that don't know me, my name is Chris Bradley. I'm not the pastor. Pastor Capone is on vacation
this week, so I'm filling in for him, but happy to be here continuing our series in the Psalms
as we study this week's Psalm 49. We'll be in the Psalms all summer. Psalm 49 is the text for today,
so we'll start with the Psalm and we'll go to the New Testament, which is one of the principles of
understanding the Old Testament, and it points us to Christ. So that's where we'll be reflecting on
both in Psalm 49 and if you want to follow along in your worship guide, Psalm 49, and have your Bible
open if you have it to Luke 12. So a convenient place to start would be Luke 12 in your Bibles and
have Psalm 49 in your worship guide and follow along with me as I read the text. Psalm 49, I'll be
reading from the English Standard Version. Hear this, all peoples, give ear all inhabitants of the world,
both low and high, rich and poor together. My mouth shall speak wisdom. The meditation of my heart
shall be understanding. I will incline my ear to a proverb. I will solve my riddle to the music of
the lyre. Verse 5, why should I fear in times of trouble when the iniquity of those who cheat
surrounds me, who trust in their wealth and boast of the abundance of their riches? Truly no man can
give to God the price of his life. For the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice,
that he should live on forever and never see the pit. For he sees that even the wise die. The fool and
the stupid alike must perish and leave their wealth to others. Their graves are their homes forever,
their dwelling places to all generations, though they called lands by their own names. Verse 12,
man in his pomp will not remain. He is like the beasts that perish. This is the path of those who
have foolish confidence. Yet after them people approve of their boasts. Like sheep, they are
appointed for Sheol. Death shall be their shepherd, and the upright shall rule over them in the morning.
Their form shall be consumed in Sheol with no place to dwell. But God will ransom my soul from the
power of Sheol, for he will receive me. Be not afraid when a man becomes rich, when the glory of
his house increases. For when he dies, he will carry nothing away. His glory will not go down after him.
For though while he lives, he counts himself blessed, and though you get praise when you do well for
yourself, his soul will go to the generation of his fathers who will never again see the light.
Man in his pomp, yet without understanding, is like the beasts that perish.
May the Lord add his blessing to the reading and the careful hearing of his word. Amen.
All right, we've talked about, or Pastor Capone talked about Psalm 2 last week, a psalm expressed in
poetry, which many of the psalms are. This psalm also is expressed in poetry, but this psalm we would
classify in the category of a psalm of wisdom, and you can see that from the first four verses.
Look at the beginning of the passage here. Verses 1 through 4 tell us that this is the author,
the psalmist, giving us wisdom, expressing it in poetry, but there's a specific category of psalm
where the psalmist is not principally giving us a prayer or even a song, but wisdom. Wisdom in the
sense that the Song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes and Job and Proverbs gives us wisdom to understand the
world, to interpret it rightly according to the word of God. So there are many definitions of wisdom,
but the Bible's definition gives us three primary characteristics, three characteristics of wisdom
that are in the passage here, in the assumptions behind what is wisdom. One is that wisdom is based
on knowing and fearing God. Job 28, 28 says, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn
away from evil is understanding. Wisdom is based in knowing and fearing God. Wisdom is knowing the Lord.
The second characteristic, wisdom is given by God. James 1, 5 tells us to ask for wisdom. He says,
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will
be given to him. Wisdom, like all gifts, comes from the Father of lights, the Father who gives gifts to
his people. Wisdom is one of those gifts. So if we are to seek wisdom, we must seek it from God,
because wisdom is given by God. And the third characteristic of biblical wisdom is that God,
wisdom alone, can reveal how God speaks to us through his creation. And that's the most important
characteristic for this passage today. It tells us how God speaks to us through his creation.
