Day 49 of Searching the Psalms

Please share your thoughts in the comments below each day so that we can
learn and grow together as we seek to know God and live justly.


Psalm 49 (MSG)


1-2 Listen, everyone, listen—
earth-dwellers, don’t miss this.
All you haves
and have-nots,
All together now: listen.


3-4 I set plainspoken wisdom before you,
my heart-seasoned understandings of life.
I fine-tuned my ear to the sayings of the wise,
I solve life’s riddle with the help of a harp.


5-6 So why should I fear in bad times,
hemmed in by enemy malice,
Shoved around by bullies,
demeaned by the arrogant rich?


7-9 Really! There’s no such thing as self-rescue,
pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.
The cost of rescue is beyond our means,
and even then it doesn’t guarantee
Life forever, or insurance
against the Black Hole.


10-11 Anyone can see that the brightest and best die,
wiped out right along with fools and dunces.
They leave all their prowess behind,
move into their new home, The Coffin,
The cemetery their permanent address.
And to think they named counties after themselves!


12 We aren’t immortal. We don’t last long.
Like our dogs, we age and weaken. And die.


13-15 This is what happens to those who live for the moment,
who only look out for themselves:
Death herds them like sheep straight to hell;
they disappear down the gullet of the grave;
They waste away to nothing—
nothing left but a marker in a cemetery.
But me? God snatches me from the clutch of death,
he reaches down and grabs me.


16-19 So don’t be impressed with those who get rich
and pile up fame and fortune.
They can’t take it with them;
fame and fortune all get left behind.
Just when they think they’ve arrived
and folks praise them because they’ve made good,
They enter the family burial plot
where they’ll never see sunshine again.


20 We aren’t immortal. We don’t last long.
Like our dogs, we age and weaken. And die.

Comments

  1. Brad ArnoldSeptember 18, 2020 at 8:50 AM

    We had a really nice Friday morning Zoom time in this psalm this morning. Maybe a few folks will share their thoughts. You can't take it with you. What am I really living for? Money provides no real daily or everlasting security. It cannot save in any way. Whether I have nothing or whether I have means, Jesus reminds me to focus on Him, not on keeping up with the Jones' or keeping the $ in the bank. Be generous, don't be jealous.

    ReplyDelete
  2. KathleenSeptember 18, 2020 at 1:39 PM

    The question is put to both the rich and the poor.
    Do you trust in your own strength? and desire a multitude of riches?
    Whether your riches are stolen, given or earned, "when he shall die, he shall take nothing away."

    ReplyDelete
  3. Brad ArnoldSeptember 18, 2020 at 2:31 PM

    Yes, thank you for that thought, Mom. I was struck by how all are gathered to listen to the wisdom of the psalmist, rich/poor, low and high.

    ReplyDelete

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