{Disclaimer: these are my rough teaching notes I use in my Mishkan Katan weekly broadcasts. There will be "typos". Proceed at your own risk, lol.You can find all my Mishkan Katan video teachings on my YouTube channel: genahood2818 . Look on the playlist called Messianic LAMB TV Network.}
Psalm 49
Good morning and welcome back to Mishkan Katan for another week of Bible teaching. Before I get started this morning I want to give you a little bit of a forecast for what you’re going to be studying here at Mishkan Katan over the next three weeks. Today, we’re going to continue our study in the psalms, but after this week, we are going to take a break to do some study of the first fall feast. I’ve already written my next study, which will air next Wednesday, and it will be on the topic of Rosh Hashanah and the biblical calendars. Then, the following Wednesday, I will be back in the psalms for a week. The last week in September, during the Days of Awe, I’ll be traveling to Texas for a few days of meetings related to my part-time job. Most of you don’t know that I do work part-time, and although it’s very part-time, sometimes I need to travel for those endeavors. A silver lining of this trip is that I will get to visit with my friends who live out there, most notably the Roths, who have recently moved to Texas, and who live near where my meetings are scheduled to be. So, I’m excited about the trip for that reason as well. I am hoping to do a live two-person teaching with you from Texas with Moore Andrew Gabriel Roth while I’m there. But we’re still trying to work out the details of that. It may or may not be possible. If that does not materialize, I will run a Yom Kippur teaching of mine from last year. I’ll have more information for you next week. But regardless, I just wanted to give you a heads up About what I’m planning for the next two weeks after this one, if you’re watching this video in real time. It is such a privilege to be with you each week, and I assure you that I don’t take being with you for granted. Studying the Scriptures with you is a total joy.
Now then, grab your copy of the scriptures and turn with me to Psalm 49, which is where we’re going to be resuming our journey through the psalms today. I’m never sure how far we’ll get as I start the planning for these Psalms lessons. I never really know where the spirit is going to have me stop but when I’ve planned enough to fill the teaching hour, I just have to stop. I was telling a friend on the day I planned this lesson that this will be the 22nd installment in our Psalms study, and I was floored by that realization. Wow, how time does fly!
Psalm 49 is the last psalm that is attributed to the sons of Korach. This final Psalm in the lineup deals with the topic of greed and wealth. The stage just say that the sons of Cora, who wrote the Psalm wrote it as a final hymn to deal with the relationship between a man’s material possessions and his God-given mission on earth. It is said that Korach’s great wealth was a contributing factor to his eventual downfall.
One of the things I like to talk about in our psalms study is how each psalm is used in the Jewish liturgy today. The last song we studied, Psalm 48 ended with the promise that Hashim will lead us beyond death to immortality with him. In a fitting manner, psalm 49 is recited after someone has lost a loved one to death. It is recited after the prayers of the seven days of what is called “sitting Shivah”. That is the first seven days of the month-long mourning period. This is done to emphasize the true meaning of life, and it’s not to just accumulate material wealth and possessions, obviously.
Is Psalm 49 mentioned in the Brit Chadasha, the New Testament? No, there are no direct quotes. As we go along, though, I will weave in some NT verses which echo the themes of various verses of this psalm.
Let’s read verses one and two.
(1) Hear this, all you peoples!
Listen, everyone living on earth,
(2) regardless of whether low or high,
regardless of whether rich or poor!
Whereas the other sons of Korach psalms were targeting the nation of Israel, this last one is addressed, so to speak, to all the nations of the earth, every citizen. So, it has a more universal scope and hopefully, appeal. This accentuates the importance of its message. In some translations, there is an adjective describing the earth, and that adjective is the word “decaying”, alluding to the fact that, under the sin curse, the earth and all in it, on it and under it are passing away through the sin-fueled process of death and decay. The Hebrew word is more like the word “rust”, “rusting away”. That Hebrew word is very similar to the Hebrew word for “weasel”, and the sages say that the caution here is for the inhabitants of decaying earth to not be like a weasel, the rodent which “incessantly snatches food and drags it away to hoard in hiding places, without ever wondering, “For whom am I collecting all of these stores? Who will benefit from this surplus?” This reminds me of an incident in my past, where my mother was helping me pack to move from one house to the next. We were cleaning out my pantry, and discovered I had 7 bottles or jars of sweet pickle relish. WHY? We just laughed and laughed about that….as if I thought there’d be a pickle relish shortage and that I’d not have any for my tuna salad…smh
And then, I think of “preppers”. I went through a prepper stage, when the children were young and here at home. Now that they are grown, I figure they can take their chances, I guess. But, I still have some non-perishable items stashed in my downstairs closet, of the prepper variety. I will say that the over 100 rolls of toilet paper I had squirreled away by early 2020 did serve my family well when covid hit. I have not replenished that supply….And, don’t get me started on true “hoarders”, who can’t seem to part with just about anything.
