Psalms 49:1

Hear this ,.... Not the law, as some Jewish writers F12 Midrash Tillim in loc. Yalkut Simeoni, par. 2. fol. 106. 2. interpret it, which was not desirable to be heard by those that did hear it; it being a voice of wrath and terror, a cursing law, and a ministration of condemnation and death; but rather אחויתא דא , "this news", as the Targum; the good news of the Gospel; the word of "this" salvation; the voice from heaven; the word not spoken by angels, but by the Lord himself: or זאת החכמה , "this wisdom", as Kimchi interprets it; which the psalmist was about to speak of, Psalm 49:3 ; also the parable and dark saying he should attend unto and open, Psalm 49:4 ; and indeed it may take in the whole subject matter of the psalm;

all ye people : not the people of Israel only, but all the people of the world, as appears from the following clause; whence it is evident that this psalm belongs to Gospel times; in which the middle wall of partition is broken down, and there is no difference of people; God is the God both of Jews and Gentiles; Christ is the Saviour and Redeemer of one as well as of the other; the Spirit of God has been poured out upon the latter; the Gospel has been sent into all the world, and all are called upon to hear it;

give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world , or "of time"; so the word is rendered "age", the age of a man, Psalm 39:5 . The inhabitants of this world are but for a time; wherefore Ben Melech interprets the phrase by אנשי הומן , "men of time", the inhabitants of time; it is peculiar to the most High to "inhabit eternity", Isaiah 57:15 . Under the Gospel dispensation there is no distinction of places; the Gospel is not confined to the land of Judea; the sound of it is gone into all the world, and men may worship God, and offer incense to his name, in every place; and whoever fears him in any nation is accepted of him.