The Heart of the Bible—The Book of Psalms · Pastor Adam Wood · Psalm 49 · November 12, 2025

Transcript:
Alright, Psalm 49 tonight, we are going to, let's just read the Psalm to begin. Interesting Psalm, different. It's so interesting when you read through the Psalms methodically like we've been doing, what you find is there's a lot of things that repeat. But then you also come across some Psalms like we see tonight that are nothing like the rest of the Psalms. They kind of stand alone. The Psalm tonight, Psalm 49, is more, if I were to just read it, you would think it's refer, you would think this Psalm would be found in the book of Ecclesiastes. Because it's nothing like the other Psalms in its content. And it is a Psalm, verse four mentions that the Psalm is a dark saying upon the harp. So this was written to music originally. But anyhow, it's more like the book of Ecclesiastes. So Psalm 49, verse number one, the subtitle says, To the chief musician, a Psalm for the sons of Korah. Hear this, all ye people, give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world, both low and high, rich and poor, together. My mouth shall speak of wisdom and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding. I will incline mine ear to a parable. I will open my dark saying upon the harp. Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about? They that trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches, none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him. For the redemption of their soul is precious and it ceases forever. That he should still live forever and not see corruption. For he seeth that wise men die. Likewise, the fool and the brutish person perish and leave their wealth to others. Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue forever and their dwelling places to all generations. They call their lands after their own names. Nevertheless, man being in honor, abideth not. He is like the beasts that perish. This their way is their folly. Yet their posterity approve their sayings. Like sheep they are laid in the grave. Death shall feed on them. And the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning. And their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling. But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave. For he shall receive me. Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased. For when he dyeth, he shall carry nothing away. His glory shall not descend after him. Though while he lived, he blessed his soul and men will praise thee when thou doest well to thyself. He shall go to the generation of his fathers. They shall never see light. Man that is in honor and understandeth not, he is like the beasts that perish. Let's pray. Lord as we come to your word again, thank you first of all for your word and the truths that are herein that set us aright, that give us a right perspective, a right worldview, a right understanding of this life, this temporal life. Thank you for this song. Lord let us profit from it tonight by your help, by your spirit, by your instruction, because we look to you Lord in Jesus' name, amen. So as I said, this psalm is as I've read it, you probably noticed it sounds more like Ecclesiastes than it does the Psalms, right? And notice it is a psalm that unlike many of the psalms that have a very Jewish, very Hebrew flavor, you know, a lot of covenant language regarding the Jewish people, this is not that way. In fact, it is directly addressed to everyone. It says, hear this all ye people, give ear all ye inhabitants of the world, both low and high, rich and poor together. Now that's gonna be important, especially the rich and poor, low and high, because of what's in the psalm. So this is a psalm that is universal. In other words, the truths in it are universal for every person. The struggle that you see in this psalm, the warning is true of us, is true of every person living. The cautions that the Lord gives us are universal. So we come down to verse number five, which is where the real meat of the psalm begins. Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about? Now one of the things that drives a lot of what you see in this psalm, one of the themes in the psalm is repeated over and over and over. I've been studying in preparation for the first Bible Institute class, which is going to be how to study the Bible. And as I've been studying, one of the things I've noticed is one of the principles of studying the Bible is to look for things that repeat. And one thing that repeats in this is the mention of wealth, the mention of money. And it's over and over, four or five times in the psalm. In fact, this is the theme of the psalm, really it's the primary theme of the psalm. And one of the reasons that people concentrate so much on wealth and on how much money they have and where it's going and how they spend it and what they're gonna do with it, one of the reasons they concentrate so much on it, especially as they get older, is the fear of evil. In other words, the unknown, what might happen, right? As you get older, that becomes more of a significant question, because you know that, especially when you go into the age of retirement, you know that that's a fixed amount, unless you're maybe really, really well invested, but even that's not really sure at all. But when you see that amount dwindling year by year, that can cause a little bit of anxiety, can it not, when you don't know what kind of evil might be around the corner. And people really are bothered by this. They really are, people are really bothered by this. Younger people don't think about that, because we have, those of us who still have the ability to work and things like that, we work and we think, well, we'll just get a job and we'll just work it off, but when you get to a certain stage, that's not as easy as it used to be. It's a real concern. What are we gonna do when fear strikes in the days of evil? Look at verse six. They that trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches. Now here's the problem with money. The problem with money and wealth, now let me say this to start with, and we'll see a scripture verse that'll prove my point. Having money and having wealth and having material possessions is not a sin. The Bible does not describe it as a sin. Now you can go to a few verses, which we've already covered in Matthew, and you can see verses where there's a lot of warnings attached to it and for good reason. There's warnings attached to it for good reason. And sometimes people have taken those warnings and have kind of taken them a bit further than the scripture allows and have pushed for, and I'm talking about over the years now, over the centuries, have pushed for a kind of Christian asceticism, a kind of Christian poverty that the Lord enjoins. He tells us to be that way. And a lot of times when we look at the Lord Jesus and we see, well Jesus did not, he didn't have a place to lay his head, right? The foxes have holes and that kind of thing. And we take that, but the Lord did not command that of us. He did that as an example to us, right? And really it was more of an example of his debasing of himself, leaving the glory that we talked about on Sunday and coming down to earth where he had all things in his possession to where he has nothing, right? That's indicative of his humility, right? But the Lord never says, he never tells us in proper context to live in poverty. He doesn't, now there are verses that say, sell all thou hast and give to the poor and take up your cross and follow me, but in the proper context he's speaking to a rich man. So, but those are the kinds of verses people take and they kind of extrapolate out as a general command when that's not what the Lord does at all. But there, that nevertheless, there is a real warnin...