Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life,
The wicked enjoy prosperity while God's people suffer affliction, which tempts the faithful to despair. But the Psalmist means to check their envy and moderate the pride of the ungodly by showing that worldly happiness, however grand it appears, is vain and evanescent, whereas the godly, tried though they be, remain the objects of divine regard and shall be delivered from their enemies.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 49:1-20
None of them can by any means redeem his brother. With all their riches, the whole of them put together could not rescue a comrade from the chill grasp of death. They boast of what they will do with us, let them see to themselves. Let them weigh their gold in the scales of death, and see how much they can buy therewith from the worm and the grave.
The worldly man sets his heart on riches as though they were the best things, making gold his hope and his god. He trusts his wealth to secure him from all evil and supply all good, believing he needs nothing else, not even God Himself. Yet abundance in the hands of the wicked does not prove riches are good; it proves they are not the best things, for God would give them chiefly to His best friends if they were. A man's riches make him worldly only when he loves them more than He loves the Lord.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 49:6-14