Psalms 49

¹A psalm for Asaph. The God of gods, the Lord hath spoken: and he hath called the earth. From the rising of the sun, to the going down thereof:

²Out of Sion the loveliness of his beauty.

³God shall come manifestly: our God shall come, and shall not keep silence. A fire shall burn before him: and a mighty tempest shall be round about him.

⁴He shall call heaven from above, and the earth, to judge his people.

⁵Gather ye together his saints to him: who set his covenant before sacrifices.

⁶And the heavens shall declare his justice: for God is judge.

⁷Hear, O my people, and I will speak: O Israel, and I will testify to thee: I am God, thy God.

⁸I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices: and thy burnt offerings are always in my sight.

⁹I will not take calves out of thy house: nor he goats out of thy flocks.

¹⁰For all the beasts of the woods are mine: the cattle on the hills, and the oxen.

¹¹I know all the fowls of the air: and with me is the beauty of the field.

¹²If I should be hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.

¹³Shall I eat the flesh of bullocks? or shall I drink the blood of goats?

¹⁴Offer to God the sacrifice of praise: and pay thy vows to the most High.

¹⁵And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.

¹⁶But to the sinner God hath said: Why dost thou declare my justices, and take my covenant in thy mouth?

¹⁷Seeing thou hast hated discipline: and hast cast my words behind thee.

¹⁸If thou didst see a thief thou didst run with him: and with adulterers thou hast been a partaker.

¹⁹Thy mouth hath abounded with evil, and thy tongue framed deceits.

²⁰Sitting thou didst speak against thy brother, and didst lay a scandal against thy mother's son:

²¹These things hast thou done, and I was silent. Thou thoughtest unjustly that I should be like to thee: but I will reprove thee, and set before thy face.

²²Understand these things, you that forget God; lest he snatch you away, and there be none to deliver you.

²³The sacrifice of praise shall glorify me: and there is the way by which I will shew him the salvation of God.

Psalms 49

¹Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world:

²Both low and high, rich and poor, together.

³My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.

⁴I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp.

⁵Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?

⁶They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;

⁷None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him:

⁸(For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:)

⁹That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption.

¹⁰For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.

¹¹Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names.

¹²Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish.

¹³This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.

¹⁴Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.

¹⁵But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah.

¹⁶Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased;

¹⁷For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him.

¹⁸Though while he lived he blessed his soul: and men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself.

¹⁹He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light.

²⁰Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.