to the author of the psalm that the views of people were not right on the subject; he therefore proposed to examine the matter carefully, and to state the exact truth.

2.      a riddle -  the point was intricate or obscure; it was not well understood, and he purposed "to lay it open," and to make it plain.

 

II. 49:5 – Fundamental question of the Psalm: Why should I let the apparent prosperity of the wicked bother me?

 

III. 49:6-9 – false security of the foolish.

A. 49:6

1.      Consider the "powerlessness" of wealth, as illustrated by the fact that it can do nothing to save life or to prevent death.

2.      Many "trust" in their wealth, or "relying on" that as the source of their power. Feel safety and strength because they are rich.

B. 49:7-8

1.      They cannot bring the possessor happiness.

2.      They cannot enable their owner to redeem a brother, either from a fatal illness, or for the salvation of his soul.

3.      They cannot endow their possessor with power to redeem himself from a terminal illness, nor prevent his dying just like all men.

4.      They cannot provide salvation for their owner.

5.      They cannot even guarantee their owner's continued possession of them throughout his life. Many who once were rich became poor.

D.    49:9-11 - additional inabilities mentioned here.

1.      49:9 - They do not enable the owner to live always

2.      49:10 - Riches do not enable the owner to determine what shall happen to them after his death

3.      49:11 - They do not enable 'their houses' to continue forever

4.      To what extent is our security and value system tainted with a reliance upon wealth?

5.      We know intellectually that you can’t take it with you, but do our day-to-day decisions reflect that reality?

E.      The picture of the man who trusts in riches here is that of a man who is living in this world exactly as if he fully intended to live here for ever!

1.      which takes us to 49:12

 

IV. 49:13-20 – Answer to the fundamental question…

A.     49:13

1.      Men do not merely approve their sayings, they also approve their ways, their life-style, their attitudes, etc., and eagerly follow in the very patterns rich men have established, futile and foolish though they are.

B.      49:14

1.      The figure here is that the wicked shall descend like a great flock of sheep into the nether world, where Death shall be their shepherd!

a)      no escape. No hope for redemption.

C.     49:15

1.      Here is the solution to the “mystery”, the key to the" parable."

2.      The souls of the righteous will be redeemed, not by themselves, but by God - they will be delivered "from the power of the grave," or rather of Hades; and, while the ungodly are held under by death and the grave (49:14),

3.      they will be released, and enter upon a higher life.

4.      "Here is the hope of faith that reaches beyond death, and in doing so overcomes death spiritually."

5.      "This is one of the rare references in the Old Testament to a belief in an afterlife."

6.      "Clearly, the writer expected a resurrection from the dead. The notion that God's children in the Old Testament had no hope in the resurrection is simply not the truth." 

D.    49:16-20 – recounting of what was before in 5-9.  Answer: do not be afraid!

1. why should we “not be afraid” when a man becomes rich?  Why would we be tempted to be afraid?