These lustful afflictions are “no respecter of persons”, so to speak, just like death is no respecter of persons. You can be poor and greedy, or rich and greedy. It makes no difference. King Solomon said this in Kohelet 5:10 - - A lover of money will never be satisfied with money.” The NIV says it like this:
Whoever loves money never has enough;
whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income.
This too is meaningless.
Meaningless indeed. On to verses 3 and 4
(3) My mouth is about to speak wisdom;
my heart’s deepest thoughts will give understanding.
(4) I will listen with care to [God’s] parable,
I will set my enigma to the music of the lyre.
You might think these sons of Korach and/or other psalmists arrogant for stating that they are about to share wisdom. Most of us don’t want someone else’s unsolicited advice, particularly if it is not advice that will “tickle our ears.” But, when a person is sharing wisdom based on the Word of God, not on worldly opinions, personal prejudices, efforts to control someone else, we should not be shy in sharing it in a loving manner. These three sons had suffered horrible loss, as a result of ungodly greed and ambition. They are writing this psalm to the ages, in order to hopefully prevent other God-fearers from falling victim to those same temptations and fates.
In 2 Samuel 23:2, David was making his “closing remarks”, the last words he spoke as he lay dying. He thought it important enough to emphasize this: “The Spirit of Hashem spoke through me and His word was on my lips.” We must walk circumspectly about the advice we give others, approaching such situations covered in prayer.
Verse four is interesting, in that it specifies the musical instrument for the song, there in the body of the psalm itself. Most notations of this type are given in the superscriptions of other psalms. Remember that David was an accomplished musician. The Ya’aros Devash says that if you want to better understand David’s soul, study the workings of the harp. The more intensely the strings are plucked, the more resonant its tone and the louder its sound. In like manner, the more Hashem plucked David’s heart strings, through his life experiences, many of those troubling and challenging, the more beautiful his music became.
What is meant here in verse 4 by “God’s parable”? In 1 Samuel 24:13, David refers to the “parable of the Ancient One”, that is God, aka the “Ancient of Days” elsewhere. Rav Gifter describes a parable as a story designed to help the listener understand a deeper truth. Often, stories better communicate truth than direct delivery of content. That is because a story makes the truth applicable to a more real-life situation. Much of the Torah is in story-form, after all, and no other than the Mashiach frequently communicated truths through stories/parables. Honestly, as a teacher of Scriptural truths, I wish this were a skill I was better at.
Verses 5 and 6 pose the riddle, the question, the psalmist is trying to answer, via the remainder of the psalm.
(5) Why should I fear when the days bring trouble,
when the evil of my pursuers surrounds me,
(6) the evil of those who rely on their wealth
and boast how rich they are?
It is said that there are 366 times the admonition “Fear Not” is mentioned in Scripture. This must be one of them. Some of us humans are by nature more fearful than others. Some are “scared of their own shadow”, and at the other end of the spectrum are the more fearless among us. I don’t know where you fall on that continuum. Those who are not crippled or even troubled by fear and anxiety have other issues, though, for sure. None of us gets through this life without troubles.
You are very fortunate if you have never had anxiety about money, however. Those of us who have can tell you it is very anxiety-producing. Currently, I have a friend who was told this week that her pay is going to be cut by nearly 20%. She makes only about $50k a year, as it is, and this news was devastating to her. She is a single woman, with no supporting relatives in-state. She is very, very alarmed by this recent development, which came “out of the blue”, through no fault of her own. Another of my friends was recently facing homelessness. Thankfully, the Lord worked things out for her, but many people “hang by a thread” financially.
