From Amber Balista
Reading the psalms one day at a time has become a marker of time for me. Not unlike the Christian year is a marker of time for all of us. As we approach the end of lent and time continues to turn on, let us continue to dwell with the word of God in following the life of Jesus and in listening for what God is speaking in this Psalms. Psalm 49, in the Common English Bible translation.
Psalm 49 Listen to this, all you people!
Listen closely, all you citizens of the world—
2 people of every kind,
rich and poor alike!
3 My mouth speaks wisdom;
my heart’s meditation is full of insight.
4 I will pay close attention to a proverb;
I will explain my riddle on the lyre.
5 Why should I be afraid in times of trouble,
when the wrongdoing of my bullies engulfs me—
6 those people who trust in their fortunes
and boast of their fantastic wealth?
7 Wealth? It can’t save a single person!
It can’t pay a life’s ransom-price to God.
8 The price to save someone’s life is too high—
wealth will never be enough—
9 no one can live forever
without experiencing the pit.
10 Everyone knows that the wise die too,
just like foolish and stupid people do,
all of them leaving their fortunes to others.
11 Their graves are their eternal homes,
the place they live for all generations,
even if they had counties named after them!
12 People won’t live any longer because of wealth;
they’re just like the animals that pass away.
13 That’s how it goes for those who are foolish,
as well as for those who follow their lead, pleased with their talk. Selah
14 Like sheep, they’re headed straight for the grave.
Death will be their shepherd—
but those who do right in their hearts will rule over them come morning!
their forms wasting away in the grave
rather than having some dignified residence.
15 But God will save my life from the power of the grave,
because he will take me.
Death does not make distinctions. The rich, poor, wise or foolish will all pass from this life. humans are no different than animals or the lilies of the valley if you prefer Jesus metaphor. Of course, we don’t need to remind of this, especially not now. We are being reminded every day just how much we are all equally suspectable to infectious disease and all of us are responsible to one another to prevent the spread of Covid-19 as much as we can. No amount or wealth, status or power will make someone invincible. As the psalmist has said, even a rich person cannot keep their wealth in death and certainly they cannot pay God for their life “the price to save someone’s life is too high.” Those who think otherwise are like sheep with death for a shepherd.
Here is the turn of the text, the great but. “But God will save my life from the power of the grave,” says the psalm. God, not I, will do the saving. We cannot save ourselves, but we have a God who is faithful in his love of us and of all creation. This is where our hope is found. In the Lord who has already paid the price for our lives, in Jesus Christ. The only wealth that could ever save is the wealth of God’s unfailing love in the person of Christ who by his faith gave himself for us. Our good shepherd is the one who would go to the cross and endure death in our place. Death no longer has the last word. When we hope in God and not in our own power to save ourselves, the grave can no longer hold us down. Those who think they can buy their own lives or will their own way to complete assurance of life, they are foolish. We are foolish when we live this way too. The good news is we don’t have to live this way. We don’t have to stock up our houses or run afraid of this virus because we know death has already been defeated. We don’t need to do the defeating because it has already been done for our sake. In our unprecedented and unpredictable time it seems like things are changing each new day we can be sure of one thing that will not change, that Jesus Christ reigns with the Father through the Spirit now and forever. May our hope be in God.
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