Psalms 49:15

But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave,.... The psalmist expresses his faith, that though he should die, and for a while be under the power of the grave, yet he should be redeemed

But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah. But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave - in contrast to the wicked, on whom 'death shall feed' eternally.

Though no man can find out a ransom to redeem himself or his brother, yet God can and will redeem me. My soul; either properly; or myself or life; for all comes to one. Of the grave; or, of hell; for he speaks of that sheol in which the wicked are left. The grave shall not have power to retain me, but shall be forced to give me up into my Father’ s hands; and hell shall have no power to seize upon me. He shall receive me, or take me, out of this vain, mortal, and miserable life, unto himself, or into heaven, as this phrase is used, .

Psalms 49:15 But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah.Ver. 15. But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave] Heb. from the hand of hell: q.d. I am, and shall be in far better condition both in life, at death, and after death, than any of the world’ s darlings. Spe bona docti ab indoctis differunt, dixit Chilo; why then should I fear, as Psalms 49:5; why should I envy their seeming happiness, which will have so sad a catastrophe, as Psalms 49:14. I shall have heaven, and that is more worth than all. For he shall receive me. Selah] A notable text indeed, and well worthy of a Selah; a clear testimony for the immortality of the soul, and for a better life after this, as is well observed. Hae sunt parabolae, et haec sunt aenigmata, saith a good interpreter. These are those parables, and these are those dark sayings, mentioned Psalms 49:4, riddles to the wicked, but cordials to the faithful.

(15) But God will.—Better, But God shall redeem my life from the hand of sheol when it seizes me. Taken by itself, this statement might only imply that when just at the point of death, the Divine favour would draw him back and rescue him. But taken with the rendering given above to the previous verse, we must see here the dim foreshadowing of a better hope, that death did not altogether break the covenant bond between Jehovah and His people, a hope to which, through the later psalms and the book of Job, we see the Hebrew mind feeling its way. (Comp. Psalms 16:10; and see Note to Psalms 6:5.)

Verse 15. But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave] מיד שאול miyad sheol, "from the hand of sheol." That is, by the plainest construction, I shall have a resurrection from the dead, and an entrance into his glory; and death shall have no dominion over me.

15. While the wicked become the prey of Sheol, the Psalmist is delivered from its power. But in what sense? In this life, or after death? A careful study of the context and of similar phrases elsewhere seems to shew that the Psalmist looks with confidence for deliverance from the premature and penal death of the wicked, but does not anticipate escape from death or express his belief in a resurrection. The verse corresponds to Psalms 49:7-8. While wealth is powerless to avert death, God can and will deliver His servant. Similar phrases are constantly used of deliverance from imminent peril of death. Cp. Psalms 30:3; Psalms 33:18 f.; Psalms 86:13; Psalms 103:4; Psalms 138:7; and particularly Psalms 89:48; Job 33:22 ff.; Hosea 13:14; see also Psalms 16:10, and note there. For he shall receive me is to be explained by the use of the same word in Psalms 18:16 (A.V. he took me): He will take hold of me and deliver me. It is possible that the verse should be divided thus: But God will redeem my life [soul]: out of the grasp of Sheol will he surely take me. Delitzsch indeed thinks that he shall receive me contains an allusion to the history of Enoch (Genesis 5:24), where the same word is used, “He was not; for God took him.” He holds that in a moment of lofty aspiration the Psalmist expresses a bold hope that he may escape death, and be taken directly into the presence of God. But this interpretation is improbable: it does not appear that he, any more than the author of Psalms 89, anticipates that any mortal man can finally escape death. Many commentators find in the passage “the strong hope of eternal life with God, if not the hope of a resurrection.” But the context and the parallel passages lead to a different conclusion. Certainly the doctrine of a future life was not to the Psalmist a revealed certainty to which he could appeal for a solution of the enigmas of life which were perplexing him. Probably, as has been said before on Psalms 16, the truth is that the antithesis in the Psalmist’s mind is not between life here and life hereafter (as we speak), but between life with and life without God; and for the moment, in the consciousness of the blessedness of fellowship with God, death fades from his view. The rich man’s wealth, which he is tempted to envy, cannot buy from God one moment’s prolongation of life; nay, the wicked are doomed to a premature and miserable death: while the Psalmist rejoices in the assured protection and fellowship of God. But whatever may have been the extent or the limitation of the Psalmist’s view, his words contain the germ and principle of the doctrine of the Resurrection; and for ourselves, as we use them, they will bear the fuller meaning with which they have been illuminated by Christ’s Resurrection.

But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave - literally, “from the hand of Sheol;” that is, from the dominion of death.

15. But God will redeem my soul—Surely “God will redeem” me. The particle is one of asseveration springing from undoubting faith. The word “redeem” supposes him to be first under the power of death.