Psalm 49 explained: Money Cannot Buy Off Death

A call to everyone (vv. 1-4)

The singer calls on all people, rich and poor alike, to listen to a lesson he has thought through deeply. He calls it a riddle that he will explain with the harp, meaning a hard truth set to music.

Why fear the rich? (vv. 5-9)

He asks why he should be afraid of powerful people who trust in their money and surround him with trouble. No one can pay God a price to buy another person's life back from death, because no amount would ever be enough.

Everyone dies alike (vv. 10-12)

Wise and foolish both die and leave their wealth to others, and naming land after themselves does not keep them alive. In the end the grave becomes their lasting home, and in this they are no different from animals.

Death the shepherd (vv. 13-15)

People who trust only in themselves are pictured as a flock herded into the grave, with death as their shepherd. The Hebrew of verse 14 is hard to read and scholars are unsure of some details, but the writer contrasts their fate with his hope that God will rescue him from the grave and take him to himself.

Do not be dazzled (vv. 16-20)

So there is no need to be overawed when someone grows rich, because they carry nothing with them when they die, and the praise they enjoyed ends at the grave. The last line echoes verse 12 with a change: it is wealth without understanding that leaves a person like the animals.

Key verse: Psalm 49:17

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether verse 15 expresses hope for life with God after death or trust that God will rescue the writer from an early or untimely death in this life.

Something to think about

If nothing you own goes with you when you die, what still seems worth spending your life on?