Psalm 49:4

Psalm 49:4

A riddle of a song

Well, here we are, waiting to plunge into the meat of the subject of this Psalm and to our surprise we get a little musical aside! We are reminded that the writer is actually a songster, a composer, a musician who is intent on have a composition that can be played and sung and remembered! I don’t think the subject here in Psalm 49 would make much of a song today, do you? Congregations would not look forward to hearing the opening bars of this melody, they would squirm and say, “Can’t we have a jollier one, we need to be uplifted, the subject here is not really singing material.” 

We need to remember that most, if not all of the Psalms, were written to music and they also used a poetic methodology. Apparently, this one had a 4 line introduction and it was arranged in 22 lines, in accordance with the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. There are two stanzas with 8 lines each followed by a refrain! In addition, the song is not a personal complaint about the rich, the writer clearly says that he “turned his ear”, in other words he took time out to listen to what God was saying. This “riddle or proverb” was God-given and then crafted into a song, the footnotes in my Bible describe it thus, “An insightful piece of instruction that is artfully crafted.” Some might call it a dirge! And now our composer is going to take up his harp and sing to us. Let’s listen in!

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