Psalm 49:1
Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world:
Hear this,.... Not the law, as some Jewish writers {l} interpret it, which was not desirable to be heard by those that did hear it; it being a voice of wrath and terror, a cursing law, and a ministration of condemnation and death; but rather ad atywxa, "this news", as the Targum; the good news of the Gospel; the word of "this" salvation; the voice from heaven; the word not spoken by angels, but by the Lord himself: or hmkxh taz, "this wisdom", as Kimchi interprets it; which the psalmist was about to speak of, Psalms 49:3; also the parable and dark saying he should attend unto and open, Psalms 49:4; and indeed it may take in the whole subject matter of the psalm;
all ye people: not the people of Israel only, but all the people of the world, as appears from the following clause; whence it is evident that this psalm belongs to Gospel times; in which the middle wall of partition is broken down, and there is no difference of people; God is the God both of Jews and Gentiles; Christ is the Saviour and Redeemer of one as well as of the other; the Spirit of God has been poured out upon the latter; the Gospel has been sent into all the world, and all are called upon to hear it;
give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world, or "of time"; so the word is rendered "age", the age of a man, Psalms 39:5. The inhabitants of this world are but for a time; wherefore Ben Melech interprets the phrase by
Nmwh yvna, "men of time", the inhabitants of time; it is peculiar to the most High to "inhabit eternity", Isaiah 57:15. Under the Gospel dispensation there is no distinction of places; the Gospel is not confined to the land of Judea; the sound of it is gone into all the world, and men may worship God, and offer incense to his name, in every place; and whoever fears him in any nation is accepted of him.
{l} Midrash Tillim in loc. Yalkut Simeoni, par. 2. fol. 106. 2.