The Wealth That Can Ransom a Soul

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.