Psalm 49

Notes

Ver. 1. Four things prove the prophetic speaker to be Christ. (1) The confident spirit, and universality of the call, as of one entitled to audience, ver. 1. (2) The theme of wisdom so confidently announced, ver. 2. (3) The direct quotation of ver. 4 by Mat. 13. 35, as fulfilled in the parables of our Lord. (4) The confident trust of the speaker in a glorious resurrection and acceptance with God, ver. 15. C.

Ver. 5. The leading idea of the psalm is embodied in this verse. Confident in the power and mercy of God the writer lays aside all fear. Evil days may come; life may not all be sunshine; but in the darkest days of sorrow and suffering God will save him. The word translated 'heels,' means also the impression of the heel, the footprint. Then it came to mean 'a lier in wait,' or one who watches for an advantage. This is its meaning here: and the sense of the clause therefore is: 'When I am exposed to the craft and cunning of those who lie in wait for me, what have I in reality to fear? God is on my side.' P.—Heels. This word is translated by high authorities supplanters, that is, false Christs, seeking to supplant me in name—of the world supplanting me in the hearts, and of worldly rulers supplanting me in my authority over the kingdoms of this world. But does it not rather signify the iniquity of his followers—of Judas who betrayed him, of the disciples who forsook him, and of the whole host of believers whose accumulated iniquities he bore in his body on the tree? C.

Ver. 10. Wise men die. And if even the wise man cannot rescue himself from temporal death, how can any save himself or his brother from death spiritual and eternal? C.

Ver. 12. That is, when he so far forgets himself as altogether to neglect salvation, or trusts to his own power to avoid death, or his own merit to meet the judgment. C.

Ver. 13. The traditionary or written sayings of men are often called immortal, though their authors be dead; and works the least godly are, alas! often the most popular. C.

Reflections.—Alas! how the hearts of men cleave to earthly enjoyments! The poor need as much to be warned against envy and discontentment as the rich against pride and carnal confidence. And the truths of God ought to be inculcated with the greatest seriousness, both by word and by example. Never ought saints (no, not when they suffer the charges and chastisements of their sins of conversation) to abandon themselves to unbelieving fears and doubts of God's all-sufficiency and love.—The day of death is a trying time with respect to true happiness. And then a sense of God's love, and a prospect of eternal glory, are infinitely more precious than thousands of gold and silver. O the dreadful folly of most men, who seek for, hold delight in, and depend on things of this world as if they were their God, their All in all! and yet how unavailable to ransom the soul, perpetuate the life, or preserve from hell! To judge of things aright we must weigh time with eternity. It is neither wealth nor poverty, but Jesus Christ's righteousness and grace, that can render us respected of God, or really happy, in time or eternity. It is redemption through his blood that gives hope in death. It is not their own vaunts, or the world's admiration, but the word of God, that adjusts men's real character. It is not what we have here, but what we can carry into the other world, that constitutes the true riches. They are only wise who consider their latter end. Nay, in death, the state of the most loathsome animal is infinitely preferable to that of the unregenerate sinner.