Psalm 49 Playing A Little Music While Pondering Big Questions

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Psalm 49 is considered a Wisdom Psalm. It focuses on wisdom and understanding, and it sounds very much like a mashup of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.

When commenting on this song, about 80%of the time my emphasis has been on the second stanza (v.5-9) and verse 15’s victoriously confident statement, “But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me.”

However inevitable it may be that I again consider those verses, my emphasis in reading the psalm this time was on the first stanza (v.1-4) and specifically verse 4.

Hear this, all peoples!
    Give ear, all inhabitants of the world,
both low and high,
    rich and poor together!
My mouth shall speak wisdom;
    the meditation of my heart shall be understanding.
I will incline my ear to a proverb;
    I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre.

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The psalmist declares the nature of the psalm from the beginning and then in v. 4 paints a picture of his pondering or thinking through or considering a weighty matter while noodling around on his lyre (guitars were much harder to come by back then). This process of thinking, meditating, and creatively working out the big questions in the heart can be very profound.

Too often, our lives are filled with so many distractions that we never seem to find time to quietly think through the goodness of God and the ridiculous pride of humanity. Other times it is not distractions but a residual distrust that keeps us from honestly considering the evidence regarding the big questions. That distrust produces fear and fear is then masked with anger. In the end, we find it easier to yell at someone else than it is to consider the truth of God’s heart amid the difficulties of a broken world.

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Now back to v. 4. What riddle does he work out in this psalm? He wrestled with the big questions… seeking wise perspectives on power and wealth, fear and hope, and even on human mortality and redemption. As he pondered and played, it seems that he worked through all of his concerns and realized that he didn’t need to live in fear (v. 5, 15).

It should be noted that while the third stanza (v.10-12) speaks of the finality of the grave, the sons of Korah had no clear grasp on the idea of the resurrection. Many truths in the Bible were progressively revealed as God’s plan unfolded down through the centuries. Yet, even in this psalm, there is the confident expectation that as v. 15 states,

But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol,
    for he will receive me. 

But what was the riddle?

Is this post starting to sound like a click-bait article that keeps stringing you along as long as possible before giving you the answer to your simple question? Maybe. But what I was hoping was that you would read the psalm and find the answer for yourself before I confirmed your answer.

The answer to the riddle the psalmist works out in this passage is first stated in v.12,

Man in his pomp will not remain;
    he is like the beasts that perish.

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The psalmist solved the riddle as he saw behind the deceptive curtain of human pride and self-importance. Proud, self-important, powerful people still die and rot in the grave. Humans are not God; we are not even capable of saving ourselves from our sins (v.7-8). Our wealth, and the social trappings that go with it, cannot redeem us… yet we waste so much time trying. And in the end, we die like everything else. And everything we may have accumulated goes back into the box. I remember a popular psychologist telling the story of thoroughly beating his family at the board game Monopoly and how in the face of his excess celebration they left him to clean it up all by himself. It was then that he realized that it all goes back in the box—all the hotels, houses, property deeds, and the money too. This is true of real life as well. Such understanding, which the Bible calls wisdom, is what we still need today.

Apparently, the people this was written to needed to hear it again as well, for verse 20 repeats, “Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish” with the addition of “without understanding.”

Are we merely selfish animals that live without understanding and die without purpose, meaning, or any lasting legacy? Or are we invited to join God in his mission to heal the broken universe? It starts with the understanding that only God can ransom our souls! The price he paid was costly, even the precious blood of Jesus! What mere bauble that this world offers could be worth enough to turn me away from trusting Jesus? So, we cannot save ourselves, and neither can we continue to live forever without dying. The good news is that God has ransomed me at the cross!

While the psalmist may not have understood how the Lord would do it, he knew that his soul would be redeemed from the grave. And thus there was no reason for fear and anxiety to direct his life.

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. (Hebrews 2:14-15) 

As a result of the psalmist’s inspired pondering and playing, I am reminded that I no longer need to fear in times of trouble or when the wrong people grow rich and famous. Neither of those situations can determine my value for that is secure in the finished work of Christ Jesus!