Why should I fear in the days of evil, When the iniquity at my heels surrounds me? Those who trust in their wealth And boast in the multitude of their riches, None of them can by any means redeem his brother, Nor give to God a ransom for him—For the redemption of their souls is costly, And it shall cease forever—That he should continue to live eternally, And not see the Pit.
(Psalms 49:6-9) NKJV
No one can pay the price to redeem a soul and live forever, no matter how rich they may be. That’s a valid statement, but it may be missing the point. This gets us into a discussion of gravity which is the very essence of time.
However, it’s worthwhile to slow down the progression of thought long enough to look at the meaning and context of the Hebrew words being used. Do they really have the meaning that we’ve deduced as being part of a gravitational mechanism of redemption? The passage above has some nuance which is very interesting. The theme is redemption, buying something back, but there’s a lot more besides. Most English translations render a meaning which is along the lines of:
What’s the point of worrying in the evil times when surrounded by sin? Boast the wealthy who trust in their riches, but they can’t pay the ransom for a soul (the price of saving a soul is so high that no one could ever pay it, so we may as well stop trying) to live forever and stay out of hell.
(Psalms 49:5-9) General theme of English translations
Everything that we (that’s me and the Holy spirit) have deduced so far is logically sound which means that whatever conclusion we reach will be logically certain. That’s how deductive reasoning works.
Matty's Paradigm 