Ps. 49.5-6 Pt.1 (the wise song: piercing yet common)

“Why / should I be afraid / in evil days – when the iniquity / of my treacherous foes / surrounds me, - they who trust / in their wealth – and boast / of the magnitude / of their riches?” At this point, the psalm moves into the teaching of the wise man. The opening, however, at first glance seems odd. The opening of the psalm described, in detail, the mystery that was to be contained in what would follow. Yet, here, when the psalmist begins his discourse, he asks a very rhetorical (and almost sarcastic) question. This attitude will continue throughout the psalm, finding its greatest expression in “Surely…” (vs. 7, 10 and contrasted by vs. 15). From the psalmist’s vantage point, whatever wisdom he is singing out is one that is, rather oddly, very obvious. I think what we see here is the ‘gift of the wise man’—he has the ability to display some of the most piercing insights by and through what is most obvious and common to all. Wisdom contains within her this vision: once perceived she seems, simultaneously, obvious sand profound. Furthermore, by beginning in this manner, he puts the reader on his side; one is already, almost without noticing, being conformed to his vision of things simply because he is speaking with authority.