Some years ago, I witnessed a wealthy man, who’d inherited a lot of money, walking up the street. A beggar asked for some spare change and he responded with: “Go and get a job!”

Now, there’s a very good case for giving via charities, or offering to buy a sandwich rather than offer cash, or volunteering time in an organised way. But the moral indignation shown by that rich person, who’d received life’s golden ticket, towards someone who undoubtedly found life very tricky is a worryingly common but completely warped perspective.

Psalm 49 is a call to think differently about wealth. The writers reject the idea that the “rich deceivers” who “trust in their wealth and boast of the great riches” are in a great position.

If they “have wealth but lack understanding” of God, they lack something vital that followers of God with modest worldly wealth have.

That’s because the writers point out that money has no effectiveness in securing salvation. As the ESV 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 for ever
and never see the pit.

The reference to “the pit” gives a clear indication that the writers are talking about life after death rather than about paying a ransom to another human. It links nicely to when Jesus, in Mark 10, says that the Son of Man (i.e. himself) came “to give his life as a ransom for many”.

We need Jesus because we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But as Jesus point out, it’s difficult for the rich to gain salvation and I suspect that’s because the signal that big wealth gives them too much confidence that they are doing things right on their own.

Humans are apt to believe that all their successes are exclusively down to their own brilliance. The fact that there is no level playing field is ignored. In fact, we often to inherit talents and attitudes from parents. Many children who are the most talented musicians have parents who are also musical, for example. And when people get rich, there is a tendency to believe that this is down to some form of moral superiority.

Psalm 48 acts as a warning against focusing on wealth without giving the glory to God. It says (v.12-15, ESV):

Man in his pomp will not remain;
he is like the beasts that perish.
This is the path of those who have foolish confidence;
yet after them people approve of their boasts.
Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol;
death shall be their shepherd,
and the upright shall rule over them in the morning.
Their form shall be consumed in Sheol, with no place to dwell.
But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol,
for he will receive me.