Click here to read PSALM 49 in poetic form.
Background
The title includes “for the sons of Korah.” Regarding the sons of Korah, I Chronicles 9:19 says: “And Shallum the son of Kore, the son of Ebiasaph, the son of Korah, and his brethren, of the house of his father, the Korahites, were over the work of the service, keepers of the gates of the tabernacle: and their fathers, being over the host of the Lord, were keepers of the entry.” They were responsible for service in the tabernacle and later the Temple.
This Psalm includes the Hebrew term “Selah,” which means to pause. Some Bible teachers say this connected the truths that come before and after the term. In this Psalm, the two “Selah” pauses show man’s hopelessness without God at the beginning and end, and the hope of resurrection through the Messiah in the middle of the Psalm.
Structure
(Verses 1-5) Fearless in the face of evil
(Verses 6-11) Man alone cannot conquer death
(Verses 12,13) Man like a beast that perishes
Pause
(Verses 14,15) God rescues the Messiah from death
Pause
(Verse 16) Fearless in the face of evil
(Verses 17-19) Man alone cannot conquer death
(Verse 20) Man like a beast that perishes
Key Scriptures
Verses 8,9—“(For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever: ) That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption.” Without the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, no one can have eternal life and be released from “corruption.” (For information on redemption, see the blogs How Much Are You Worth? and Jesus Christ: “I am” in the Gospel of John, Part 1.)
Verse 15—“But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me.” This was Jesus Christ’s great hope.
Matthew 12:40: “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
Mark 8:31: “And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.”
Mark 9:31: “For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day.”
Mark 10:34: “And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him: and the third day he shall rise again.”
Luke 24:46: “And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day.”
Verse 17—“his glory shall not descend after him.”
Without the hope of Christ’s return, life is vain and no “glory” from this life will continue.
I Corinthians 15:17-19: “And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”
But Christ is risen, and our labor for him in this life will bring future glory.
I Corinthians 15:58: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” (See also I Peter 1:7,8,11,21; 4:13; 5:1,4,10,11; II Peter 1:3.)
FOR FURTHER STUDY
All 150 of The Psalms in Poetic Form are available from Amazon in a book, either Large Print or a smaller Bedside Reader. Also available for free with a Kindle Unlimited membership. Enjoy!
The entire blog series is now available in the publication The Psalms: Background & Structure with Key Scriptures Explained.