This is from Ecclesiastes 2, 6. The writer says, For the one who pleases him, God has given wisdom and
knowledge and joy. But to the sinner, he has given the business of gathering and collecting,
only to give to the one who pleases God. In other words, those without wisdom, those without the Lord,
they live their lives gathering and collecting, never understanding the purpose, the meaning behind
it all, which is what the writer of Ecclesiastes wrestles with through his whole book. They don't
understand. They don't understand the vanity of what they're subject to. The wise receive it. The wise who
know God receive it, because God explains it to him. The creation speaks of the glory of God. The
creation tells us about God's attributes, and we need wisdom to understand it. And that wisdom is given
by God. Wisdom is what God supplies for us to interpret the entire world as a revelation from him.
Now, have you thought about that? That the entire world is a revelation from God, but it reveals nothing
until we have wisdom that we can interpret it. That wisdom comes from the word of God. That wisdom
comes, in this instance, from Psalm 49, who teaches us, the writer teaches us about wisdom to interpret
the events around us. And only with those, those who have the Holy Spirit can hear what God has to say
through creation. Wisdom is, or creation is revelation to everyone, but only those with the Holy Spirit can
interpret it. Only those who are followers of the Lord can understand wisdom and understand the world.
The one who does not hear God's voice in creation is called, in the Psalms and in the Proverbs, a fool.
He's called a fool because he does not have wisdom. They do not have the Spirit of God that interprets
the world wisely, according to God's word. In verse 10, they are the fools. They are the stupid.
The fool says in his heart, Psalm 14, that there is no God. It's foolishness that cannot understand the world
as God speaking, as a creator expressing himself to his creatures. Put briefly, the only way we can know wisdom
is to hear it from the Lord. The only way we can know wisdom is to hear it from the Lord. Look at verses 3 and 4.
The writer's mouth shall speak wisdom. But how? How does the writer's mouth speak wisdom? It answers itself in verse 4.
By inclining his ear to a proverb. And here we have something rather amazing. What is the writer doing?
He's writing down what he has heard. He's inclining his ear. He's inclining it to listen. As a musician,
inclines his ear to the lyre, verse 4, so that his words might be in tune with what the lyre plays.
He's hearing what he's expressing. Where is he hearing it from? He's hearing it from God. This is what we call
inspiration. The writer's not speaking his own mind. He's speaking what he has received from God.
And this inspiration is the only way that we can have confidence in the Bible.
By knowing that God put his words in it. That it's not just the words of men.
The words of Psalm 49 are not the words of men. They're the words that God has expressed to men
that we might understand his word, as he's done throughout the entire Bible.
So in a psalm of wisdom, what we can expect to see is the psalmist explain the facts of our existence.
The just and the unjust facts. The things that give us comfort and the things that challenge and frustrate us.
He'll lay out those facts. He'll lay out a problem that we see as arising from those facts.
And we can expect him to interpret those difficulties in the light of what he's heard from God.
And what God has revealed to him. And that's what we see here. God in Psalm 49 gives his people
exclusive knowledge of what is a mystery to the rest of mankind.
What is the problem? We see it in verses, starting in verse 5. I'm going to read verses 5 to 10 again.
So follow along. Starting in verse 5 of Psalm 49.
So what's the problem that we see introduced?
Two problems. The problem of inequity, as well as the problem of death.
The problem of inequity and the problem of death.
There are the rich who trust in their wealth, and they gain an advantage over the rest.
And then at their deaths, there is no comfort knowing that we die the same death they do.
The just and the unjust alike perish.
So the problem first is inequity and injustice.
It's the question, why do the unjust rich cheat and gain advantage over the rest of humanity?
Or put differently, in life, we seem to be unequal, the just and the unjust.
But we should be equal.
In life, we seem to be unequal, but we should be equal.
That's the first problem.
And the second problem is the problem of death.
Which asks the question, why must we all, rich and poor, wise and foolish, alike die?
In other words, in death, we're all equal, just and unjust.
But it shouldn't be that way.
So the first problem, in life, we're unequal, and it shouldn't be that way.
And the second problem, in death, we're all equal, and it shouldn't be that way.
