Wealth’s Hollow Boast – July 30, 2024 (209/365)

Been lagging behind with my 1000 words a day, not good. But here we go. Let’s keep at it.

Why should I fear in times of trouble, when the iniquity of those who cheat me surrounds me, those who trust in their wealth and boast of the abundance of their riches?

Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice, that he should live on forever and never see the pit. For he sees that even the wise die; the fool and the stupid alike must perish and leave their wealth to others. Their graves are their homes forever, their dwelling places to all generations, though they called lands by their own names.

Man in his pomp will not remain; he is like the beasts that perish. This is the path of those who have foolish confidence; yet after them people approve of their boasts. Selah

Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol; death shall be their shepherd, and the upright shall rule over them in the morning. Their form shall be consumed in Sheol, with no place to dwell.Psalms 49:5-14

Foolish confidence – or, rearranged, we can say confident fools. But what makes them confident? Or, before that, what do they do in their confidence?

Going from top to bottom, we read that they cheat the righteous, so much so that their iniquities surround them. So whatever they do is not merely a direct jab or a straightforward assault, but schemes that ‘surround’, or engulf the righteous from all sides.

Mankind does its best to survive, but the fool survives by way of devouring others – and they don’t stop at surviving, but find motivation to cheat others from their trust – or their desire for wealth. I suppose we’re reminded here of another well known section of Scripture, one where it is mentioned that the love of money (or, the desire for wealth) is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10).

It’s possible that the same fool that says that ‘there is no God’ (Psalm 14:1) is consequently saying ‘in money we trust’ – which is why they want as much of it as they could. The abundance of their riches is where they draw their confidence. It’s from which they boast.

But the Psalmist is pretty straight to the point here. No man could give their life for another man to live. No man could pay God for his continued existence. Everyone – wealthy or poor, wise, foolish and/or stupid – everyone perishes, everyone leaves their wealth to others.

Upon reading ‘Their graves are their homes forever, their dwelling places to all generations, though they called lands by their own names‘ I remember the conclusion to one of Tolstoy’s short stories – ‘Six feet from our head to our heels is all we need.’

The fool has his confidence in what he cannot keep… but, though we see this lesson clear as day, in these times we don’t necessarily heed to the wisdom behind it – for ‘after (fools) people approve of their boasts.‘

What this means for me personally is that we ought to eventually be saying the opposite of what the fool is saying – that is, ‘In God we trust’, and ‘there is no money’ – not that we deny its existence, but we know its state, we know its place: Temporal, inferior to the Eternal.

Funny that ‘In God We Trust’ is in, of all places, the US Dollar. Or is it still there?

Just thought I’d share this for now. It’s not much, but I’d rather unload it to make space for more thinking space. For more resetting and reprogramming.

Until the next post, which I hope to be rolling out very soon as I am playing catch up, God bless us all.

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