Sometimes, you read something that you know is true, but it puzzles you anyway. An example comes in Psalm 49, a wisdom reflection that calls itself a mashal or proverb. Notice the line in verse 16 (Hebrew 17): “Do not be afraid when a man becomes rich, when glory/splendor grows in his house.” Why would anyone be afraid of such a thing? It’s easier to understand the poem’s final observation that wealth is no substitute for understanding or wisdom. But still, why be afraid?
Perhaps the text’s anxiety reflects a specific historical setting, for in a precapitalist society, growing affluence in a given family often came through illicit means (political corruption, for example). And the new economic differentiation could mean that the local village’s carefully balanced social relationships unraveled.
But maybe something deeper is at stake as well. There is something to fear in the acquisition of wealth. Most wealthy believers — those who are thoughtful and self-reflective anyway — I know will tell you that they had to work hard to keep their own friends, to pass on sane values to their children, and to make sure that they weren’t being used by overly deferential people or that they used others who respected their wealth too much. It’s a problem. Maybe fear is sometimes appropriate.
What replaces fear in the world of this text is neither envy nor revolution but a new orientation to life: a new confidence in God’s ability to rescue us from the power of death, in whatever form it takes. One of the ways God does that is by allowing to see through the structures and pretensions of the world in which wealth, status, and power take precedence over virtue. Knowing that God works in such a way offers the psalmist a door to another way of life. It’s a door worth entering.