Psalms 49

REFLECTIONS UPON PSALM. XLIX.—Alas! how the hearts of men cleave to earthly enjoyments! The poor need as much to be warned against envy and discontentment, as the rich against pride and carnal confidence. And the truths of God ought to be inculcated with the greatest seriousness, both by word and by example. Never ought saints (no, not when they suffer the charges and chastisements of their sins of conversation) to abandon themselves to unbelieving fears and doubts of God’s all-sufficiency and love.—The day of death is a trying time with respect to true happiness. And then a sense of God’s love, and a prospect of eternal glory, are infinitely more precious than thousands of gold and silver, O the dreadful folly of most men, who seek for, hold, delight in, and depend on, things of this world, as if they were their God, their ALL IN ALL! and yet how unavailable to ransom the soul, perpetuate the life, or preserve from hell! To judge of things might, we must weigh time with eternity. It is neither wealth nor poverty, but Jesus Christ’s righteousness and grace, that can render us respected of God, or really happy, in time or eternity. It is redemption through his blood that gives hope in death. It is not their own vaunts, or the world’s admiration, but the word of God, that adjusts men’s real character. It is not what we have here, but what we can carry into the other world, that constitutes the true riches. They are only wise who consider their latter end. Nay, in death, the state of the most loathsome animal is infinitely preferable to that of the unregenerate sinner