The Riddle of Understanding • Psalm 49

59:02 Teaching begins

Notes

This psalm reminds you of things you already know, to show you your need for understanding. If you have understanding you can hold on to what is valuable, and not worry about the unimportant stuff.

Let’s read the first four verses.

1. The psalmist has a riddle for everyone in the world, vv. 1-4.

A. Riddles are problems that you think through to the solution. They are difficult and frustrating until you get the right answer. After that a riddle is easy. You thought it through until you came up with the answer. Now you have understanding and it’s yours.

B. The psalmist says this psalm is a riddle for every person in the world.

1. It doesn’t matter how much money, glory, power, you have, or how little.

2. It applies to all cultures, all languages, in all periods of human history.

3. This is a universal human experience.

C. The purpose of this psalm is wisdom and understanding, which is having mentally.

1. There is a physical having. If you can grasp something it becomes yours to use however you like. It is in your power.

2. Understanding is mental having. If you grasp an idea, you own it and use it. It’s a benefit. It’s a possession that you can keep.

D. Everyone should have understanding. God gave you the capacity to understand. If you don’t have understanding, you don’t have anything.

2. The psalmist shows he has understanding, vv. 5-9.

A. He asks this rhetorical question: why should I be afraid when wicked men and women do unfair things to get rich and powerful?

1. These people he calls supplanters, people who take your place in order to take what belongs to you. They find a way to get in and cheat you.

2. This is what Esau accused Jacob of doing. Jacob dressed up in Esau’s clothes and took Esau’s place so that Isaac would bless him instead of Esau.

3. So these people are lying, cheating, stealing, getting rich, and boasting about what a success they are. They probably wrote a book about it that’s a best seller.

4. I might get afraid that they’re getting all the good stuff and there won’t be any for me. I’m losing out because I believe in following God’s laws and they don’t follow any rules except “Look out for number one.”

B. But the psalmist isn’t afraid because he has understanding of the real situation. These guys aren’t a success. They are about to be destroyed forever.

C. Let them trust in their wealth, that it gets them everything they need. It provides better than God, it satisfies them.

D. The psalmist understands that money is not the true riches. Money can’t buy you out of judgment for your sins.

1. You’re going to die and stand before God in judgment. You’ve sinned against God your whole life.

2. The wages of sin is not a big fine that you can pay with money. God doesn’t care about money because it’s nothing to Him. He created everything. Gold is nothing to God. The wages of sin is death. You’ve already forfeited your life. You don’t have anything to give. You can’t redeem your brother or even yourself because you’re already guilty.

3. Death means you exist forever in a place where there is no God. Because there is no God there, there is nothing good. There is only regret, pain, torment, no hope of getting out. Once you enter hell, there is nothing beyond it. That’s eternal punishment.

E. The only thing that could save you is redemption.

1. It’s a ransom that buys you out of your condemnation. You pay that to God, and He releases you.

2. There has to be a just redemption because God is just. Sin has killed billions of people and is highly offensive to God because He is holy and perfect. He’s going to take vengeance on all who do wickedness, from the small to the great. No one gets away with wickedness and evil.

3.  Redemption is costly. According to God’s law there is redemption for those who are guilty and should die. Someone perfect who has never sinned against God can die for the guilty. But what benefit does that person receive? If there were a sinless, perfect person he would have to lose everything and his own life to save a worthless criminal. That doesn’t make any sense. That’s beyond my ability to do. I have to find a sinless, perfect person who would be willing to die for me?

F. There is no other way to be redeemed. The psalmist says, “Cease trying forever.” “Give up the idea once and for all.” You can’t redeem your brother, you can’t even redeem yourself. You are condemned and helpless.

3. The psalmist shows that those who trust in riches have no understanding, vv. 10-15.

A. Yes, they have understanding to get rich. They have understanding to know what they want and get it. They have lands and possessions. That’s more than I have.

B. But they lie to themselves about death.

1. Everyone knows that every man dies. Doesn’t matter if you’re wise or stupid, you’re going to die. Duh. Everybody knows that.

2. Everyone knows that you leave your wealth to others. You can’t take it with you, duh. Everyone knows that.

3. Knowing that death is coming and they’re going to lose everything, they try to make it not so bad. “Well, my name will live forever. My house will be known as the house where I lived. This land will be named after me.”

4. What good is it if your wealth survives but you don’t? Your house keeps existing, your lands still exist but you’re dead? You’re lying to yourself about death. You want to believe a lie rather than deal directly with death.

C. If you don’t deal with death you don’t think. Animals don’t think. You were created to think. If you don’t think you are living below what you were made to be. You live a degraded life. Sin has already ruined your understanding. Sin will destroy you for all eternity.

D. This is the riddle, the problem facing all people. They can’t think of the right answer because they’re not thinking. You know everyone dies, everyone leaves it all behind, and you pretend it’s not going to happen. How is it going to turn out? “I don’t know, I don’t think.” You’re going to die like an animal, but you will be in hell forever as a thinking human being.

4. Here’s the only solution to the riddle “How is it going to turn out?” God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, for He will receive me.

A. God Himself decided to lose all that He had to redeem you.

1. He emptied Himself. He gave up being the Most High, the sovereign who tells everyone else what to do. Everything we think necessary to being God, He left in heaven. Anywhere you go from up is down.

2. The distance between God and man is infinite, but He came down to be conceived and born as a baby. God became the Servant of God, Jesus Christ.

3. Like these supplanters He took our place, but not to benefit himself. He became a curse for us. He took the full wrath of God upon Himself for each person. Your sin. My sin. He completely lost His reputation, His name is a curse word, He was despised and rejected by men and by God.

B. That sacrifice satisfies the wrath of God. That was acceptable to God. So He raised Jesus from the dead.

C. He will receive me because He has redeemed me. He paid the price to free me from my sins. Now I am His. He has received me, and He is not going to lose me.

5. Now the psalmist says, if you have understanding, use it! vv. 16-20.

A. Stop being afraid when people get rich and you think, “I’m missing out! I could be making real money, and I’m not! What’s going to become of me?”

B. These guys who are having their good things now can’t keep them forever. They will never see the light of life. They will never see God. They don’t think, just like animals. You do not want to be like them.

5. So what?

A. Every single person here needs redemption. Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart. You’ve heard these things before but you hide by not thinking about them. If you stay in the dark, you will die in the dark. Receive Jesus into your heart. Let Him have place in your life. We’ll pray in a minute.

B. If you’re afraid this morning it shows that you’re not growing in your understanding of God.

1. Sometimes you go through a hard time and you let go of knowing God. You can drift in your faith. You can lose your grip on your understanding. You can start fearing again. Don’t go back to fear, go on to know the Lord. Read and meditate in your Bible. Go to church. It’s worth the effort to know God.

2. The most important thing you can do is grow in your relationship with God. Your understanding increases as you pursue knowing Him.

3. Above all you get to know and experience God’s love. Why would God lose everything for you? Because He loves you. You can’t understand that. But you get to know and experience God’s divine, eternal love. That’s worth more than all this life has to offer. It’s worth losing your life so that Christ can live in your heart. Perfect love casts out fear. God’s lovingkindness is better than life. This is the valuable stuff worth holding on to. Do you understand that love? Would you like to know that love?

Let’s pray.