God Is A Better Refuge than Money-A Reflection on Psalm 49
8/14/25 Rob Genin-YBL Birmingham Director
The Data
A 2023 article in Fortune Magazine found that 79% of people said money was very important to them, while only 58% said religion of any kind was important to them. That strikes me as a significant. The numbers seem to indicate that money may be the biggest religion and obstacle to faith in the lives of many. Jesus thought so. He plainly said in Matthew 6:24:
No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
This is a challenging statement, because everyone engages with money. What are we to do? Notice Jesus’ words- it is not using money but serving money that causes problems. In fact, a wise use of money is praised elsewhere by Jesus (Luke 19:11-27, Matthew 26:6-13, Luke 16:1-9, esp. 9).
There are many ways people turn from God. Why does Jesus choose to specifically call out money? Money by its diverse applications stands as the most plausible counterfeit god. Like a god it promises to feed, protect, entertain, and care for you. Only one thing can take that ultimate place in our life. We must decide, as Jesus says, whom we will serve.
Ancient Help
Many years before Jesus, one of the sons of Korah penned Psalm 49. He considered this same question of trusting either God or money:
Why should I fear when evil days come, when wicked deceivers surround me— those who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches?
This author saw a sharp contrast between trust in God and boasting and trusting in wealth. He makes an assertion which becomes his refrain in the Psalm (49:12,20):
People who have wealth but lack understanding are like the beasts that perish.
The psalmist does not merely make this assertion. He explains the limitations of money:
No one can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for them— the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough— so that they should live on forever and not see decay. For all can see that the wise die, that the foolish and the senseless also perish,
leaving their wealth to others.
Their tombs will remain their houses forever, their dwellings for endless generations,
though they had named lands after themselves.
People, despite their wealth, do not endure; they are like the beasts that perish.
This is the fate of those who trust in themselves, and of their followers, who approve their sayings. (49:7-13)
Your money cannot give you life. No amount of money can prevent you from eventual death. Even if buildings and lands are named after you (a supposed type of immortality), you will not be there to see it. That is sad. However, all of this gloom serves a purpose, to point to a better way: the psalmist says there is a superior hope in God:
But God will redeem me from the realm of the dead; He will surely take me to Himself. (49:15)
Though money can make you powerful in this life, it is powerless to save from death. God, however, can “buy us back” (redeem us) from death. The central story of Christianity is how God sent Jesus for that exact purpose, to redeem us from our sins and the death that results from it. Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day, and He promises that all who hope in Him will share in His resurrection: “I am the resurrection and the life, He who believes in Me will live, even though He dies, and he who lives and believes in Me will never die” (John 11:25-26).
You most likely used money today. Do not worry! It is not wrong to use money – but it is wrong to serve it. God alone deserves that place in our lives. He is a better savior and can protect and provide for us in ways that money cannot. Psalm 49 helps us to see that; this sober understanding helps us to be in a place to use our wealth without losing our minds – or souls. Work for God, not money, and you will have a better possession and a lasting one (Hebrews 10:34).