If “the redemption of their souls is costly” (Ps 49:8), who can calculate the waste of a soul lost forever?
As we read Psalm 49, we may have come upon the Preacher’s text. Was Solomon reading this as he penned Ecclesiastes? There he warns: If our Creator is ignored, all will be “vanity” (Eccl 2:1). The psalmist wants a large audience; his topic is vital. “Hear this, all peoples; give ear, all inhabitants of the world, both low and high, rich and poor together” (vv 1-2). He then promises, “My mouth shall speak wisdom, and the meditation of my heart shall give understanding” (v 3). To encourage attention, he tells us, “I will incline my ear to a proverb; I will disclose my dark saying on the harp” (v 4). Proverbs are sentence sermons, a clever line with a moral point. Dark sayings are riddles, which seem unsolvable until we find the key. And he’s going to accompany himself with a harp! There are two stanzas of eight verses (vv 5-12, 13- 20), each ending with a repeated conclusion, with only slight differences: “A man who is in honor, yet does not understand, is like the beasts that perish” (v 20, see v 12). The bottom line: wealth without wisdom is woeful. We live like animals if we consume merely to exist. But what is his main topic? It’s what the Lord Jesus called “the deceitfulness of riches” (Mk 4:19). The psalmist says that cheaters lie in wait, and can be used to cause the righteous to fear (v 5), so WATCH OUT for those who “boast in the multitude of their riches” (v 6). In the end, men’s efforts to acquire what they call “wherewithal” is wasted. It’s worthless in the face of death (vv 7-9). If you can’t help your brother in his moment of greatest need, what good is it? The value of a soul can’t be calculated with money. Thank God for the redemption price paid for us in the sacred currency of the blood of the Lamb (v 8). There’s more to come!