Thoughts from the Sermon, “Death Beats Money (Every Single Time)” Psalm 49

Thoughts from the Sermon, “Death Beats Money (Every Single Time)” Psalm 49

by Vermon Pierre, Lead Pastor

1. Life is uncertain and difficult, full of occasions where you might be manipulated or taken advantage of in some way. Given this reality many look to wealth as the way to ensure that they will be safe and secure. Indeed, having “an abundance of…riches” (Ps 49:5) is for many the key to life.

2. Psalm 49 however tells us that wealth is not the key to life because wealth can’t even guarantee the perpetuity of even your own life much less anyone else’s life. It doesn’t matter how much money or power or fame you have, no one can ensure that their life will go on forever. Eventually we face death and death beats money every single time. This is true for every single person on earth, no matter who they are.

3. It is utter folly then to put your confidence in wealth. Or, for that matter, any of the things that our world identifies as being most significant and important for establishing yourself in this life. Death ultimately swallows up all our best efforts to build up our name and our bank accounts. Death is a powerful guardian to the next life; the glory and power and wealth of this world cannot get by death no matter your best attempts.

4. The only people who won’t be swallowed up by death are the upright, or the righteous. Rather than be conquered by death they will rule even in the midst of death (Psalm 49:14). How do we become part of the righteous? Our only hope is to look to the only one who can beat death – the Lord God. Only he can ransom a soul from the power of death (Psalm 49:15). Indeed God secured souls from the power of death definitively through his one and only Son Jesus. Jesus lived the one perfect righteous life and made the one perfect righteous sacrifice that was good enough to secure eternal life for any who would trust no longer in their own power and wealth but solely in Jesus. Through Jesus we are made righteous so that rather than lose our lives to the power of death we gain them forever. By faith we must believe that Jesus died for us and then was raised for us so that he might give eternal life to us.

5. Believers must reject the false reality of this world. We should not live in fear and anxiety about what we have or don’t have. Those are the false standards of this world, and living by them will only give us false security and false confidence. We will be no better than the common animal (Ps 49:20). Instead we must understand rightly. We must embrace the deeper true reality that is eternal life gained by faith in Jesus Christ. This means that rather than be ruled by fear or anxiety over money we are content whether or not we have money. This means that rather than be obsessed with being successful we live in joy whether or not we have success in this life. This means having boundless confidence and hope, because we understand fully that we have the eternal inheritance that will never perish, spoil, or fade.