Psalms 49:15 - Meaning and Application

Here is a good reason why godly people should not fear death. There is no real cause for that fear if they can look beyond death, as David does here, to a happy future with God (Psalm 49:15). In the verse before this, he showed how miserable those are who die in their sins. Here he shows how blessed those are who die with the Lord.

Outward status makes a big difference in life, but it makes none in death. Rich and poor meet in the grave. Spiritual condition, by contrast, may seem to matter little in this life, where things often happen alike to everyone, but after death it makes a great difference. Then the one who believed is comforted, and the one who did not is tormented. The righteous have hope in death, and David has hope in God for his soul. The strong support and joy of God’s children in their dying hour is this hope that their souls will be redeemed from the grave and received into glory.

They hope, first, that God will redeem their souls from the power of the grave. This includes several things. It means the soul is preserved from going down into the grave with the body. The grave has power over the body because of the sentence in Genesis 3:19, and it carries out that power harshly (Song of Solomon 8:6). But it has no such power over the soul. It can silence the body, shut it up, and wear it away, but then the soul moves, acts, and speaks more freely than before (Revelation 6:9, Revelation 6:10). The soul is not made of matter and cannot die. When death breaks the dark lantern, it does not put out the candle inside it.

This redemption also includes the reunion of soul and body at the resurrection. Scripture often uses the word soul to mean life. That life does fall under the power of the grave for a time, but it will at last be redeemed from it, when what is mortal is swallowed up by life. The God of life, who made it at first, can and will redeem it at the last.

It also includes salvation from eternal ruin. God will redeem my soul from the grave, even from the place of destruction, from the wrath to come, that pit into which the wicked are cast (Psalm 49:14). It is a great comfort to dying believers that they will not be hurt by the second death (Revelation 2:11). Because of that, the first death has no sting and the grave no victory.

Second, they hope that God will receive them to himself. He redeems their souls so that he may receive them. David says in Psalm 31:5, "Into your hands I commit my spirit, for you have redeemed me." God will receive them into his favor, admit them into his kingdom, and bring them into the rooms he has prepared for them (John 14:2, John 14:3), those lasting dwellings (Luke 16:9).

There is also good reason not to fear the power and success of wicked people in this world. Their prosperity is often the cause of envy, grief, and fear in the righteous. Still, when everything is weighed fairly, there is no reason for that fear. The temptation is real and strong. It seems at times that sinners will overrun everything, that their wealth and influence will crush religion and religious people, and that they are the truly happy ones.

The psalmist assumes that the wicked may become rich, and then they can control those around them. Money seems to rule over everything and everyone. Their wealth can also grow into a great family honor, and that often makes people proud, rude, and harsh (Psalm 5:1-12:16). They seem like heaven’s favorites, and so they look dangerous. They also feel safe and content inside themselves (Psalm 49:18). In life they bless their own souls, that is, they think they are very happy, and even good, because they are doing well in the world. They say to themselves, like the rich fool, "Soul, relax. Do not worry about the world, and do not listen to the voice of conscience. All is well, and will stay well forever."

It is very important to ask what we use to bless our souls, the thing on which we base our good opinion of ourselves. Believers bless themselves in the God of truth (Isaiah 65:16), and they think themselves happy if he is theirs. Worldly people bless themselves in earthly wealth, and they think themselves happy if they have enough of it. There are many whose souls are under God’s curse, yet they keep blessing themselves. They approve what God condemns, and they speak peace to themselves when God is declaring war against them.

That is not all. The wicked are also praised by their neighbors. People commend them and say they have done well for themselves by building such wealth and such a family. This is the view of the children of this world. They think people do best for themselves when they do most for their bodies by piling up riches, even if nothing is done for the soul or for eternity. So they bless the covetous person, whom the Lord hates (Psalm 10:3). If people were our judges, it might seem wise to win their approval. But what good is human approval if God condemns us? Dr. Hammond takes this as a description of the godly person here, since the pronoun is second person. In that reading, the worldling praised himself, but the believer, who does not flatter himself, only does what is truly good for his eternal well-being, will be praised, if not by men, then by God, and that will be his lasting honor.

The psalmist then gives enough to remove the force of the temptation by turning our eyes to the end of prosperous sinners (Psalm 73:17). If we think about what they will be in the next world, we will see no reason to envy what they have in this one. In the other world, they will not be helped by all the wealth and comfort they now love so much. It is a miserable possession, because it will not last as long as they must (Psalm 49:17). When a rich man dies, he goes into another world himself, but he cannot take any of his possessions with him. The greatest and richest people cannot be the happiest, because they get no lasting good from all they enjoy here. They came into the world naked, and they will leave it naked.

Those, however, have something to show in the next world from how they lived in this one who can say, by grace, that though they came into the world corrupted, sinful, and spiritually naked, they leave it renewed, sanctified, and clothed with the righteousness of Christ.

People who are rich in the graces and comforts of the Spirit carry something with them when they die. Death cannot take that away, and in fact death makes it better. But earthly goods are different. As we brought nothing into the world, and what we have came from others, so we will carry nothing out, but leave it to others (1 Timothy 6:7).

They will go down to the grave, but their glory, the thing they called their glory and bragged about, will not go with them. It cannot lessen the shame of death and the grave, help them in judgment, or reduce the pain of hell. Grace is glory that rises with us, but no earthly glory follows us after death.

In the next world, wicked people will be far worse off for all the wealth and success they misused in this life (Psalm 49:19). Their soul will go to the generation of their fathers, meaning their worldly and wicked fathers, whose ways they approved and whose steps they followed, fathers who would not listen to God’s word (Zechariah 1:4). They will go to the place where those people are, a place that will never see light and never know even the smallest comfort or joy, because they are condemned to utter darkness.

So do not be afraid of the pomp and power of wicked people. The end of a person who is honored, if he is not wise and good, will be miserable. If he does not understand, he is more to be pitied than envied. A fool in honor is really as low and worthless as any creature on earth. He is like the beasts that perish (Psalm 49:20). In fact, it is better to be a beast than to be a man who has made himself like one.

People in honor who understand, who know their duty and make a serious effort to do it, are like gods and children of the Most High. But people in honor who do not understand, who are proud, sensual, and oppressive, are like beasts, and they will perish like beasts, shamefully in this world, though not, like beasts, without answer in the next world. So prosperous sinners should be afraid for themselves, but even suffering saints should not be afraid of them.