Psalm 49

Well, good morning.

We come to Psalm 49 here in our Summer Psalm series.

Means that we're one psalm away from being a third of the way through the whole book of Psalms, but I love this Summer Psalm series because it just gives us an opportunity to dig into the different experiences of life and look at them from a godly perspective.

We come to Psalm 49, and it's not a psalm of praise.

It's not a psalm of prayer.

It's not even like you know a psalm of lament, like I typically tend to wind up with on these.

This is a wisdom psalm.

And wisdom psalms are maybe like the book of Proverbs, you know, giving us godly wisdom, nuggets of truth to help us live the life that we're called to live.

And so it should be very practical.

And as we look at verses five and six, we can see there's just this strong indictment of trusting in wealth, trusting in status.

So to turn that into something actionable for us today, we might just say, hey, don't hope in your status.

Now, if that's the primary message of the Psalm, and I really think it is, isn't that a no-brainer?

You know, as a as a Christian, I've grown up in the church, and this is very kind of standard Christian doctrine.

Don't hope in your will.

Don't hope in your status.

Alright.

Even in the non-Christian world, secular thinking tells us, you know, money can't buy me love.

You know, the best things in life are free.

I think that was the Beatles.

Both of those.

But you know, we could keep on going here.

It says, you know, you can't take it with you when you go.

Mo money, more problems.

We talk about gold diggers, we talk about get rich quick schemes, we talk about greed that keeps us poor.

Goes on and on and on.

So it seems like, gosh, this is a bit of a no-brainer.

Shall we just leave it at that and say, hey friends, don't hope in your status, and close in prayer?

Well, I don't think so.

Number one, Mark would kill me.

But also, I think there's two reasons that we really need to dig into this.

Number one, of course, God's word is not just a slogan.

There's subtleties and things to unpack in this psalm to help us to understand and to see what God is telling us in it.

And secondly, I think the idea of not hoping in our wealth, in our status, it's more subtle than we realize.

So as we seek to unpack subtleties and as we seek to have these ideas and these truths uh change us, transform us, conform us more to who God has made us to be, let's go to Him in prayer.

Lord, we do thank you for your word, and we thank you that we can we can come to you.

We thank you that we can uh just see where you are calling us and leading us to change, to grow.

We pray that as we as we do dig into this psalm, Lord, that uh you would maybe uncover ways that we need to be changed, and that your spirit would work that out in us.

Let us uh understand this clearly, and uh yeah, thank you.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Now, I think this is a there's there's some subtlety in this, like I said, and so I'd like to share a story from the history of Ben, if I may.

So years ago, I was working for a guy, and he was, I wouldn't say hostile towards Christians, but fairly belittling, mocking.

You know, looked at these Christians as you know, weak-minded people and you know hypocrites or or just naive.

So he had seen a lot in the world that would make him doubt that there's a loving God.

And so when we'd have conversations, he'd work in the odd comment here and there of you know, sarcastic little jokes or or or remarks about these Christians.

And I gotta be honest, when I was first working for this man, I did the calculation.

I said, you know, I really probably could do something, could say something here, but you know, this man controls my you know my trajectory through the company.

This man is in charge of my career, and if I stand up to be counted with those Christians that he thinks are so lame, could that hurt my my prospects?

Could that be, you know, posing problems for me as I go through this company here?

So, you know, I did keep silent and I just kind of try to move the conversation on beyond that and laugh it off and and go from there.

What was I doing there though?

If you had asked me, if you'd said, hey, where is your hope in life?

I would have said, Oh, I hope in God.

But what was I living out?

I was actually living out that I had more hope placed in my career, in my, you know, where my stock was with my boss.

I was putting my hope in wealth, and I didn't even see it, I didn't even recognize it.

I remember the day that it that it dawned on me and then I realized what I had been doing.

And it was kind of one of those double double realizations.

On one side, I realized, yeah, I've been doing it wrong.

I've been looking at this completely wrong and I need to change.

But the second bit of it, the other side, was that if I'm living out my life as with God as my hope, then I'm going to trust and I'm going to recognize that whatever may happen to me in terms of my career, if I were to, you know, get stalled on the on the career path that I wanted to be on, if I should lose the ear of my boss, even if I were to get sacked, these were things that would be happening because I was doing the right thing, because I was living out who I was, who I am, you know, being true to what I believe and what I know to be true.

And at that point I recognized that it was God's work that got me this job in the first place.

It was God's work to provide for me and my material needs.

And so, if that's the case, then I should be putting my hope in God and recognizing that He's gonna provide for me even if I have to have some uncomfortable moments with my boss.

Now, I don't say this as a way to puff myself up and say, look, guys, I used to be this way, and now I've got it worked out.

Because, in all honesty, I still struggle with this.

There are still many times where I struggle to speak up, to say things that I think might, you know, put me in in the wrong light in somebody's eyes.

But this is just one way where I'm not living out the idea of hoping in God.

I'm hoping in something else.

And so I think if this is if this is true of me, you know, maybe it's true of somebody else listening to this as well.

