Psalms 49:16-20

16-20. The remainder of the psalm is a hortatory application, with a partial rehearsal of what has been already said.

Be not thou afraid His argument has triumphed over doubt, and from the negative form of reasoning, and the contingent proposition, (Psalms 49:5,) “Wherefore should I fear?” the psalmist advances to the positive “be not afraid of,” or, thou shall not fear, the prosperous wicked.

For when he dieth The particle “ for,” here takes its usual causal sense, because when he dieth, or, because in his dying, not all shall he take, not all his glory shall descend after him. Clearly this shows that the eye of the writer is still on the final result of things, the rewards of the life to come. The wicked are not here supposed, as a common order, or as a certainty, to be disrobed of their wealth and power till in dying. Here only is his certain judgment. Compare Luke 16:25, “Thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things,” etc.

They shall never see light Hebrew, for ever they shall not see light. “Light,” here, is to be taken spiritually for joy, hope, prosper-ity, blessedness, as in Job 18:5; Psalms 97:11; Psalms 112:4; Isaiah 60:1. This, applying to the wicked after death, as a hopeless deprivation, has no doubtful meaning. The opposite of this is the blessedness of the righteous. On these grounds the faith and hope of the Church rest, and endure the reproach of the world and the struggle of the ages against wickedness and wicked persecutors.

Understandeth not Is ignorant or inconsiderate of his honourable rank in creation, and the glorious end for which he was made.

Like the beasts The similitude here is in the want of understanding, that is, spiritual wisdom. Both live lives of appetite and instinct, with no evidence of hope in a higher destiny. In Psalms 49:12 the resemblance was in their common mortality.

Perish Is not in the original, which simply reads, “He has been like the beasts, they have been alike.”