Psalm 49, A Dire Warning for the Wealthy

 

Hypothetical union attorney Joe Blough mesmerizes the office with his rhetoric.
Image by author using ChatGPT

Let’s set up a modern hypothetical

You open the newspaper or navigate to your favorite digital news source and see this headline: “Joe Blough of the Truth and Patriotism Party Alleges His Opponent Has Committed Fraud.” But Joe presents no actual evidence. You and all the readers know that Joe himself has been indicted twice for fraud, but it never stuck.

Joe is charming and popular, the chief attorney for a large union. Despite rumors of moral lapses, Joe has spread a lot of money around his city. He has made powerful enemies, but even more friends. In fact, he has been nominated by the TPP governor of his state to be a federal judge.

A lot of people lower in the economic stratum have followed Joe’s career, because some have been shafted by him, including you. You know what he’s really like, but the average citizens of your city, county, and state don’t follow the news like you do, so he looks pretty good to them.

They think his opponents are slandering him. Can’t trust the media. You put news articles in front of them, but the TPP has a robust media machine. Local papers are owned by wealthy members, and they refute every fact. You feel helpless.

There are calls for Joe to resign, but such men don’t respond to shaming. Every weekend he retreats to his 5-acre estate, Blough Demoff Acres, where he barbeques 8 oz. steaks for his family.

A new way to worship in the tenth century BCE

It was no different in King David’s day. He often expressed his anger and frustration in the Psalms (e.g., Psalm 5), and so did several allies in David’s circle of influence (Ps. 73:1-9). One of these men was a member of a Temple choir called the Sons of Korah.

These men, and perhaps some women, wrote hymns and sang them in the Tabernacle tent set up in Jerusalem. The Temple hadn’t been built yet. The Tabernacle at Shiloh had been burnt to the ground by a foreign neighbor. Saved from the flames, precious documents and the Ark of the Covenant were stored in a private home during the era of the Judges until David, Israel’s second king, brought them to the capital of the nascent state of Israel. He initiated new modes of worship. There would be songs of joy in the new Tabernacle.

The Sons of Korah

After the Israelites escaped from Egypt but before they entered the Promised Land, their ancestral patriarch defied Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. Korah had 3 sons. When Moses warned the coterie of rebels to stand by their tents and commanded the innocent to move away, Korah’s 3 sons left their father to his fate. With a great rumble, the earth opened up and swallowed the rebels, their tents, their families, and all their possessions. (Numbers 16:1-35)

Speaking tongue-in-cheek, how many of us today have nursed a fantasy about the earth swallowing certain malicious perpetrators? King David may have had such thoughts. Of course, it’s a better path to resolve local quarrels with elections and courts.

What Korah and the others wanted wouldn’t sound so bad today. They were Levites, Tabernacle workers, but wanted to be priests like the sons of Aaron. They demanded a more diversified, democratic way to choose who would have the power to enter the Holy Place of the Tabernacle with censers and the blood of atonement. But the clan of Israel was not a democracy at that time; it was a theocracy. In choosing one family clan to hold certain responsibilities, Yahweh saved the people from the greed, corruption, and power plays of the ambitious.

There was no music in the original Tabernacle of Moses. That was David’s innovation. The singers even included women. The clan of Korah must have been thrilled that the king would sweep away the guilt of their ancestor and allow them to sing and worship freely before the holy Ark. (1 Chronicles 25:5-6; 26:19)

Thus, it’s no surprise that the author of Psalm 49 sang his warning to the accompaniment of a harp. Like David, the shepherd who sang to his flock, like the folk singers of our own day who protested wars in song and guitar music, this lone son of Korah was following the family tradition in a way―rebelling against the establishment.

The audience

Hear this, all peoples;

Give ear, all inhabitants of the world,
² Both low and high,
Rich and poor together.
³ My mouth shall speak wisdom,
And the meditation of my heart shall give understanding.
⁴ I will incline my ear to a proverb;
I will disclose my dark saying (or riddle) on the harp.

The psalmist is so confident that he has God’s message right, he addresses it not just to his people, but to all people everywhere―the king, the shepherd, the patriarch, his wife, the mayor, the garbage man, the aristocrat, the beauty queen, the school janitor, the metal worker, the rich merchant who sells diamonds. What he has to say is not just local news that will be fish rap in a day or two. It’s a message whose wisdom can reach across diverse cultures and future generations. And so it has!

