-One of the things you probably know about me if you’ve been coming here for any bit of time is that I LOVE history! I love reading history, I love studying history, I love visiting historical things. And 2 years ago, I got to go on the trip of a lifetime around Europe with some other pastors, which means you all will regularly be subjected to pictures and stories of my time from that trip! Partly because it was connected to church history. I got to visit London, Geneva, Rome, Edinburgh, Oxford and visit some places that had a profound influence on the direction of Western Christianity. But it wasn’t just Christianity that has been influenced by these areas, so I want to share some pictures that I took of significant things I saw. I’ll share a bit about each one, but I want you to see if you can figure out what they all have in common. Are you ready?

-This is a bust of the Roman emperor Claudius, who appears 3 times in the book of Acts, which we’re going to be working our way through this Fall, so it’s been on my mind. This bust lives in the British Museum in London.

-Up next is Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking (who asked to be buried by Newton). Isaac’s comment is in Latin, Stephen’s is the English version, and this is at Westminster Abbey in London.

-In the same building, is the tomb of King Edward the 1 who it says was born in 1239 died in 1307

-Just to prove I was there, too, that’s the Metropolitan Tabernacle, where Charles Spurgeon preached, was dedicated as a building in 1861 (Spurgeon died in 1892)

-Next is a random building I walked by in Edinburgh, Scotland, which according to this sign is where Charles Darwin lived while studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh from 1825-1827.

-Also in Edinburgh is St. Giles Cathedral, where the Reformer John Knox (the statue, not the other guy, that’s my friend Brent) ministered during the Reformation. He had multiple run ins with “Bloody Mary” (Queen Mary I), as well as Mary, Queen of Scots during his life as pushed for Reformation beliefs, and that yellow square in the middle of that parking space marks where he was buried.

-Here is a memorial of where John Calvin used to live in Geneva. Not that building because that building was torn down, but it’s posted there in memory of where he lived while he was a pastor. 

-This is the Reformation wall (another evidence I was actually there) with statues of: John Calvin, John Knox (who you heard about earlier), William Farel (who coerced Calvin to serve in Geneva) and Theodore Beza (followed Calvin as the pastor in Geneva)

-Also, going even further back than the Reformation, here’s a sign in Geneva that says this road is the path Julius Caesar walked when he visited Geneva in 58 AD (which means the Apostles would have still been alive)

-Lastly, this is the stone marking the spot where Nero is buried in Rome. That’s it! Did you figure out what all these pictures have in common? They’re all markers of people who are dead. Today’s Psalm tells us that death is the great equalizer of everyone. The mortality rate has held steady throughout history at 100% (with the exception of Jesus), and in Ps. 49:11, we read, “Their graves are their permanent homes, their dwellings from generation to generation, though they have named estates after themselves.” Let’s read the rest of the Psalm together:

READ/PRAY (pg. 497-8)

1. True Wisdom (1-4)

-The first 4 verses are an introduction that are saying what this Psalm is about, and there’s a couple things that make this Psalm unique. First comes in the first 2 verses. It says this Psalm is for ALL peoples, low and high, rich and poor. Generally, the Psalms are director to the people of God, this one is for every person who has ever lived, which is why it’s referred to as a wisdom Psalm, hence why it sounds more like the books of Proverbs or Ecc. than Psalms.

-And the entire purpose of those books is seeking to answer the question: what is wisdom? How do we get it? I would define wisdom as living in line with reality. That means aligning ourselves with God’s intent and design for us as humans. That also means sin is pushing against God’s design for us, which is what we see throughout the wisdom literature. Wisdom literature does all sorts of comparisons between the way of wisdom versus the way of foolishness. And the other thing about this Psalm is vs. 3-4 use basically every word the OT uses to talk about God’s wisdom: wisdom, understanding, proverb, and riddle. What’s slightly different about this is the last word: lyre. This is meant to be sung together. So, this wisdom Psalm is a song that contains wisdom for all people from all socio-economic backgrounds to learn a truth together. 

• A Worldly Ransom (5-14)

-Remember what I said earlier about the comparison between wisdom and foolishness in the wisdom literature? That’s where the Psalmist jumps to next, he asks a question: why should I fear in times of trouble? And the implicit answer is: he shouldn’t! But what times of trouble is he talking about in this Psalm?

