Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 49:19

"He shall go to the generation of his fathers; They shall never see the light." — Psalms 49:19 (ASV)

He shall go to the generation of his fathers — To be gathered to one’s own people, or to his fathers, is a common expression in the Old Testament when speaking of death. See Genesis 25:8, 17; 35:29; 49:29, 33; Numbers 20:24, 26; 27:13; 31:2; Deuteronomy 32:50; Judges 2:10. It means that they were united again with those who had gone before them, in the regions of the dead. Death had indeed separated them, but by death they were again united.

They shall never see light — He and the generation to which he has gone to be united would no longer see the light of this world, no longer walk among the living (Job 33:30). Compare the notes on Isaiah 38:11; notes on Psalm 27:13. The meaning is that the rich sinner will die as others have done before him, leaving all his earthly possessions, and will no longer be permitted to revisit the world where his forsaken possessions are, and will not even be permitted to look on what before had been to him such a source of self-confidence, self-gratulation, and pride.