The fact that it’s a riddle does not mean it will be hard to understand. He’s preparing the listener for irony. AI defines irony as “a contrast between expectation and reality. It happens when the actual result is the reverse of what you think will happen, or when a person says the opposite of what they mean.”

The psalmist’s frustration

                                                          Image by author using ChatGPT

Why should I fear in the days of evil,
When the iniquity at my heels surrounds me?
⁶ Those who trust in their wealth
And boast in the multitude of their riches,
⁷ None of them can by any means redeem his brother,
Nor give to God a ransom for him—
⁸ For the redemption of their souls is costly,
And it shall cease forever—
⁹ That he should continue to live eternally,
And not see the Pit.

In the Middle Ages, when a prince was captured, they were treated well because they were worth more alive than dead. Holding an important person hostage could bring an exchange of powerful prisoners and a hefty ransom. Even if the hostage was a rogue, money is money. Wealthy families could buy their way out of almost anything…but not death.

When that dark angel comes to call, no amount of money can buy back the life of any person. The fabulously wealthy King Solomon lamented that death was the ultimate fate of kings, shepherds, and beasts alike. Unlike the psalmist, Solomon did not anticipate any kind of afterlife, good or bad. (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6)

For he sees wise men die;
Likewise the fool and the senseless person perish,
And leave their wealth to others.
¹¹ Their inner thought is that their houses will last forever,
Their dwelling places to all generations;
They call their lands after their own names.
¹² Nevertheless man, though in honor, does not remain;
He is like the beasts that perish.

The psalmist establishes that wealth cannot extend anyone’s life. Psalm 49 is not just about rich people dying, but about the wealthy spending eternity in a very unpleasant and unclean Sheol (the grave), something that would surprise most people in tenth-century BCE Israel. Since God made Abraham and Isaac rich because they were righteous, great wealth was deemed a sign of God’s favor.

The Sons of Korah had a different perspective. But the hell expected is not fire and brimstone, but rather worms and putrefaction. Verse 11 has a variant in several ancient texts. “Their graves shall be their houses forever.” Psalm 49:11 LXX, Syr., Tg., Vg.

This is the way of those who are foolish,
And of their posterity who approve their sayings. Selah
¹⁴ Like sheep they are laid in the grave;
Death shall feed on them;

When Judge Blough was old and suddenly died of a heart blockage, the national news reviewed his life with high praise. Well, mostly. Flags were at half-mast for a week. Sons, daughters, and wives (all 3 of them) dabbed at their eyes as they extolled his virtues.

But some people wondered, where was justice for the wrong that Joe did, for the lives he ruined unnecessarily, the men better than himself that he slandered? The psalmist has an answer.

The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning;

And their beauty shall be consumed in the grave, far from their dwelling.

¹⁵ But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave,
For He shall receive me. Selah

There will be no “morning,” no light for Joe. If Sheol is the place where all go after death, some will stay there, and some will be redeemed in a day that the psalmist describes as “morning.” He anticipates an eternity of redemption, life, restoration, and purification.

There’s only one ticket to board that glory train…righteousness!

Do not be afraid when one becomes rich,
When the glory of his house is increased;
¹⁷ For when he dies he shall carry nothing away;
His glory shall not descend after him.

¹⁸ Though while he lives he blesses himself
(For men will praise you when you do well for yourself),
¹⁹ He shall go to the generation of his fathers;
They shall never see light.
²⁰ A man who is in honor, yet does not understand,
Is like the beasts that perish.

If justice does not collar men like Joe on this material planet, the time is coming when he will face every thought, word, or deed before a high court that cannot be bribed, intimidated, or fooled. He will have no expensive advocate beside him. The truth of his selfish, deceptive life will be displayed in full. Jesus warned us that “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

It isn’t the money that threatens an eternity of regret. It’s the love of money. It’s the vice that money buys, the elite attitude that wealth brings, cutting generations of descendants off from the “unwashed masses,” from people who could really benefit from the generosity of the rich.

Joe could be rich Justice Joe without being the Joe described above. I wrote my dissertation on Psalm 49 because I had a heart to warn people that eternity awaits us all. There is a healing remedy for Joe’s dysfunctional life. Read Matthew 25:31-46. There you will find the invitation to the grand reception we should all strive to attend.

(Thanks to biblegateway.com for the note on verse 11 and their NKJV translations.)

This story can also be seen at https://medium.com/@janetkatherineapplebysmith/psalm-49-a-dire-warning-for-the-wealthy-c46b09fd0fa1 and at https://theologylighthouse.substack.com/p/psalm-49-a-dire-warning-for-the-wealthy.