Joel M Bradshaw

7Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life,
8for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice,
9that he should live on forever and never see the pit.–Psalm 49

The general understanding was that after death, a person went to Sheol, the underworld, the grave, the place of wandering spirits. Sheol seemed final, as if there was no hope a person could have on their own beyond that. This is what made a prophecy like Daniel 12:1-2 important. Where God would raise the faithful up from the dust for eternity.

The sons of Korah picture Sheol as a place they wished they could be ransomed or bought back from. But alas, nobody could afford that price. The pit would be their destiny because they couldn’t ransom themselves. Now read how they land the plane at the end of the psalm.

15But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol,
for he will receive me. 

There was hope again, but only in God. This is the basis of the Gospel. My sins have earned me death and I have no power on my own to ransom myself from that death to have hope of life. It is the Gospel bad news that is given before the Gospel good news. Can a person have the hope of verse 15? The prophet Hosea looked forward to it. Hosea 13…

14I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol; I shall redeem them from Death. O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your sting?

The Apostle Paul famously quoted Hosea in 1st Corinthians 15…

54When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul pictured Korah’s hope. The perishable body would be imperishable and fit for eternity. But that only happens if death receives no victory. The law convicts me that I have broken it and am a sinner. The wages of that sin is death. I cannot ransom myself from the grave. But the Gospel hope is also Korah’s hope. God provides the ransom like only he can. And his ransom is in and through Jesus Christ.

Jesus saw himself this way. Mark 10…

 45For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Hebrews 9 gives us more information about this ransom…

15For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

The ransom for hopeless sinners like you and me wasn’t paid with a purse but with a life. Jesus died as a ransom to pay what we could not. The only hope that you or I have is in that death ransoming us from the power of sin and death. Only after sin and Sheol are paid by the ransoming sacrifice of Jesus can the hope of resurrection and eternal life be realized. The tension and hope of Psalm 49 is pictured in every sharing of the Gospel message and is lived by us. God is our only hope.–JMB