-The second half of vs. 5 tells us: the iniquity (that’s another word for sin) of his foes is all around him. Once again, that can be any number of things, right? Sin isn’t restricted to just 1 thing, so which sin? Look at vs. 6, that’s where we see the focus of the rest of this Psalm! It’s addressing the way of the foolish who look to their salvation and satisfaction in worldly wealth.

-He uses 2 interesting financial words in vs. 7 that we have use often when we talk about salvation: redemption and ransom. These are terms the wealthy would know because redemption is the price paid to free something (free an animal from another person, in this time you could free a slave with a financial payment), and a ransom is paid when something or someone in their household is captured by someone else (which the wealthy would have been more susceptible to). We see this even today, people are kidnapped and held hostage until a ransom is paid, but it isn’t generally the poor it happens to. And each of those things would have a price limit, but what would the price be when the ransom needs to be paid to God? Anyone have a way of measuring that price? It’s incalculable, at least in our minds.

-Jesus talks about this idea in Matt. 16: The last question Jesus asks is the same one we’re seeing in this Psalm: what ransom would someone pay to live longer? And isn’t that a temptation around us all the time? There’s a guy named Bryan Johnson (spelled differently), who’s described as a “biohacker” who supposedly spends $2 million each year to attempt to live forever. He’s claimed to have the “biological age” of a 17-year-old, despite actually being 48. It turns out, he has an autoimmune disease that is fatal. Friends, all the money in the world can’t save you from death, and for those of us in Christ, death isn’t something to fear. Yes, it’s an enemy, but death has been defeated! 

-And the Psalmist goes on to say exactly that point in vs. 10, who dies? Everyone. Just as we saw at the beginning of this Psalm, he uses a few words to describe everyone: wise, foolish, and stupid, and all of us are somewhere in that spectrum, right? 

-At some point, if Jesus doesn’t return, all of us will join the rest of humanity in the grave. Graveyards bear this out, don’t they? The checking account of everyone at a graveyard is exactly the same, they left every penny behind. This is one of the saddest things about the Egyptian Pharaohs that we’ve uncovered, they’re buried with all their treasure for the afterlife, but they didn’t take them to the afterlife, they’re sitting in museums all over the world.

-The last part of vs. 11 talks about this idea. Just like my visits to all those places in Europe with plaques and statues named after people, they’re just as dead as the person who died destitute and was buried in an unmarked grave. Even though they’ve worked their hardest to preserve their reputation in the world the only thing that is permanent is their living in the grave.

-Vs. 12 becomes a bit of a theme that serves as the markers of this Psalm, because it’s repeated almost verbatim in the last verse. One of the realities about humans is we have the same trajectory as every animal: death. We’re more than animals (one philosopher said we’re the only animals that think about being animals) in that we’re created as God’s image, but we end up in the same place: dead.

-And for those who live as if their riches make them better than others, that is the end of everything for them, as well as their followers. 

-Selah – Pray through whether or not you’re viewing life through this worldly view of material wealth determining your standing. Keller “Lord, I often catch myself imagining how much greater life would be if I had more. I also quietly ‘boast’ in my heart when I see myself able to afford certain goods and inhabit certain places. Save my heart from such shallowness and foolishness.” (Songs of Jesus)

-The Psalmist makes an interesting comparison in vs. 14 comparing death to a shepherd. What kind of a shepherd do you think death would be? Contrast that with the picture we see of God as a shepherd in Ps. 23

-Do you think death would lead you to green pastures and still waters or renew your life? Death is a horrible shepherd where the outcome is just destruction! That’s where wisdom is aligning yourself to God’s ways.

-The last sentence of vs. 14 says that while they used their money to advantage themselves on earth, the opposite will happen to them in eternity. 

-Jesus tells a parable with a similar focus in Luke 16 about a rich man and a poor man named Lazarus. From the beginning of the story it looks like 1 of these men is blessed and the other is cursed. But then we get a glimpse behind the curtain, after they’re both on the other side of life their situations are reversed. The rich man asks Father Abraham to send Lazarus to put a drop of water on his tongue, and here’s how Abraham responds: 

-And what’s amazing about this story is that the rich man is never even named, as if Jesus is using his as a stand in for everyone Psalm 49 is talking about. The man goes on to ask Abraham to send Lazarus to his brothers to warn them about death, and Abraham says they have Moses and the prophets, who they didn’t listen to, and the parable ends saying: 

-Guess what? Someone did rise from the dead and did tell us exactly how to ensure that we don’t go to the place of torment, which is where this Psalm goes next:

• An Eternal Ransom (15-20; Heb. 9)