So let's look at the first problem first, the problem of inequity.
The unjust rich seem to always gain the advantage.
And we know this to be true.
In fact, given the impunity with which men are able to trust in wealth,
you might be tempted to think that it's normal,
that it's even virtuous to be a rich man who, for instance,
leaves his wealth behind him to make a name for himself.
We even have a name for that in our culture.
We call it philanthropy.
And it's a noble thing for a rich man to leave his wealth behind,
the abundance of his wealth,
and when he dies, he leaves it behind for others.
But here's the stumbling block that the psalmist speaks about.
There's something about that kind of prosperity,
the prosperity of the wicked in particular, that causes us to fear.
It's not primarily that we envy them,
and when they gain wealth and prosperity,
although we do do that, we envy them.
But we look around the world and we see the world's reward system,
and we wonder, sometimes against our better instincts,
we wonder if we've missed out on something.
Those who are following the Lord,
have we missed out on something
because we're not seeing the rewards that the world gives?
Maybe you haven't seen any reward yet,
and you ask, are you doing the right thing?
Shouldn't you be seeing more prosperity
because you're following the Lord?
Maybe the fact that you're not as rich as your neighbor
is God's judgment against you.
Dig deep and see if you don't have that thought sometimes yourself.
Because no matter what your bank balances are,
you don't have to look far around you
to find someone who has more,
someone who you can envy,
because they have more than you.
So the prosperity of the fool and the wicked
can make you think that you're striving after the wrong things,
that you're following the Lord
and you're not seeing the world reward you for it.
But keep in mind that what's frustrating you about this
is God's patience and his kindness.
All people receive life and gifts and pleasure from God,
and they receive them on the basis of grace.
And all grace is good,
and all grace is beautiful regardless of who receives it.
Matthew 5.45 says,
He makes his sun rise on the evil and the good
and sends rain on the just and the unjust.
Remember, though,
that we are people
who have received immeasurably more
than what we call this common grace,
the grace that the unjust and the just receive alike.
We have much more than that,
than common grace.
So don't fear.
Verse 16.
Be not afraid when a man becomes rich,
when the glory of his house increases.
What you see,
the grace that God gives the just and the unjust alike,
is not true riches.
It's not the treasure that God has waiting
for the people who follow him.
It's grace.
We shouldn't envy or begrudge grace.
But we ought to look forward to the immeasurable riches
that we have in Christ,
rather than what we see.
So don't fear them,
the psalmist says in verses 8 and 9.
Don't fear the unjust rich,
but fear for them,
because the ransom of their life is costly
and can never suffice
that he should live on forever
and never see the pit.
A ransom, in biblical terms,
is just the cost to a purchase.
It's not like a kidnapping, typically.
We think of a ransom in terms of a kidnapping,
but it's not.
That's not the sense of the word here.
A ransom is the price for something.
A ransom is the price to cost
or to purchase or to redeem something.
If you have a mortgage,
you have a ransom to pay for your house.
That's the simple meaning of a ransom.
What we have in verse 8,
oh, and the pit, right?
The pit is an expression of death.
The Psalms use the pit a lot,
especially when death comes upon you unawares.
The grave is talked about as Sheol in the Psalms.
The pit has a specific connotation
that death comes up and catches you.
It's a trap.
The pit is a death trap,
as an animal falls into a pit
as he's captured by the hunter.
So what we have in verse 8
is that whatever the rich man accumulates,
there will not be enough there
to pay what's required to live forever.
The ransom of his life is costly,
and that's an understatement.
The ransom of his life
is much more than any riches
that he could accumulate.
This is the wisdom that God gives
to those who will hear it,
but wisdom that the foolish
and the unjust will not receive.
A foolish rich man
that we still remember,
we remember for now,
is Hugh Hefner,
of Playboy magazine fame.
You know the name.
Did Hugh Hefner's life of pleasure and ease
contribute anything
to the ransom for his life?
