Create in Me a Clean Heart: The 40-Day Challenge (Psalms)Sample

Live with Understanding

Psalm 49

Being famous, rich, beautiful and young is the ideal of many. As it is not easy to achieve everything at the same time, we often long for what we don’t have. It is nice to enjoy the time of youth and imperfect beauty. We are aware of these values only when we leave that age, thus irreversibly losing the joy of the given, while striving for the remaining - fame and fortune. If by some chance we achieve fame and fortune, we then want youth and beauty with all our hearts. Psalm 49 describes a rich man who wants to ransom his life with wealth, and live forever. Accustomed to buying everything he wants, why not also buy what is written somewhere in every human being, in their DNA - the need for eternal life?

Whether rich or poor, every person has to face death equally. A rich man is not benefited by his wealth and possessions, nor is the fact that he has no property useful to a poor man. The only thing that can benefit both of them is being in Christ. “for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice, that he should live on forever and never see the pit.”

Only the Lord of all has paid the ransom, through his son Jesus Christ, so that they would have eternal life. We cannot change the past, but we can influence what awaits us, - and how! Let’s be wise in learning from our past relationships, and with understanding use what the Lord has blessed us with.