Others fear the aging process, regardless of their financial positions. Aging can be frightening, particularly if one’s health is bad and, again, if there is no friends or family to be a support during the latter years. Others fear death because of the lack of certainty about it. I’m not eager to embrace death, personally. I love life and am in no hurry to stop serving the Lord here. But, when my time comes, I am absolutely certain of my eternal destination. I don’t think about dying a lot, but I think it will be a lot like childbirth. When I was pregnant and on the way to deliver my first child, I kept telling myself, “Gena, billions, literally billions of women have done this. If they can, you can too.” Because, frankly, I was a little terrified. And, I knew the Spirit of the Living God dwelled within me, and that with Him, I could get through it. I think death will be a lot Iike that, unless I go so suddenly I have no time to think about it. Regardless, for the child of God, that is, the one who has embraced Yeshua as Savior and Bridegroom, there is no need to fear the embrace of death.
On the flip side of poverty, maybe you are someone who has never felt the pinch of poverty. You were “raised with a silver spoon in your mouth”, as the saying goes. The danger here is that you begin to rely on your wealth to bring you happiness, peace and prosperity. However, that is an illusion. While you won’t go hungry, money can’t buy you love (as the old song goes), nor can it buy you indefinite good health, or contentment, or joy - - - things that make life worth living. So, relying on your personal, material wealth, and focusing your life on keeping or increasing that is incredibly short-sighted. Furthermore, boasting about it is not only rude, it is foolish in the extreme. Although it may seem that your own efforts accumulated wealth, you were only able to do so under the gracious auspices of the Almighty, the One who “owns the cattle on a thousand hills”, part of a verse we will look at in the next psalm.
All the wealth sent to an individual is sent according to God’s good pleasure and will, even if it seemingly accumulated via talents/gifts with which God has gifted a person. This is why we should honor the Lord and give Him the glory for all HE does for us, because it is He who does it, not we ourselves (to hearken back to Psalm 23).
Verses 7-9
(7) No one can ever redeem his brother
or give God a ransom for him ,
(8) because the price for him is too high
(leave the idea completely alone!)
(9) to have him live on eternally
and never see the pit.
I think people who so selflessly give of their very bodies to save another’s life are true heroes. I’m talking about those who say, “You need another kidney to live? Ok, I’m a match. I’ll give you one of mine.” Have you ever known anyone like that? Or, those who sign on to be organ donors and, when God decides to take them out of this life suddenly, because they have previously agreed to donate their organs, they generously save the life of someone else. My sister’s mother-in-law benefitted from such a gracious person. Almost 40 years ago, she became the recipient of a new liver, when hers had been ravaged by a rare liver disease. All these years she has lived, to see her grandchildren and even great-grandchildren. A medical miracle!
And, I am so thankful for medical practitioners, who help us to keep our bodies healthy.
But, the bottom line is this - - in the final analysis, we can’t keep each other alive indefinitely. We can’t bribe God to let a loved one live past the time God has allotted to him or her. A dear friend of mine and my husband’s had to turn of life support for his son, who had lapsed into a coma in his mid-forties last week. It was heart-wrenching to hear of this. I 100% guarantee you that, if our friend could have saved the life of his son, he would have gladly given his in exchange. Most parents would. All godly parents would. Similarly, we can’t bribe God to extend His Spirit to another person, a brother, a loved one, for the salvation of that person’s soul. Let me explain what I mean. Yes, God extends salvation through His revelation of it in His holy written Word. But, Scripture also teaches us that, almost paradoxically, a person cannot come to God unless God’s Spirit “draws” him. And, even more paradoxically, the Scriptures speak of each person’s free will, to accept or reject that call to salvation. In some translations of these verses, the ArtScroll one, for example, it goes on to say “you can’t redeem yourself either”! I love how the CJB says, “leave the idea completely alone!” Or, as they say in New York, “fugeddabout it”!
The price of our redemption is too high for us to ever pay. The requirement is to live the Torah perfectly, which we are totally incapable of doing, due to the sin curse each of us was born under (thanks, Adam and Eve!). Since we can’t do that successfully, Elohim had to implement His plan conceived since before the foundations of the world were laid, that is to send a Go’el, a redeemer, the only redeemer who COULD actually live Torah perfectly, to pay the price we could never pay. I am so thankful for the love and the grace of God.
