Psalm 49

Whenever I visit historic Crownhill Cemetery in Indianapolis, I notice the massive monuments dead people have made for themselves–all in an attempt to be remembered and impress the living.  Similarly, when the wealthy donate massive amounts of money for naming rights on a building, it is typically for the purpose of maintaining a reputation beyond death.  All of this strikes me as pointless and (to be honest) pathetic.  In a couple of generations there will be no living memory of any of us.  Accept death; it is the most humane way to live.

Psalm 49 is a meditation on the fact of death.  Unlike many of the psalms, this one is not an expression of praise or lament; instead, it is philosophical musing.  It strongly resembles the philosophy of the Book of Ecclesiastes, and belongs in the category of “wisdom literature.”  Verse 4 gives us a vivid picture of how this psalm was presented to an audience:  the speaker is going to solve a riddle–use wisdom to come up with an answer–while plucking some strings on a harp.

Verses 10 and 11 affirm that everybody dies–it doesn’t matter whether you’re wise or a dolt.  Death gets the last word and lasts forever, regardless of whether wealthy people “named lands their own.”  In verse 14 the comforting image of the Lord being our shepherd (from Psalm 23) is replaced by the disturbing image of Death being our shepherd, taking us straight to the grave, where our “form shall waste away” and where Sheol–a joyless, memoryless, lifeless place–shall be our home.  Verses 12 and 20 repeat the somber refrain:  “Mortals cannot abide in their pomp; they are like the animals that perish.”  No matter how rich and powerful we are, we all die like the animals and are no more.

So what is the psalmist’s point?  Why this meditation on the fact of death?  Surprisingly, it’s to comfort those who are oppressed by the wealthy!  In verse 5 the psalmist mentions persecutors.  And who are the persecutors?  The wealthy–“those who trust in their wealth and boast of the abundance of their riches.”  In American society, we don’t usually think of the wealthy as persecutors; in fact, we often admire them and see them as helping the economy and as social benefactors.  The psalmist is aware that the wealthy are also viewed this way, and says so in verse 18.  But in the psalmist’s world, the rich used their riches to exercise power over others, and used the labor of the poor to make possible their own luxurious lifestyle.  Actually, this is still the case today.  Our cheapest goods are made possible by the labor of the poor.  And the wealthy still use their wealth to keep themselves in positions of social and political power.  The rich have had a strong hand in molding tax laws and regulations that favor themselves, and they often have an inside track on a stock market that is sometimes rigged against the least wealthy, least connected, participants.  The wealthy today are not persecutors in the direct and flagrant ways they were in the ancient world, but massive wealth inequality is not healthy in a society and cannot help but give tremendous unfair advantages to those who have it.

The psalmist is not advocating the overthrow of the wealthy; he is saying death will do that for us.  Death is the great leveler.  In the end, we are all treated equally.  This does not sound very consoling to me.  On the other hand, when I see a particularly despicable politician who is too powerful to touch, I admit that I take some comfort in knowing he can’t live forever.  This is also what the psalmist is feeling.

But the psalmist also expresses hope.  In verses 7-9 he says that no ransom can be paid to spare a person’s life, but in verse 15 he says, “But God will ransom my soul from the power of death, for he will receive me.”  Is he expressing hope in personal immortality?  Not likely.  First of all, “soul” does not refer to a spirit within us that survives death.  The Old Testament (and even most of the New) knows nothing of this.  “Soul” simply means one’s life.  The psalmist is saying God will rescue his life from death.  Probably he is refering to being rescued from some present life-threatening danger–not life beyond the grave.  And yet, this vague verse does seem to speak of a more general hope that we can have in God.  In light of the disciples’ experience of the risen Christ, Christians affirm that God has the power to re-create us, and indeed this is the proper fulfillment of nature.

Nevertheless, meditating on the reality of death can be spiritually helpful.  Though some react to death by building monuments to themselves or by busying themselves with entertainment (or by simply being depressed), those who trust that behind this universe is a transcendent goodness are able to rest from anxiety, live with daily gratefulness, and spend their lives in giving rather than accumulating.