to be pleased with · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
sayings
בְּפִיהֶ֖םbe.fi.Hem
H6310
the mouth (as the means of blowing) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
Selah
סֶֽלָהSe.lah
H5542
suspension (of music) · interjection
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Luke 12:20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?
1 Corinthians 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
Luke 16:27-28 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house:
Jeremiah 44:17 But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink…
Luke 11:47-48 Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 49:6-14
In these verses we have,
I. A description of the spirit and way of worldly people, whose portion is in this life, Psa 17:14. It is taken for granted that they have wealth, and a multitude of riches (Psa 49:6), houses and lands of inheritance, which they call their own, Psa 49:11. God often gives abundance of the good things of this world to bad men who live in contempt of him and rebellion against him, by which it appears that they are not the best things in themselves (for then God would give most of them to his best friends), and that they are not the best things for us, for then those would not have so much of them who, being marked for ruin, are to be ripened for it by their prosperity,…
Though their way is folly, others follow the same course of life.
John Gill on Psalms 49:13
This their way is their folly,.... This their last end becoming like the beasts that perish, which is the issue and event of all their confidence, ambition, and honour, shows the folly of their lives and conduct: or this their course of life, in trusting to their riches; boasting of their wealth; pleasing themselves with the thoughts of the continuance of their houses and dwelling places to all generations; and calling their lands after their own names; all proclaim their folly. Or, as some render the words, "this their way is their hope" or "confidence" (b); they place all their hope and confidence in their riches and honour, which is but a vain hope and a foolish confidence;
yet their pos…
Psalm 49:13-15
13. This their way is foolishness in them, [222] and their posterity will acquiesce in their sayings, [literally, in their mouth.] Selah. 14. Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning, and their strength [223] shall wax old; the grave shall receive them [224] from their dwelling. 15. But God shall redeem my soul from the hand [225] of the grave; for he hath taken me up. Selah
13 This their way is foolishness As this verse has been variously rendered, I shall briefly, before giving my own sense of it, state the views which have been taken by others. As the Hebrew word ksl, kesel, which I have tra…
The Church Fathers
He uses "this" as a demonstrative, meaning, Such behavior is responsible for their troubles, and their heedless enjoyment of God's good things inevitably brings down on them God's punishment.… Even when those forebears who were in receipt of riches suffer retribution and just punishment from God, people after them do not come to their senses; on the contrary, they are pleased with the words and actions of the others and hasten to imitate them, acting in similar fashion regarding wealth and the good things of this life, giving too little heed to virtue to be brought around by the punishment of their predecessors.
Those boast of the abundance of their riches who love their riches in such a way that they place their ultimate happiness in them. They trust in their own strength who scorn riches in such a way that they attribute this contempt to their own strength. Both types are proud; the former, because they trust in their wealth, not in God; the latter, because they wish to attribute the fact that they spurn riches to themselves, not to God; the former, because they love badly that which cannot be loved well; the latter because they do not spurn well that which can be spurned well; and for this reason, the former do evil badly, the latter do good badly.
"This their own way is an offense to them" [Psalm 49:13]. Be it an offense to them, not to you. But when will it be so to you too? If you think such men to be blessed. If you perceive that they be not blessed, their own way will be an offense to themselves; not to Christ, not to His Body, not to His members. "And afterwards they shall bless with their mouth." What means, "Afterwards they shall bless with their mouth"? Though they have become such, that they seek nothing but temporal goods, yet they become hypocrites: and when they bless God, with lips they bless, and not with heart. Christians like these, when to them eternal life is commended, and they are told, that in the name of Christ they ought to be despisers of riches, do make grimaces in their hearts: and if they dare not do it with open face, lest they blush, or lest they should be rebuked by men, yet they do it in heart, and scorn; and there remains in their mouth blessing, and in their heart cursing. The Second Part.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Ambition · Vanity of — Vanity of
B · Described as: Devoid of immortality — Described as: Devoid of immortality
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
(Heb.: 49:14-21) Second part of the discourse, of equal compass with the first. Those who are thought to be immortal are laid low in Hades; whilst, on the other hand, those who cleave to God can hope to be redeemed by Him out of Hades. Olshausen complains on this passage that the expression is abrupt, rugged, and in part altogether obscure. The fault, however, lies not, as he thinks, in a serious corruption of the text, but in the style, designedly adopted, of Psalms like this of a gloomy turn. זה דרכּם refers back to Psa 49:13, which is the proper mashal of the Psalm: this is their way or walk (דּרך as in Psa 37:5, cf. Hag 1:5). Close upon this follows כּסל למו (their way), of those (cf. Ps…
The teachers of false wisdom cannot rescue themselves from death. Only God has that power.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 49:13
This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.
Their vain confidences are not casual aberrations from the path of wisdom, but their way, their usual and regular course; their whole life is regulated by such principles. Their life path is essential folly. They are fools ingrain. From first to last brutishness is their characteristic, grovelling stupidity the leading trait of their conduct. Yet their posterity approve their sayings. Those who follow them in descent follow them in folly, quote their worldly maxims, and accept their mad career as the most prudent mode of life. Why do they not see by their father's failure their father's folly? No, the race tran…