In all his wealth,
did he earn enough
for the price of his life?
No.
In fact, he's rightly the object of our pity,
not our envy.
He died,
and now all he owns
is a small plot of land
about six feet deep.
The wisdom that we have before us
says there are some things
that money can't buy.
Verse 7,
no man can ransom another
or give to God
the price of his life.
Now,
does Hugh Hefner have a legacy?
Does he have an estate?
Well, yes.
He has a legacy.
I would say he doesn't have an estate.
We talk about the term estate.
Estate comes from a Latin word,
meaning the place you stand in.
The place you stand in is your estate.
Now,
what Hugh Hefner has
after he dies
is not an estate in his mansion
because he doesn't have it.
It's given to others.
Is he still remembered?
Does he still have a legacy?
Yes.
Like many of the foolish rich,
their estates live on,
but they live on in the hands of others
after their deaths.
And this is what the Spirit says
about legacies.
They called lands
by their own names,
verse 11.
They made a name for themselves
in the lands that they left behind,
in the estates they left behind.
But in the end,
whether a legacy is a noble one or not,
they leave their wealth.
They leave their estate to others,
verse 10.
The truth is,
the glory,
or the legacy,
we could say,
they leave behind
will not bring them credit before God.
They're still left
with no place to dwell,
no estate remaining.
You've probably heard the story
of the two grave diggers
who are charged with burying a rich man.
The first grave digger says to the other,
this was a wealthy man.
How much,
how much do you think he left behind?
And what does the other one say?
All of it.
He left all of it behind.
That's another way of saying
you can't take it with you.
For all of us,
rich or poor,
the only earthly thing left to us
in death
is a six-foot deep plot of land
that serves as our grave.
And this is true of the rich and poor alike.
Verse 11.
Their graves are their homes forever.
The rich fool thinks
by leaving a legacy,
he somehow becomes less dead
at the end.
But we can see how foolish it is
to be the one who trusts in wealth,
knowing that at their death,
their estate will still be there,
their wealth will still be there,
it just won't be there for them.
So you can have a legacy,
you can be remembered,
it just won't make you any less dead.
You can leave an estate,
but it won't be yours.
We laugh rightly
because it's foolish.
And we will,
even the rich men will not admit
that I'm trying to beat death
by leaving my estate.
But we know in the heart,
in the heart of the unjust rich,
that's where their confidence is,
the confidence in wealth,
that I'll somehow become less dead,
that I will live on.
We even use those words,
I will live on in my estate.
I will live on in my foundation,
the foundation that I give
through my wealth.
So not only is the rich man foolish
to think that his estate
will make him less dead,
but he's foolish to think
that it can make him secure
in this life.
There is a rich fool
in Jesus' parable.
This is in Luke 12.
Who planned out his estate
for security.
For years to come,
not knowing that his soul
still belonged to God.
With all his wealth,
his soul still belonged to God.
And God was calling in the loan.
This is Luke 12,
starting in verse 16.
Jesus told them a parable,
saying,
the land of a rich man
produced plentifully.
And he thought to himself,
what shall I do?
For I have nowhere to store my crops.
And he said,
I will do this.
I will tear down my barns
and build larger ones.
And there I will store
all my grain and all my goods.
And I will say to my soul,
soul,
you have ample goods
laid up for many years.
Relax,
eat,
drink,
and be merry.
But God said to him,
fool,
this night your life
is required of you.
And the things you have prepared,
whose will they be?
So is the one who lays up
treasure in heaven,
treasure for himself,
and is not rich toward God.
You see,
Jesus shows us
how poorly this fool
has thought through his life
and how poorly he's thought
through his death
in particular.
You see,
he had wealth,
but his soul
still belonged to God.
And God was calling in the loan.
His estate
was not enough
to pay off that mortgage,
great as it was.
The ransom of his life
was too costly
even for him.
So what's the problem again?
The first problem,
the problem of inequity.
The unjust,
hoarders of wealth
seem to gain advantage
over the rest of humanity.
