Read Psalm 49:14–20

For when he dies he will carry nothing away; his glory will not go down after him (Ps. 49:17)

Here is an unsettling, yet nonetheless true, fact. Your house, your car, your bank account, your business, your ATV, your furniture, your photo albums . . . yes, even your smartphone: you cannot take any of these things along with you when you die.

Of course some people still try to do so. Many centuries ago the pharaohs in Egypt had all kinds of precious things put in their pyramids so that they could enjoy them on their journey through the afterlife.

Such attempts are feeble and futile. The truth is you cannot take material things along with you when your soul and body separate at death. The sons of Korah teach us this in verse 17, and the preacher-king confirms the same truth in Ecclesiastes 2:20–21. He writes that at death “a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it.”

Indeed, death reveals how weak money and material possessions are. “Money makes the world go around,” so they say. From a certain perspective that seems to be true. As a society we have even used money to pay for research that put men on the moon. You might think that there is nothing that money cannot buy—at least until you stand at the graveside. As soon as you walk into a cemetery, money instantly loses its power. Row upon row of gravestones rest above the bodies of people who worked, made money, and bought all kinds of different things. Yet when they died none of them could take along any of that material “glory,” as the sons of Korah call it (v. 17).

Take a look around you right now. What kinds of things do you see that belong to you? Think about your bank account. How much money have you saved up? And more importantly: how much value do you put on all these things? Use them wisely, especially to advance God’s kingdom. But remember that you cannot take them with you when you die.

As our Savior Jesus Christ taught us, “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt. 6:20–21).

Christ’s Psalms, Our Psalms: Daily Meditations for Individuals & Families Little Angels Press, 2018 Edited by Peter Holtvlüwer Hard cover, 381 pages