Psalm 49 Message: The reality in this world of wicked men who are also powerful is a dreadful one.

We know that God is all-powerful and that he hates evil. And yet, he seems to at least permit the existence of wicked men in this world – who are not only allowed to exist in God’s world – but they’re also really rich and powerful and influential. They oppress people – righteous people – God’s people.

And so, God’s people can struggle with how to deal with the presence and reality of rich, powerful wicked men in this life. Should we fear them? Does their presence indicate that God is somehow deficient in his operating of this world? Should we even abandon our faith and adopt the principles and practices of these wicked men who seem to have so much success in this life? Maybe if we emulate their behavior, we’ll have the same degree of success in this life!

Well, Psalm 49 is going to answer these questions – and will do so in the negative. So, let’s turn our attention to Psalm 49 – where we’re going to be told how to think about wicked powerful men.

Now, Psalm 49 is a reflective or meditative psalm. The psalmist here is going to be leading us in meditating on the following fact – We Shouldn’t Fear Powerful Wicked Men… Because They Will Die Some Day… but God Will Redeem You from Death. (maybe repeat…)

And let me ask – are you aware of some wicked men who are in positions of tremendous power these days? Really, I think it’s hard to find a powerful man who isn’t wicked in our day, unfortunately. Not impossible, but difficult. So, this psalm is aimed at 1) helping us think about these people and 2) to live even though the presence of these people can be so discouraging.

Now, the structure of the psalm – just like every reflective or meditative psalm – is in three parts – an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. And we’ll see each of these in this psalm as we go through studying it.

We’ll start by just reading the superscription and then moving on from there.

<[To/For] the [chief Musician/Choir Director/music director],

And now we’re going to see the psalmist preparing us for what he’s about to say in this psalm. And he takes verses 1 through 4 to do this.

In other words, this section that constitutes the psalmist trying to grab our attention takes up about 1/5 or 20% of this psalm of 20 verses. So, I’d say that this is pretty important in the psalmist’s mind – that we get good and ready to hear what he’s about to say.

So, first of all, everyone – no matter where they live – must receive this psalm.

KJV Psalm 49:1 [Hear/Listen to] this, all [ye people/peoples/you nations!];

So, this psalm isn’t just for Israel. It’s for all people or even all nations. It’s for all the inhabitants of the world. Its intended audience is universal.

Furthermore, everyone – no matter their social standing – must receive this psalm.

2 Both low and high,

And in light of the fact that this psalm is aimed at helping the righteous to think about wicked and rich people – I think it’s really interesting that the rich themselves are called on to pay attention to this psalm. The ones about whom this psalm is written are the very ones who also need to hear this message – th