And the problem of death,
the poor and the innocent
join the unjust,
rich,
in the same death.
So the psalm begins
to answer the first problem
by showing us
another side of the problem,
the problem for the fool
who is the rich man
who trusts in wealth.
And that alleviates
some of the problem.
There's no longer
a reason to envy
the unjust rich,
but now there's reason
to pity.
To pity those
who trust in riches
because we know
they have a foolish confidence.
God's wisdom says
it's foolish
to confide in wealth.
As your security.
But so far
the inequity isn't removed,
but it's minimized.
It shows us
there's false sense
of confidence.
Their riches
only serve to numb them
as death
brings them unwittingly nearer.
Just like a shepherd
brings his sheep
peacefully
to be slaughtered.
Verses 13 and 14.
In the words of the psalm,
whatever you trust in
will lead you
to your shepherd.
If you trust in wealth,
then death
is your shepherd.
Verses 13 to 14.
This is the path
of those
who have foolish confidence,
yet after them
people approve
of their boasts.
Like sheep,
they're appointed
for Sheol,
or the grave.
Death
shall be their shepherd,
and the upright
shall rule over them
in the morning.
Their form
shall be consumed
in the grave
with no place
to dwell.
This is the path
of the foolish.
Like sheep,
they're appointed
for the grave.
Death shall be
their shepherd.
When the Bible
uses the imagery
of a shepherd,
it brings the idea
of simple,
unquestioning sheep
following their leader
wherever he wills
them to go.
This is how sheep are.
They happily
and unfailingly
go where their shepherd
leads them.
And the shepherd
is leading them
not to a green pasture
where they can feed
on rich grass,
but to a pit
where death
will feed on them.
Verse 14.
Now it's been said
that the Old Testament
believers didn't have
a view of the afterlife.
Christian commentators
say this often.
The Old Testament
believers didn't have
a view of the afterlife.
They had a view
of the promised land
that was an earthly
inheritance,
the land of Canaan,
that there just was
Sheol, the end,
the grave at the end
of life.
But the words of the psalm
tell us differently.
It's that there is
a death reserved
for the wicked
that's eternal,
one that consumes forever.
As Isaiah told,
he says it's a place
where the worm
does not die
and the fire
is not quenched.
This death
is being consumed
forever.
There's a biblical picture
of the fool for you,
a rich man
following his shepherd
to his miserable death,
but happily
and unquestioningly,
and happily in part
because he's surrounded
by his own fans
on the journey.
This is verse 13.
Yet after them,
people approve
of their boasts.
His self-satisfied happiness
turns out to be
the most foolish thing
of all.
It's happiness
that makes this mistake.
The mistake is
to think
that God must have
the same opinion
of them
as the people around them,
as their admirers
around them.
That's the fool's mistake,
to think that God
must think the same thing
of me
as my admirers,
as my flatterers
think of me.
They say,
if everyone thinks
I'm wonderful,
surely God must think
I'm okay.
the ease of wealth
and the adulation
of men
has the effect
of numbing you
to your own guilt
before God
and the enormous cost
of the ransom you owe.
So the lesson
of the rich fool
in Luke 12
is this,
so is the one
who lays up treasure
for himself
and is not rich
toward God.
And what makes
one rich toward God?
What makes you
rich toward God
is having your mortgage
paid off,
having the ransom
for the redemption
of your life
paid for.
That's treasure in heaven.
That's riches
toward God.
And those are the riches
that you trust in,
that followers of Christ
trust in beyond
earthly riches.
Now there is at least
a substantial portion
of an answer
to the question
about inequity
and death.
The inequity
of the unjust rich
lording it over the rest
is really an illusion.
There is the answer.
It isn't really
that they're better off,
that there is injustice,
because that reality
is an illusion.
It's foolishness
to believe
that the condition
can last for long,
the condition
of the unjust prospering,
for death
will bring the foolish
down and will consume them.
