The refrain is slightly but significantly varied. Instead of "abides not," it reads "and has not understanding." The alteration in the Hebrew is very slight, the two verbs differing only by one letter, and the similarity in sound is no doubt the reason for the selection of the word. But the change brings out the limitations under which the first form of the refrain is true, and guards the whole teaching of the psalm from being taken to be launched at rich men as such. The illuminative addition in this second form shows that it is the abuse of riches, when they steal away that recognition of God and of man's mortality which underlies the psalmist's conception of _understanding_, that is doomed to destruction like the beasts that are put to silence. The two forms of the refrain are, then, precisely parallel to our Lord's two sayings, when He first declared that it was hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, and then, in answer to His disciples' surprise, put His dictum in the more definite form, "How hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom!" PSALM L. 1 El, Elohim, Jehovah has spoken, and called the earth From the place of sunrise to its going down. 2 From Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shone. 3 Our God will come, and cannot be silent: Fire devours before Him, And round Him it is tempestuous exceedingly. 4 He calls to the heavens above, And to the earth, that He may judge His people: 5 "Assemble to Me My favoured ones, Who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice." 6 And the heavens declare His righteousness; For God--the judge is He. Selah.