49 (2)Psalm 49 Version 2CM
LET all the listening world attend,
    And wise instruction hear;
Let high and low, and rich and poor
    With joint consent give ear.
 
2  People who all their hope and trust
    In wealth and riches place,
And boast and triumph when they see
    Their treasure’s great increase . . .
 
3  Are yet unable from the grave
    Their dearest friends to free;
Nor can their force of bribes reverse
    Almighty God’s decree.
 
4  Their best endeavours all are vain,
    Their pride is held too high;
No sum can purchase such a grant,
    That one should never die.
 
5  Their fame is vanished soon away
    No matter once how great,
Their memory, and they, with beasts,
    Shall share a common fate.
 
6  For every child of man here born,
    Unless, by God made wise,
Lives as a beast upon the earth
    And as a beast then dies.
 
Nahum Tate, 1652-1715