-I think the biggest and most significant 2 words in the Bible are the beginning of this verse: but God. In one of his many explanations of the gospel message, Paul in Eph. 2 says it this way: 

-Friends, this is the best news in the world! We’re all tempted to look with jealousy at those who make more than us, and not just that but we’re also tempted to look down on those who make less than us, aren’t we? How do you feel when you drive up next to someone begging for money at a stoplight? Do you pull over to the far lane to get away from them? Do you pretend they’re not there? Do you pray for them? Do you smile at them? There’s times where each of those responses may be appropriate, depending on the safety of the area you’re in! This isn’t meant to cast judgment on you, especially if you’ve been taken advantage of in the past, but I think it’s worth remembering that financial success doesn’t necessarily always come from God. And the human temptation is to look to worldly success instead of looking to God who is rich in mercy and will lavishly pour out that mercy on His children!

-The Psalmist says the exact same thing, even though he didn’t know the name “Jesus” millennia before He was born. Here he says the gospel message this way: But God will redeem me from the power of Sheol (death, the grave) because He will take me.

–Selah – take some time to pray and thank God for the 2 words at the beginning of this verse, “but God” who did rise from the dead and tell us exactly how to live a wise life

-Reiterating the question he asked at the beginning all the way back in vs. 5, we’re reminded to not be afraid when someone gets rich, or when his investments go up in value, because it has no bearing on their eternal soul. When he dies, he’ll have the same investments as everyone else who’s dead, you can’t take it to the other side with you.

-Vs. 18 is kind of weird, what seems to be taking place is the second half is what the rich person says to himself. He’s blessing himself, taking and spending his money on whatever he wants, then says to himself “you do well for yourself,” and finally the Psalmist interjects once again with wisdom in vs. 19

-This is the final reminder that even the wealthy end up in the same place as the poor: dead. By saying they will never see the light, the OT often picks up the idea of salvation coming with the morning, but for the rich who died without wisdom that morning salvation will never come.

-Vs. 20 is almost a repeat of vs. 12 but with 1 distinct difference, here, I’ll put them next to each other up on the screen so you can see it:

-In vs. 12 we see the reminder that humans are destined to be like the animals in that we’ll all die, what vs. 20 is doing is saying there is a difference among humans. Some humans die “without understanding” which means there’s the option of dying “with understanding,” and not ending up the same as the animals who are here one day and gone the next. 

-There’s a verse in the book of Hebrews that answers the unanswered questions of this whole Psalm. Vs. 7-8 said the wealth and abundant riches can’t redeem a person or pay back his ransom to God since the price of redeeming him is too costly. Which is why those two words that we looked at matter so much: but God. 

-Did you catch what the Psalmist is saying throughout this? The entire wealth of the world put together isn’t enough to pay God off for the consequences of 1 person’s sin. All the wealth in the world will someday pass away, but any 1 single sin has eternal consequences against the eternal God who created everything. But God paid what we couldn’t, He gave us Himself, which includes all the riches of His glory in the heavenly realm. Riches that we get to see little glimpses of here. I was struck this week that what we call “grace”, God’s undeserved and unearned favor poured out on us is nothing less than getting God Himself! Friends, when you’re saved, you are indwelled by the living God, you are united together to Him. Isn’t that incredible? Heb. 9:15

-This verse tells us that Jesus’s death paid that ransom. We were in bondage to sin, the only possible outcome for everyone was death, which is why Jesus had to die. But even death wasn’t strong enough to defeat God, so death spit Jesus back out. Friends, death no longer has power over anyone who is walking in the way of wisdom, another way of saying that is walking in the way of Jesus. If you follow Him, if you obey Him, everything changes, both here and then. 

-This is where the good news of the gospel is actually good news. Friends, Jesus told us that we have access to every spiritual blessing. Our spiritual bank account is LOADED. But we don’t have complete access to it right now. We get a stipend now, but the full inheritance is waiting for us. And it doesn’t come about by accumulating more stuff now, it comes by being faithful now. God brings people from all sorts of backgrounds here: wealthy and poor, young and old, and He invites us to use our gifts to be a blessing to each other. Are you demonstrating your faithfulness by using whatever resources God has given you to be a blessing to others? That’s what’s going to carry over into eternity, not building shrines to yourself, not naming buildings after yourself: using your resources as a way to be a blessing to others instead of building up more recognition for yourself is what shows that you’re living wisely, living in line with reality, and living as someone who is following in the way of Jesus.