Commentary - Psalm 49:13-14

Bird's-eye view

This section of Psalm 49 delivers the verdict on the worldview of the godless materialist. Having described the man who trusts in his riches and names his lands after himself, the psalmist now pronounces the end of that man's story. It is a story that ends in folly and death. The central point here is the stark contrast between two shepherds and two flocks. The foolish, who live by their own wits and for their own glory, are herded like witless sheep by a grim shepherd named Death, who drives them down into Sheol. Their wisdom is ephemeral, their glory decays, and their posterity foolishly applauds their bankrupt philosophy. But there is another destiny for the upright. The psalmist reveals a breathtaking reversal: in the morning, the righteous will have dominion. This "morning" points to the great eschatological dawn, the resurrection, when the grim shepherd is overthrown and the true Shepherd brings His people into their everlasting inheritance. This passage is a potent reminder that a man's end is determined not by what he accumulates, but by whom he follows.

The language is stark and unflinching. The folly of the wicked is not just a personal failing; it is a legacy, a way of life that others approve and adopt. But this path, for all its apparent success, is a dead end. Sheol consumes their form, their glory, their very being. The psalm confronts us with the ultimate bankruptcy of a life lived apart from God's redemption. It forces the question: who is your shepherd? Is it Death, leading you to the silent consumption of the grave? Or is it the Lord, who redeems your life from the pit and will raise you to rule in the morning?

Outline

Context In Psalms

Psalm 49 is a wisdom psalm, a meditation on one of life's great riddles: the prosperity of the wicked and the suffering of the righteous. It addresses all peoples and all inhabitants of the world, rich and poor together, because its theme is universal. The central problem is the temptation to fear or envy the man who grows rich and whose house is full of glory. The psalmist's answer is to pull back the curtain and show the final act. All the wealth in the world cannot redeem a soul from death. The rich man, for all his pomp, dies just like the beasts. Verses 13 and 14 are the pivot point of the psalm's argument. They declare the ultimate end of the foolish materialist, which then sets up the glorious contrast in verse 15: "But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me." Thus, this passage is not just a condemnation of the wicked but a profound encouragement to the saints. Our hope is not in what we can build here, but in the God who can raise us from the grave.

Key Issues

The Two Shepherds

The Bible presents us with a profound choice, and it is often framed as a choice between two shepherds. The Lord is my shepherd, David says, I shall not want. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake. He is the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep. His flock is the flock of life.

But here in Psalm 49, we are introduced to another shepherd, a grim and terrible one. His name is Death. He also has a flock, and he also leads them. But he does not lead them to green pastures; he drives them like dumb animals into the pen of Sheol. His flock is composed of those who refuse the Good Shepherd. They are the foolish, the self-reliant, the men who trust in their own wealth and wisdom. They believe they are their own masters, charting their own course. But the psalmist reveals the truth: they are not their own. They are the flock of Death. Every man has a shepherd. There is no third option. You are either being led by the Lord of Life or you are being herded by the lord of the grave. The folly described in this psalm is the supreme folly of choosing the wrong shepherd.

Verse by Verse Commentary

13 This is the way of those who are foolish, And of those after them who are pleased with their words. Selah.

The psalmist here summarizes the entire life philosophy of the godless man of means. This is the way, he says, this is their path, their settled course. And what is it? It is the way of those who are foolish. The word for foolish here is not about intellectual capacity. The Bible is not concerned with a man's IQ. This is a moral and spiritual foolishness. It is the folly of the man who says in his heart there is no God, or, what amounts to the same thing, the man who lives as though there were no God to whom he must give an account. Their folly is their self-confidence, their trust in their own abilities and resources.

And this foolishness is not a private affair. It is a legacy. It is a worldview that is passed down and applauded by the next generation. Those after them...are pleased with their words. The sons approve of the father's sayings. They look at the big house, the successful business, the lands named after the family, and they say, "That's the good life. That's wisdom." They adopt the same maxims, the same proverbs of godless pragmatism. And so the folly is perpetuated. The Selah invites us to pause and consider this. Ponder the gravity of a life's philosophy that is built on sand, and yet is admired and imitated, leading entire family lines down the path to destruction.

