¹Hear this, all peoples; give ear, all inhabitants of the world, ²both low and high, rich and poor together. ³My mouth will speak wisdom, and the meditation of my heart will be understanding. ⁴I will incline my ear to a proverb; I will express my riddle on the harp.

This psalm reads more like an excerpt of wisdom from the book of Proverbs; only this teaching is set to music (harp). The theme is that everyone dies, whether rich or poor, and our eternal destiny is in God’s hands. No amount of money, possessions, or accomplishments will put us in a better position to ensure that we live forever.

After the introduction, the psalm addresses the fear that the wealthy could somehow buy, bribe, or otherwise earn their, or someone else’s, way into redemption (Ps. 49:5-9). Fear comes into play when people are poor and are conditioned to think of themselves as inferior to those who are wealthy. But wealthy people can also fear that their overconfidence in what they have may turn out to be misplaced assurance. Redemption (which, in this context, refers to the eternal state), however, does not come through indulgences, where donations to a church or benevolence toward non-profit organizations will gain a person’s favor with God. That is a concept entirely foreign to the Bible. If we suppose that salvation can be bought, then we overestimate our ability to pay the price, which is altogether out of reach to even the wealthiest on earth. As we read in this psalm:

No man can by any means redeem his brother or give to God a ransom for him— for the redemption of his soul is costly, and he should cease trying forever— that he should live on eternally, that he should not undergo decay. (Ps. 49:7–9)

The same is true for wisdom: “[E]ven wise men die; the stupid and the senseless alike perish and leave their wealth to others” (Ps. 49:10). People who live wisely are likely to gain wealth and possessions but all that is left behind when they die.

The Pharaohs of Egypt were noted for their pyramid burial monuments that contained their deceased servants and great possessions, all in preparation to serve them in the afterlife. Today some people leave instructions to bury them with their pets or the report of a man buried in his beloved car. But the wisdom of this psalm tells us we can take no earthly possession with us to the afterlife that will in any way benefit us.

It is foolish, not wise, to think that a person can live on and on and not die or that following physical death, their memorial will carry on after them:

Their inner thought is that their houses are forever and their dwelling places to all generations; they have called their lands after their own names. (Ps. 49:11)

People like Abraham Lincoln or J.D. Rockefeller, well-known to Americans, are now just names. Those individuals have gone to the afterlife and are no longer here. Their roles in history, whether in politics or industrialization and wealth accumulation, are now history. This psalm tells us it means nothing to them now, despite the adulation they receive from those of us still here in this life. For those who desire and strive for that kind of fame and influence for their glory, the psalm harshly tells them:

But man in his pomp will not endure; he is like the beasts that perish. This is the way of those who are foolish, and of those after them who approve their words. Selah. (Ps. 49:12–13)

This psalm is pessimistic only to those who see themselves as the center of their life’s purpose. Any glory they achieve here will be left at death’s door. For people who invest their entire energy in the stock of self-glory, there will be an eternal tragic surprise that their lives amounted to nothing!

He will carry nothing away; his glory will not descend after him. Though while he lives, he congratulates himself— and though men praise you when you do well for yourself— he shall go to the generation of his fathers; they will never see the light. Man in his pomp, without understanding, is like the beasts that perish. (Ps 49:17–20)

But for those who are “upright” (vs. 14), like the psalmist, the positive note is this: “But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, for He will receive me” (Ps. 49:15). An old chorus says it well:

He paid a debt He did not owe, 
I owed a debt I could not pay,
I needed someone to wash my sins away.
And now I sing a brand new song, Amazing Grace.
Christ Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay.

Lord, I am humbled that You would pay the price for my redemption that I could never pay. You sent Your only begotten Son to pay the ransom for me. I would be an utter fool to think I could do anything to add to the value of His death for me. I give You my highest praise, dear Father.