The fate of fools: People who have wealth but lack understanding are like the beasts that perish. Psalm 49:20

Psalm 49 is not a plea to God or a song of thanksgiving, but a sapiential psalm. The author of the Psalm sought with his wisdom to find an answer to the situation of things in the human society, injustice is overwhelming, the rich oppress the poor, and everyone leaves this life without taking anything.
With these words, the wise man exposed his intention to teach:
"My mouth will speak words of wisdom;
the meditation of my heart will give you understanding.
I will turn my ear to a proverb;
with the harp I will expound my riddle" Psalm 49:3-4.
This Psalm explains to us that all men at the end of their lives have the same final, and that the accumulation of wealth does not prevent death:
"No one can redeem the life of another
or give to God a ransom for them—
the ransom for a life is costly,
no payment is ever enough—
so that they should live on forever
and not see decay" Psalm 49:7-9.
So one could wonder with a certain pessimism what sense the wisdom and the law of God would have in this situation, all the psalms are in some way a continuation of Psalm 1, the Psalm of the two ways; though foolish and wise alike perish, there is hope for the just, because God as a judge has established a final retribution, without mentioning it directly, this retribution is eternal life:
"But God will redeem me from the realm of the dead;
he will surely take me to himself" Psalm 49:15.
Wisdom, and the understanding that is the intelligence that comes from her, are fundamental to understanding the functioning of the universe and the order that underlies all things; when these blessings are present in man, life does not become a "vacuum", but in something worth fighting to improve, beyond the fact that death makes all men equal.
The comprehension of wisdom is what gives meaning to the life of man, because to know her is to know the ways of God.
That is why the psalm ends by teaching us the fate of fools:
"People who have wealth but lack understanding
are like the beasts that perish" Psalm 49:20.

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