What can we reach for when even our best resources cannot keep someone we love from death? Psalm 49 speaks to rich and poor together. Wealth can provide food, shelter, and care, but it cannot Buy Back a life from Sheol. John, Ramona, and Paula pray the Psalm’s unsettling image of death as a shepherd and its daring turn: “But God will Buy Back my Being ... for God will take me in.” Praying with Jesus, we can tell the truth about mortality, ask for the care we need today, and entrust the people we love to God’s hold.
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