So, back to the point. We can’t keep our loved ones or ourselves alive indefinitely. By contrast, it is not our right to determine when our lives will end or when our work here for the kingdom is done. The day I am recording this live broadcast is a very special day in my life. It is the 98th birthday of a wonderful woman of God, my father’s sister. Even though her mind is slipping somewhat, she soldiers on. Since her husband died, 8 years ago, she has been very lonely and somewhat “at loose ends”. About two years ago, she had to stop driving, and that was a blow. But, until about a year ago, she lived on her own. She has 3 loving sons who live near her, who oversee her daily care. At times, she has been so down and missing her husband that she will say, “I’m ready to go on to be with Jesus.” Similarly, I have an uncle who has just this spring turned 90. He is on my mom’s side of the family. He lost his beloved wife four years ago. He, too, says he is ready to go. Not only is he lonely, he has serious health conditions that prevent him from enjoying his life more fully. Now, it’s life’s greatest blessing to know the Lord and to be ready to go be with Him. But, we also have to recognize His sovereignty and his perfect knowledge of what constitutes both “our good” (as in the verse that says, “He works all things together for good, for those who love the Lord…”) and what constitutes His glory, the furtherance of His kingdom. As the model prayer says, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.”
I read something yesterday by a fellow Bible teacher. I just love what he writes; it never fails to minister to me. His name is Ryan White, and he was talking about the Torah. Let me paraphrase what he said, because it is relevant here on this point, and is also part of this week’s parsha, if you are viewing this video in real time. The parsha for this week is Ki Tavo, of which Deuteronomy 26 is a part.
Ryan pointed out that the Torah was never about earning God's favor, that God’s grace always is extended to mankind first.
When we read Deuteronomy 26, we see this radical truth. Turn there and browse that chapter as I comment. I’m not going to read the whole thing to you this morning.
We see God giving Israel an inheritance—vs. 1…”the Lord your God is GIVING you.” Did He do this because they deserved it? No way! He did it because He chose to bless them. Then what? Next, vs. 2, we see the appropriate response on the part of people. We see the grateful people bringing their firstfruits in thanksgiving and gratitude. What else do they do? Vs. 5 - - They speak aloud about His saving acts. That is, they praise Him for calling Father Abraham out of Aram. “Our father was a wandering (nomadic) Aramean”, the Jews say regularly. Vs. 12 - - additional response of the people in praise and thanksgiving to God - - They care for the poor with their offerings.
It's never been a matter of "𝘰𝘣𝘦𝘺 God in order 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯 a 𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨."
It's always been "after you have received His grace, His lovingkindness, respond in loving obedience”.
It is God’s love that touches our hearts to produce the fruit of obedience. This is the theme of the entire Bible.
In other words, the Torah is not a road map for earning God’s approval. It is instead a love manual that show us how to live successfully and prosperously, to His honor and glory. Amen.
(16) Don’t be afraid when someone gets rich,
when the wealth of his family grows.
(17) For when he dies, he won’t take it with him;
his wealth will not go down after him.
(18) True, while he lived, he thought himself happy —
people praise you when you do well for yourself —
(19) but he will join his ancestors’ generations
and never again see light.
(20) People, even rich ones, can fail to grasp
that, like animals, they will die.
In verse 16 we see a reiteration of verse 5. And, then, in verse 17, we find the origin of that commonly-voiced adage, “You can’t take it with you.” ‘His wealth will not go down (to the grave that is) after him.” There are few adages I heard more often growing up with that one. Unfortunately, due to people’s lust for more and more, it has come to mean, “might as well spend it now, because I can’t take it with me.” That’s not the meaning here.
There is a story from France, from the medieval period, that devout Jews of that period would have their wooden coffins made from the wood that had formerly comprised their dining room tables. They did this to signify that, in death, they could surely take no material possessions with them. The sages comment rather wryly that of all people this admonition had to appear rather incongruous to the sons of Korach because, when their father and the rest of the family suddenly fell through a huge crack in the earth to their deaths, they certainly did take all their earthly possessions with them, but not at all in the way they had hoped.
