346. A Psalmist Explains Things

Psalm 49

Key Verse:  "But God will redeem my life from the grave; He will surely take me to Himself."

Psalm 49:15

"The ransom of a life is costly, no payment is ever enough that he should live on forever and not see decay."  (Ps.49:8-9)  Life is precious, a priceless commodity.  We can't create it, call it forth or lengthen it.  We can only destroy it.  No matter how wealthy one may be, in the end, our lives aren't really under our control.  In the span of time, our lives are like grass, young and green with growth, and easily withered and dead, all in a brief moment that only seems like forever to us while we are living it.

Christ, however, is not us.  He became like us, He became visible to us, "the image of the invisible God," (Col. 1:15) but He is not just a man, He is all God and all man.  Unlike us, He is eternal.  He is without beginning or end.  Only a life that valuable, that beyond us, could do what we could not and redeem us from the grave.

Sadly, so many of us never understand these truths and continue to strive to redeem ourselves, somehow.  But the Psalmist says, "A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish."  (Ps.49:20)  They think that, somehow, there's something they can do!  While they try to figure it out, however, instead of accepting the free gift of eternal life that God offers, their destiny remains the grave, despite their efforts.  They remain distracted from the truth by their own egos and ambition in the vain attempt to somehow stand before the Lord and say, "I did it!"  Sadly, that can never happen.

Christ had to come to redeem us because we do not have what it takes to redeem ourselves.  Redemption cannot be bought with money.  How can the perishable purchase the imperishable?  It cannot be forced through power.  Who is stronger than God that they could possibly push past God's Holiness?  It cannot be bought with good works.  "All of us are like one who has become unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like wind our sins sweep us away."  (Is.64:6)  How could we ever be good enough to equal the goodness of God?

He is our redeemer.  He is our Lord.  He is the visible image of our God.  He is all knowing and all powerful.  If He had not cared, we would have remained dead, with no hope, as the rich man in this Psalm.  Praise God that we can say, "God will redeem my life from the grave; He will surely take me to Himself."  (Ps. 49:15)  What a difference the Cross has made for all of us!

Redeemed, How I Love To Proclaim It