40 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Psalms 49 To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah. Aben Ezra says this psalm is a very excellent one, since in it is explained the Light of the world to come, and of the rational and immortal soul; and Kimchi is of opinion that it respects both this world and that which is to come: and indeed it treats of the vanity of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Hear this,.... Not the law, as some Jewish writers (l) interpret it, which was not desirable to be heard by those that did hear it; it being a voice of wrath and terror, a cursing law, and a ministration of condemnation and death; but rather אחויתא דא, "this news", as the Targum; the good news of the Gospel; the word of "this" salvation; the voice...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
This psalm is a sermon, and so is the next. In most of the psalms we have the penman praying or praising; in these we have him preaching; and it is our duty, in singing psalms, to teach and admonish ourselves and one another. The scope and design of this discourse is to convince the men of this world of their sin and folly in setting their hearts...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world: both low and high, rich and poor, together. Whenever God has a voice for men, it is meant for all sorts of men. No Scripture is of private interpretation. No warning is intended only for a few. Hear ye this, then, all ye people. Whether ye be low, ye are not too low to listen to...
Spurgeon - Treasury of David - Charles H. Spurgeon
Ver. 1-4. In these four verses the poet prophet calls universal humanity to listen to his didactic hymn.
Spurgeon - Treasury of David - Charles H. Spurgeon
Ver. 1. Hear this, all ye people. All men are concerned in the subject, it is of them, and therefore to them that the psalmist would speak. It is not a topic which men delight to consider, and therefore he who would instruct them must press them to give ear. Where, as in this case, the theme claims to be wisdom and understanding, attention is very...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Both low and high,.... Or "both the sons of Adam and the sons of men". By the sons of "Adam" are meant the multitude of the people, as Ben Melech explains it; the common people, the meaner sort, the base things of this world; and such are they, generally speaking, who are called by grace under the Gospel dispensation: and by "the sons of men" are...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
My mouth shall speak of wisdom,.... Or "wisdoms" (m); of Christ, who is so called, Proverbs 1:20. He being as a divine Person the wisdom of God, and the only wise God; and having all the treasures of wisdom in him, as man and Mediator: of him the prophet spake, and of him the apostles and all Gospel ministers speak; of the glories of his Person,...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding. I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp. Mysteries are to be preached, but they are to be preached with an earnest endeavor on the preacher’s part to make them plain. If it be a dark saying, yet let it be open; and, if...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
I will incline mine ear to a parable,.... In which way of speaking the doctrines of the Gospel were delivered out by Christ, Matthew 13:3. Wherefore the prophet, representing his apostles and disciples, signifies that he would listen thereunto, that he might attain to the knowledge thereof, and communicate it to others; I will open my dark saying...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil,.... This is the principal thing that all are before called to hearken to. This is the wisdom and understanding the psalmist had been meditating upon, and was about to utter; this is the parable he inclined his ear to, and the dark saying he would open; namely, that a saint has nothing to fear in the...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about? We may read it: “The iniquity of my supplanters shall compass me about.” There may some dark days when the wicked seed, whose delight it is to bite at the heel of the seed of God, will gather around us; and we think, perhaps, that they will be too...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
They that trust in their wealth,.... In their outward force, power, and strength; their horses, chariots, and armies; see Psalms 33:16; or in their worldly goods and substance; which seems to be the sense of the word here, as appears from Psalms 49:10. To "trust" in them is to set the eye and heart upon them; or to take up rest in them, to depend...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him: They may be rich as Croesus, but they cannot save a comrade from the grave. They may fee the physician, but they cannot bribe death. How little is the power of wealth, after...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
None [of them] can by any means redeem his brother,.... That is, "with their substance", or "riches", as the Targum and Jarchi supply. Some, according to the order of the words in the original, render them, "a brother redeeming cannot redeem a man", or "anyone" (q): but, as Aben Ezra observes, אח, "a brother", is the effect, and איש, "a man", is...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For the redemption of their soul [is] precious,.... Or "heavy" (s); it is, as Jarchi observes, "heavier than their substance": it is too weighty a matter for the richest man in the world to engage in; he is not equal to it; his riches are not an equivalent to the redemption of a soul which has sinned, and which is of more worth than the whole...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
(For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:) There is no redemption but one, and if a soul be unredeemed, the hope of it ceaseth for ever.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
That he should still live for ever,.... Or "though he should live", c. (w). Though the rich man should live ever so long, a thousand years twice told, as in Ecclesiastes 6:6 yet he could not in all this time, with all his riches, redeem his brother; and at last must die himself, and so must his brother too, as his own experience and observation...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption. For the bodies of the great are fed upon by the worm as readily as the bodies of the paupers. They may embalm the body, if they will, to cheat the worm, or put it into a coffin of lead, but little can they do with it. It is a costly business after all, and is the exception to the rule....
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For he seeth [that] wise men die,.... This is a reason convincing the rich man, that with all his riches he cannot redeem his brother from death; since he must see, by daily and constant experience, that none are exempted from dying, no, not even the wise man; and therefore, not the rich, since wisdom is better than riches, and is said to give...