Read Good News Bible Psalms 49 Bible Online

Psalms 49 - Good News Bible bible

Psalms 49

¹Hear this, everyone! Listen, all people everywhere,

²great and small alike, rich and poor together.

³My thoughts will be clear; I will speak words of wisdom.

⁴I will turn my attention to proverbs and explain their meaning as I play the harp.

⁵I am not afraid in times of danger when I am surrounded by enemies,

⁶by evil people who trust in their riches and boast of their great wealth.

⁷We can never redeem ourselves; we cannot pay God the price for our lives,

⁸because the payment for a human life is too great. What we could pay would never be enough

⁹to keep us from the grave, to let us live forever.

¹⁰Anyone can see that even the wise die, as well as the foolish and stupid. They all leave their riches to their descendants.

¹¹Their graves are their homes forever; there they stay for all time, though they once had lands of their own.

¹²Our greatness cannot keep us from death; we will still die like the animals.

¹³See what happens to those who trust in themselves, the fate of those who are satisfied with their wealth---

¹⁴they are doomed to die like sheep, and Death will be their shepherd. The righteous will triumph over them, as their bodies quickly decay in the world of the dead far from their homes.

¹⁵But God will rescue me; he will save me from the power of death.

¹⁶Don't be upset when someone becomes rich, when his wealth grows even greater;

¹⁷he cannot take it with him when he dies; his wealth will not go with him to the grave.

¹⁸Even if someone is satisfied with this life and is praised because he is successful,

¹⁹he will join all his ancestors in death, where the darkness lasts forever.

²⁰Our greatness cannot keep us from death; we will still die like the animals.