14a As sheep they are appointed for Sheol;

The imagery here is devastating. These powerful, self-assured men, who seemed like lions in the marketplace, are in the final analysis nothing more than sheep. They are witless, helpless, and destined for the slaughter. They are not rugged individualists; they are a flock. And they have an appointment. They are appointed for Sheol. This is their designated end. Sheol, in the Old Testament, is the realm of the dead, the grave. It is a place of darkness and silence, the common destination of all mankind apart from God's intervention. This is not an accident; it is a divine appointment. The path of folly does not meander aimlessly; it leads directly and inexorably to the gates of the grave.

14b Death will shepherd them;

Here is the heart of the terror. The flock has a shepherd. But this is no gentle shepherd. Death will shepherd them. Death is personified as an active agent, a herdsman driving his flock. All their lives they thought they were in charge, calling the shots. But in reality, Death was always their master, their guide, their shepherd. Every decision they made to trust in themselves over God was a step in line with the flock of Death. He is the one who leads them, governs them, and ultimately pens them in Sheol. This is a horrifying inversion of Psalm 23. Instead of the Lord leading to life, Death shepherds to destruction. It is a picture of absolute and utter helplessness in the face of man's last enemy.

14c And the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning,

And here, in the middle of this bleak description, a sudden shaft of light breaks through. The camera pans away from the flock of the damned and shows us a future reality that turns the whole world upside down. The psalmist gives us a glorious promise of eschatological reversal. The upright, the righteous, who were oppressed and trampled by these wealthy fools in this life, shall have dominion over them. The roles will be completely flipped. But when? In the morning. This is not just the next sunrise. This is the great morning of the resurrection. It is the dawn of the new creation, the day of judgment and vindication for the people of God. When Christ, the true Shepherd, returns, He will raise His people, and they will reign with Him. This is the promise that the meek shall inherit the earth. The dominion of the wicked is for a night, but the dominion of the saints is forever, beginning in that great morning.

14d And their form shall be for Sheol to consume, Far away from his habitation.

The psalmist returns to the fate of the wicked to drive the point home. While the righteous are raised to dominion, what becomes of the foolish? Their form, their beauty, their pomp, their glorious appearance that so intimidated others in this life, will be utterly wasted away. Sheol will consume it. The grave eats away at their glory until nothing is left. All that they built their identity on is for nothing. It is all subject to decay and corruption. And this consumption happens far away from his habitation, far from the stately mansion he built and named after himself. His grand home cannot save him. He has no dwelling place in the land of the living, and his final state is one of being utterly consumed. The glory of man is a fading flower, but the word of the Lord, and the people of the Lord, abide forever.

Application

This psalm is a bucket of cold water in the face of our materialistic and man-centered age. We are constantly tempted to measure our lives by the standards of the foolish men described here. We look at their success, their influence, their "words," and we are tempted to be pleased with them. We are tempted to believe that the man who builds a legacy of wealth and power is the one who has truly lived.

This passage calls us to a radical re-evaluation. It forces us to ask the most fundamental question: who is my shepherd? Am I following the path of self-reliance, which is in fact the path of being herded by Death? Or am I following the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, who has already passed through death and broken the power of Sheol? The folly described here is the folly of living for this life alone. It is the insanity of naming lands after yourself when you cannot even keep your own body from the grave.

The application, then, is repentance and faith. We must repent of our foolish trust in ourselves and our possessions. We must turn from the grim shepherd and entrust ourselves to the only one who can redeem our souls from the power of the grave. And we must live in hope. The wicked may have their day, but the morning is coming. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the guarantee that the righteous will have dominion. Therefore, we should not fear the man who can kill the body, nor should we envy his fleeting prosperity. We should fear God, trust in His Son, and live for the morning that will never end.