And so I hope that we can we can look at this honestly and let God maybe uh pull out ways that we need to be hoping in things differently.

So let's look at that psalm, keep it open in front of us.

Verse 6 talks about people who boast of the abundance of their riches.

Verse 11 talks about people who called lands by their own names.

This points to wealth, to finances.

Verse 12 and verse 20 give us the phrase man in his pomp.

Now, pomp there, it's like pompous.

It means, you know, status, fame, honor, maybe power.

So to say not hoping in wealth might actually be a little narrow for this psalm.

Let's say let's not hope in our status.

But what does it mean?

I think to get to the heart of this psalm, there's three main questions we need to answer.

First of all, what does it mean to hope in something?

Second of all, why should we not hope in our status?

And third, if we're not to hope in our status, what should we hope in?

What does this psalm have for us here?

So, first off, what is it to hope in something?

We talk a lot about hope in the Christian faith.

And in some ways, I think Christians hope in a different way than the world hopes.

And the world will say things like, you know, I hope this or I hope that, I hope it doesn't rain, I hope I don't get the rona.

In that way, it's it's something of wishful thinking.

You know, in business, we would say things like, hope is not a strategy.

It's just wishing for something.

But when we talk about hope as followers of Jesus, it's not just a wish, it's a certainty that's not yet realized.

In Spanish, the word for hope and the word for wait are the same thing.

So it's something that we're waiting for.

It's a sense of expectancy.

Something that we're looking to happen.

And so where we place the ultimate hope of our lives is where we expect to find things like fulfillment, happiness, satisfaction.

If you've been around City Church any length of time, you'll have heard the phrase, hope is a rope.

So in life, what do we tie ourselves to?

What do we anchor ourselves to?

Think about mountain climbing or working on the side of a building or something like that.

You want to make sure that what you're tied off to is gonna last, is gonna hold up.

You're not gonna tie off to, you know, a rusty beam or a rotten branch.

That's not gonna work.

So, in the same way, we have to make sure in life that we're not putting our hope in something that's not gonna hold us.

Where do we see that in this psalm?

In verse 6, we see an idea of those who trust in their wealth.

This is about putting your hope in what you have in the world.

Verse 13 calls this foolish confidence.

Now, practically speaking, what does it mean to put my hope in something?

It can really be tricky to nail down, especially where we start to try to figure out the ultimate things that we hope in.

There's a lot in life that I can enjoy, a lot in life that I can be sad if I wouldn't have it.

But where they become ultimate, well then that becomes more of a thing.

That becomes my reason for living.

That becomes what I base my life on.

If we lose these things that become ultimate for us, we maybe lose our identity, our sense of who we are.

We maybe lose our reason for living.

That right there, I think gives us a really strong indication of why this concept is so important.

If I'm putting my hope in something that's not solid, then my whole life, my whole sense of self is in jeopardy.

It's true of status.

We'll talk about status in just a minute, but it's also true of other things as well.

If I put my hope in achievement, then my sense of identity, my sense of worth as a person is threatened when I come across somebody who's achieved more than me, or if it's been a while since I've achieved something, or if I face failure, I can crumble there.

If I put my hope in a romantic relationship, then my reason for living comes and goes, rises and falls based on how we're getting on.

I can put my hope in talent or comfort or beauty or reputation.

You know, we talk about you know fame, fortune, power, pleasure, these are kind of the pitfalls that we can place our hope in.

So that's what it means to place our hope in something, but why should we not put our hope in status?

I mean, everybody's chasing one way or another.

We're working to get something.

If you're a student, you're studying hard, working through your exams so that you can get that dream job.

If you're in a job, you're working to get that bonus, get that promotion, make your way along.

If you're raising kids, you're hoping that they're gonna grow up and become you know productive members of society and support you in the manner in which you become accustomed.

And at the same time, we're doing that, we want to be noticed, we want to be respected, we want to be cared for.

These are things that we all do.

So, what's wrong with making them ultimate, with with you know hoping in them in an ultimate sense?

Well, I can think of a couple reasons why hoping in status is not a good idea.

Number one, it's inconstant.

Think about people who have built fortunes only to see the market turn and lose everything.

Think about people who have built a name for themselves, you know, platform or you know, celebrity, and and then seen those fortunes reversed and lost it all.

There's no certainty that these things will remain.

Our status is not guaranteed, and if we root our lives in it, then we're gonna be disappointed at times.

The other thing that I'm that I might point to here is that sometimes we do get what we want.

We do achieve our dreams, and what do we find then?

Well, we find that it doesn't satisfy us in significant ways.

Oscar Wilde wrote this.

He said, In this world there are only two tragedies.

One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.

He said, Oscar got it.

You achieve your dreams, but it's not going to satisfy you.

The psalmist, however, gives us an even more profound reason.

So let's take a look at verses seven through nine.

I'm going to read them for you here.

It says, Truly, no man can ransom another, or 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.

So you see, worldly status can't keep us from death.