But it's also far
from providing comfort
to those of us
who understand
wealth to be fleeting,
who don't trust in riches.
It's probably
no comfort to you
that the unjust
and the just
will all die alike.
So the second problem
still remains.
The second problem
is the problem of death.
The comfort comes
and not the answer
to the question
for why must we all
suffer death alike,
but in pointing us
beyond wealth
and beyond our deaths.
That's where verse 15 goes.
If you continue with me
to verse 15,
but God will ransom
my soul
from the power
of the grave,
for he will receive me.
A but God
in the Bible
always brings good news.
And here's a but God
that we need
to pay attention to
because it brings
the reversal.
It brings the wisdom
that explains
the paradox,
the frustrating reality
of life
in an unjust world.
A but God
like the but God
in Acts 13.
When Paul and Barnabas
were speaking
in the church,
the burgeoning church
in Antioch,
and they're sharing
the gospel with the people,
they said of Jesus
that they took him down
from the tree
and laid him in a tomb.
But God
raised him from the dead.
The but God
brought good news.
And in Romans 5,
when Paul says,
there's not many places
you will find
a just person
dying for another person.
He says in Romans 5,
one will scarcely die
for a righteous person,
but God
shows his love for us
in that while
we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.
The but God here
is that he will ransom
my soul
from the power of Sheol,
from the power
of the grave,
for he will receive me.
Remember that wisdom
is knowing that God,
that everything in creation
is God revealing
something to us.
If we have wisdom,
we will see God speaking
wherever we find death.
When we see the death
of the unjust rich,
we see their worldly gain erased.
When we see the death
of God's people,
we look at them
and we see the hope
that they finally gained.
They live their lives
in an unseen hope
that they now see.
And it reminds us
that we share
in the same hope.
We need that reminder
because we are living
by what we see
and what we see
is injustice.
We need to be reminded
by the saints
who have gone before us
that the hope
that they did not see
is a hope they now see
and a hope
that's waiting for us.
I'm reminded of the saints
who have died
in the last five years
in our church family.
Since we've been here,
I'm surrounded
by their witness already
to their hope in death
because they were rich
toward God.
God.
This isn't all
that we've seen die,
saints who've died
in the church,
but in the last five years,
David Erickson,
Jane Hudson,
Stephen Clark,
and just in the last
several weeks,
Doug McClure
and Walt Pinson.
That's a lot of death
in a congregation
our size
in a rather short time.
But if we're wise,
we'll see God
speaking to us
through all of the deaths
of these,
our brothers and sisters.
If we're wise,
we'll see God's word
explaining their deaths
to us
because what we don't see
is what they see.
They see their hope realized.
They don't walk
by faith anymore.
They walk by sight.
Look at verse 15 again.
But God will ransom
my soul
from the power
of the grave
for he will receive me
as he has received
my brothers and sisters.
In this but God,
wisdom swoops in
and makes a perplexing
and a despairing reality
a reason for comfort.
It says that there are,
though there are
no worldly riches
that will make you
less dead
at the end of your life,
your soul
has its ransom paid.
Death won't hold power
over you
and you won't be
consumed by it.
The words are,
he will receive you.
And you can say this
about yourself.
He will receive me.
Mark 10, 45,
the son of man came
to give his life
as a ransom for many.
The faithful dead,
the saints,
have been received by God
because the ransom
for their lives
was paid.
When the psalmist
got old
and he saw his brothers
and sisters die,
he was able to say
to his comfort,
yes, I'll share
in their same death,
but I share
in the same hope as well,
that he will receive me.
So again,
don't listen to anyone
who tells you
that the Old Testament saints
didn't believe
in eternal life
after death
because it's there.
It's also there
in verses 14 and 15.
In death,
look at verse 14,
there is a morning,
the upright shall rule
over them in the morning.
There is a morning
after death
in which the foolish
being shepherded
by death
will be brought
into judgment
and ruled
by the upright,
the saints.