Verse 18 speaks of two things. Let’s consider the first: the meaning of true happiness. Have you ever examined what makes you happy? Last night, I attended a one-and-a-half choral rehearsal. For many people, that would not make them happy! A friend and I were walking for exercise this morning. She related that her mother had given her children math problems to do during the summer, because she herself had been a math teacher. Hearing that, I could hardly imagine anything so dreadful to a young Gena. I’ve hated math since first grade! It does not make me happy! Different things make different people happy. Many times, people are happy when others praise them for doing well. Who does not like to be applauded for finding their gifts and using them for the glory of God for example? And, there is nothing inherently wrong with that. The insinuation here is that friends can be fickle. They can “turn” on you when you begin to fail, to falter, to get sick, to not tickle their ears with an easy message, and so forth. Happiness in itself is fleeting, greatly inferior to godly joy. We should seek to acquire the joy that flows from the Spirit of God within us, not chasing happiness for lesser reasons.
The second thing here in verse 18 is giving charity and the motivations for it. Although this was alluded to in earlier verses, I decided to spend some time on it here. In the New Testament, we are admonished by Yeshua haMashiach in Matthew 6:3 to “not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing” when we are giving to others. That is, be so unpretentious and secretive about it that your own body is not even totally aware of your charity, much less other people being aware. This is a mark of truly humble giving. Recently, our growing congregation has been the recipient of several anonymous gifts. Some have been in the form of great sums of money, and others have been gifts of items the congregation needs to function more easily and effectively. This psalm emphasizes that generosity given to increase the honor of one’s own “house” is not true generosity. Sometimes, very wealthy people give in order to enrich their own tax brackets or to make their own names famous. As verse 14 says, this attitude is folly.
The only “monument” we can leave as a legacy here on earth is the love we leave behind, the love we sow into those given to us to love. That may be children and grandchildren. Or, it may be other relatives. Or, it may be to people we love who are not related to us by blood at all. Our greatest spiritual legacy is in how we fulfilled the two greatest commandments. The v’ahavta is the first. That’s Hebrew for “and you shall love”. It is the Hebrew name given to the verse Deuteronomy 6:5, which says, “and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your very-ness, (sometimes translated as ‘might’, but it really means “the very YOU of YOU)”. Then, as Yeshua said, the second greatest commandment is similar to the first. Most Christians know it from where Yeshua quoted it in the New Testament. But, actually, He was only quoting the latter part of Leviticus 19:18, which says, “love your neighbor as yourself; I am Adonai.”
If we love God that way, then it flows that we will “love our neighbors as we love ourselves.” And, of course, the most loving thing we can do for another human being is to share with him or her the love of God that has been shined into our own hearts. That is true legacy. And, to do that IS possible, regardless of personal financial means, to the extent we are given by the Father of those cattle on a thousand hills.
Several weeks ago, here in our local area, a young man was killed on his way to work that morning. He had recently graduated from high school. His sports car was hit head-on by a larger vehicle, driven by an older man who had a medical emergency while driving and who drifted into the lane of the young man. The collision was unavoidable. Both drivers died, one instantly and the other shortly thereafter at the hospital. Such tragic losses! But, listen to this…by all accounts, the young man is with the Lord today. Do you know why? One of his teenaged friends, another young man, shared the gospel with him, and the now deceased young man after hearing the gospel accepted the message, believed it, made Yeshua the Lord of his life. The young man who shared the gospel is comforted, knowing he will see his friend again in the olam haba, Hebrew for “the world to come.” That is truly the best example of fulfilling the second commandment, loving one’s neighbor as oneself. That is true legacy, one no amount of money can buy, and more precious than jewels.
Well, the sons of Korach were inspired by the Spirit of Hashem to teach us some good things, were they not? We have now reached the end of the psalms attributed to these godly men. And, next time we are in the psalms, which I plan to be two weeks from today, we will resume by studying Psalm 50, one ascribed to Asa. Do you know who that is? We’ll find out in a couple of weeks.
Don’t forget to tell a friend who loves to study the Bible in depth about this teaching broadcast. May the remainder of your month of Elul be meaningful and your new year sweet. Shalom!
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