Look at verse 17, it says, For when he dies, he will carry nothing away.

His glory will not go down after him.

You can build a fortune, an empire, a brand, a following.

And according to verse 10, it just gets passed on to someone else after you die.

So why should we not hope in status?

It won't keep us from death, it won't help us in death, and it doesn't remain with us in death.

It is in the best of times.

A fleeting glory.

So we've looked at what it means to place our hope in something.

We've looked at why that something shouldn't be money or status, but now we need to answer an important question.

See if see if the psalmist gives us any clues here.

What should we hope in?

Now you may have noticed this psalm has very few mentions of God.

There's actually only two.

Verse 7 says that God is the one who holds the authority over life and death.

This is true because it is to God that one would have to give the price for his life.

But verse 15 says, But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol.

Sheol means the grave.

God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me.

Now this is just a statement of hope of something that the psalmist is looking ahead to that's not yet happened.

It's a certainty, not yet realized.

In the midst of all the negative statements about wealth and pomp and the grave, the psalmist places his hope in God's salvation.

So, what does it mean to put our hope in God?

Well, it means all the things that we've already talked about.

It means we wait for him, trusting that he's going to work everything out in the right ways.

It means we wait on him with expectancy.

It means that even though life may not turn out the way that I plan it, my life is anchored to him.

You know, there's a song that says there will be an end to these troubles, but until that day comes, still I will praise you.

Still I will praise you.

If I lose my job, my hope is in him.

If my family is in crisis, my hope is in him.

If my reputation is shattered, my hope is in him.

If I lose the ability to do the things that I love, my hope is in him.

Now, with all psalms, we're pointing to Jesus.

We're pointing ahead to things that will be completed in Christ.

So where the psalmist says we shouldn't hope in our status, Jesus says, Do not lay up for yourselves treasure on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.

Jesus says, For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

These are quotes from Jesus' ministry in the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Beyond this, we can look at the idea of ransom.

We saw that no man can ransom another in our Psalm.

Look at Jesus' words in Mark chapter 10.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

He says, For even the Son of Man came not to not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

So the ransom that we can't pay, this thing that we can't build up enough fortune or wealth or status or popularity to pay for ourselves, it's already been paid by Jesus.

And he doesn't put us on some kind of a layaway or installment program where we kind of work it off or pay it off over time.

This is a gift of grace, freely given, freely offered as we come to him in faith.

What about this idea of assurance?

Remember, verse 15 of our Psalm says, God will ransom my soul.

That's that's that solid assurance, that's hope, that's a certainty.

Well, we can look ahead to Jesus' words in the Gospel of John, where he says, Whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.

He says, I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

He says, This is the will of my Father that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

The psalmist says, God will ransom him.

Here we see not only is that ransom Jesus, but we have a sure and certain hope in him.

So you see, our hope is not wishful thinking.

It's not even rooted in somehow making ourselves good enough, making ourselves acceptable or able to hang in as God's people.

Our hope, our certain hope, our eternal hope as Christians is in Jesus, who gives us our status, who gave his life as a ransom, and who gives us the assurance of our eternal, certain hope.

Now I want to point out one thing here before we close.

You may be listening to me here this morning thinking, well, you know, that's all well and good for God's people.

Maybe you think God's people means, you know, people of a certain background, people of a certain moral character, people who've given money to the right causes or done the right things, said the right things, grew up in church.

Maybe you think it's it's about a certain ethnicity or social class.

But I want to point out the beginning and the end of this psalm.

Look at verses one and two.

It says, Hear this, all peoples, give ear all inhabitants of the world, both low and high, rich and poor together.

So the wisdom in this wisdom psalm, it's not.

Limited in who it's for.

And then look at where it ends.

In verse 20, it says, Man in his pomp, yet without understanding, is like the beasts that perish.

The distinction made here is not about wealth, it's not about status, it's not about affluence, it's not about race or background or any of these factors.

Whoever you are, wherever you come from, it's about understanding this idea.

Understanding that we can't hope in wealth or status or affluence or in any worldly system because they all lead to the grave.

Put your hope in the risen Lord Jesus, the one who is our ransom, even unto eternal life.

So may we as a church, both here in Dublin and around the world, live in the light of this understanding before a watching world.

Let's pray.

Our Father, we do thank you that you have granted this knowledge, this wisdom, this understanding to us as a people.

And that we can come to you in faith regardless of where we're coming from, you know, high and low, rich and poor, we are we are able to come to you.

And we can place our hope fully in this Jesus.

Because Jesus is eternal, and Jesus is not letting go.

Everything that we may build up for ourselves in this world, whether it's whether it's uh financial resources or popularity or anything, Lord, it will all crumble.

And yet we know that uh that Jesus does not fail.

And so we are so thankful for the opportunity to be part of his kingdom.

We pray that as we go forward from this, um, that you would show us where perhaps we've not been hoping in the right ways, in the right things.

And help us to live this life of understanding that is only possible in Christ and through the power of His indwelling spirit.

We pray all this in Jesus' name.

Amen.