The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 1 — Section 369

outlook when, while "money e.nswereth all things," tho great bulk of it should bo possessed by the godless, the selfish, the oppressors, and the vile. The fact creates fetu (ver. 5) in the evil day, since those who have the money-power, and are in a sense the lords of the world, use their power unrighteously. So much eo that our Lord employs the striking epithet, "the mammon of unrighteousness" (Luke xvi,). Only ono hint, indeed, is given, in the word" iniquity" (ver. 5), that these rich men are evil men. "But this seems to be designed, as in our Lord's parable of the rich man and Lazarus, to show that the selfish, proud, boastful use of riches, the mere luxuriousness of wealth, apart from violence or unscrupulousness of conduct, is evil, aad finds its end in the outer darkness." 1 But let us nol;e- II. 'l'HERE ARE FIXED CONDITIONS ON WfilCH TIIIS WEALTH IS POSSESSED. These aro here specified as fourfold. 1. Wealth cannot screen from death (vers. 7, 8, 12). There may be (Lev. xxv. 47-55), according to the Law, redemption from poverty; but no brotbr.r has any ransom price wherewith to prevent death or to deliver from it. Then, it must be given up altogether. 2. After death the wealth cannot be controlled; it is left to others (ver. 10). 3. The departed one must see corruption (ver, 10). 4. He cau c.·my nothing away (ver. 17; l Tim. vi. 7), The "rich" one is." bankrupt" at the moment of death. llL YET ITS POSSESSORS CHERISH MA1''IF0LD DELUSIONS, 1. They trust in riches (ver. 6; Mark x. 24). 2. 1'hey boast of their wealth (ver. 6). Yet wealth can never ward off care or sickness. 3. They shut their eyes to their precarious holding of their wealth (ver. 11). 4. They even cherish "inward thoughts" of perpetuity ~ver. 11). 5. They make special efforts to perpetuate their honour ( vers. 11, 12). 6. 'I hey con- gratulate themselves on their greatness (ver. 18; Luke xii. 19). And all the while they are "fools" in wisdom's eye (ver. 13). IV. FoR scrcH THERE 1s BUT A DISMAL OUTLOOK, 1. Like the brntes, they will yet be reduced to silence (ver. 12).2 Their proud boasts will soon be stilled. 2. 1'hey will descend to Sheol; i.e. to the realm of the departed. Neither the word "Sheol" nor the word "Hades " contains per se any moral significance, nor does either word convey per se the notion of joy or sorrow. But the connection may give such significance to the words. Such is the case here and in Luke xvi. 23; in both the thought of evil and of sorrow is conveyed. 3. Death will shepherd them. They will be under him, for him to lead and feed them. What a shepherd-death I 4. Their flesh will con- sume away; their glory will be gone (vers. 14, 17, 19, 20). No light ahead I 6. In the great awakening," in t!Je morning "-the morning of the resurrection-the upright, whom they despised, shall have dominion over them (LXX., o-ra.1Cup1e6uouu111), The lord- ship was theirs durin" the night, becanse of their riches; in the morning that lordship will be transferred kl the upright, becaUBe of their righteousness (Rev. ii. 26, 27), 8 Hence note: 1. There is no reason to fear in the day of evil; for evil itself is in the restrai~t of infinite Power. 2. Where the world sees cleverness and riches, be it ours to see folly and poverty, if godliness be not also there I "The wicked is driven away in his wickedness."-C. Vcrs.1-20.-.A contrast: unseen wealth. To those whose character and outlook are depicted in the bulk of this psalm its writer di<l not belong. He looks on them; he uites of them; but he is not one with them. The emphatic and striking word "but" (ver. 15) indicates what the context shows, that there is a great gulf between him and them. While the wicked ones who are rolling in wealth despise him because of his distance from them on the ground of earthly poverty, he, on the other hand, looks down with pity upon them because of their distance f~om ~im, on the ground of his having" a life hidden with Christ in God," and_ possessions rn heave~, whore.no thief approncheth nor moth corrupteth. And the expositor may well devote hIB attentwn to the five lines of contra.et indicated in this psalm. I. THERE 1s A ooNTRABT IN oHARACTER, (Ver. 14.) "The upright." This is the 1 So Perowne, in his introduction to the psalm. Why, however, is Luke xvi. 19-31 regarded e.s a parabl,e f • 10:iJ. See Lexicon, sub eerb. ci;,:;r. • On the dominion of the righteous, eeo tho preseut writer's article on ihe verse of the Apoc:i.lypse referred to above PS, XLIX, 1-20.] THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 383