The saints of God
will rule men
and angels
in the kingdom to come
and this is a morning
in which God's people
will be received
into their eternal dwelling.
Verse 15,
he will receive me.
And the morning
after death
is the first time
we will see
with our own eyes
what real riches are.
The first time
we will see it.
The treasure
that we did not see,
the treasure
that earthly riches
distracted us from,
we'll finally see them
with our own eyes.
So believer in Christ,
your shepherd
is also leading you
and he's a better shepherd
than death
because he's leading you
not to your deaths,
he's leading you
through death
and into glory
as he did
with the saints
that went before us.
It's like there are
two shepherds
leading two flocks.
They're both walking
in the same direction
and both apparently
to the same place
and you,
when you're young,
you're on the first part
of this journey
with your shepherd
and you don't see the end,
you just see two flocks
going to approximately
the same place
but as you get older,
you start to see the end.
You start to see the end
of where the shepherd
is leading his people
and you look over
to that other flock
and you see
happy sheep,
fatter sheep,
sheep that seem
to be doing very,
very well
but then as you approach
the end
of where the shepherd
is bringing the sheep,
you start to see the pit
and you see
that shepherd
is leading his people
to a pit
and you start to see
where the paths diverge.
This is what age does
and this is why kids,
you're not thinking
about death very much
because you are a sheep
at the very beginning
of your journey.
You don't see
what's up ahead.
You start to think
about that as you get older
as your shepherd
is leading the flock
towards their final destination
and you look over
to those happy,
unfailingly,
unquestioningly sheep
and you see
they're being led
to the pit.
Death is their shepherd
and your death
waits for you too.
You're heading
to the same place.
You're heading to death
but unlike the flock
of fools,
that's not where
you will remain
because your shepherd
is not leading you
to death,
he's leading you
through death.
What does Psalm 23 say?
The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want.
He makes me
to lie down
in green pastures.
He leads me
beside still waters.
He, what?
He restores my soul.
At death,
your soul is collected
but in Christ,
he restores it to you.
Everyone sees death
but believers in Christ,
your shepherd
restores your soul
to you.
At the end of the Psalm,
when the psalmist
restates the problem
that he introduces
at the beginning,
he says,
man in his pomp
yet without understanding
is like the beast
that perish,
verse 20.
The solution is written there
right in the statement
of the problem,
yet without understanding
or yet without wisdom.
Yes, all alike die,
the rich and the poor die,
and in your lives
you'll have front row seats
to the abuse of wealth
and the prosperity
of the wicked.
But God's word
is interpreting that
for us
and it's revealing
a truth,
a life-giving truth
that what you trust in
leads you to your shepherd.
If you trust in the Lord,
Jesus Christ is your shepherd.
He's not leading you
to death.
He's leading you
through death.
Psalm 73,
which we read earlier today,
says,
I am continually with you.
You hold my right hand.
You guide me
with your counsel
and afterward
you receive me
into glory.
There is a hope
of glory after death.
The Old Testament
saints knew it.
We know it
because we have a shepherd.
We have a shepherd.
We know that it will
bring us out of the pit,
out of death,
because our soul
belongs to him
and his desire
is to return it
back to us.
If you continue
reading Psalm 73,
you find these words,
whom have I in heaven
but you?
And there is nothing
on earth
that I desire
besides you.
Those are wise words,
words of one
who is rich toward God,
whose ransom,
their mortgage
for their life
has been paid,
who sees nothing
of worth
when it's set beside
the shepherd
who sits in heaven,
leading us,
leading us through death.
Let's pray.
Father, make us
to be a people
who walk in this wisdom,
who are rich in God
and have the understanding
to know how fleeting
are our small
and our worldly riches.
Whatever our estate is,
their small
and worldly riches.
Give us the sense
not to envy the wealth
of those around us,
but to seek your kingdom
first and always
and do this
by the power
of your Holy Spirit
and in the name
of Christ our Savior.
Amen.