Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 49:20

"Man that is in honor, and understandeth not, Is like the beasts that perish." — Psalms 49:20 (ASV)

Man that is in honor - This refers to a man who is in possession of wealth, or who occupies an exalted rank. See the notes at Psalm 49:12.

And understands not - That is, a person who has no proper appreciation of what it is to be a man, of his true rank as a man, of his relations to God, or of his condition as an immortal being—a man who values himself only on the fact that he is rich, who lives for this world alone, who regards it as a sufficient distinction that he is rich, and who degrades his nobler nature in the mere enjoyment of the pleasures of sense—is like the beasts and is in no way elevated above them.

Is like the beasts that perish - They live only for this life. They have no higher nature than that which pertains to the senses, and they live accordingly. The man who, though of exalted rank, lives for this life alone, in this resembles them. See the notes at Psalm 49:12.

Alas! What multitudes there are who live this way—whose only aim is to secure the wealth and honors of this life, who have no more thought of a future state, and who form no more plans regarding a future world than do the brutes! For there are many in exalted stations, surrounded by all that wealth can give, who yet no more admit the thought of a future world into their hopes and plans than if they had no other endowment than the camel or the ox. Their conduct in this respect would not be changed if all the higher endowments that constitute the nature of man were withdrawn, and they were at once reduced to the condition of a brute.

While, therefore, the main purpose of this psalm is to show that wealth confers no power that is to be dreaded—that its possessor, though wicked, cannot permanently injure us, since he must soon pass away by death—the course of thought at the same time teaches us that we should not desire wealth as our portion, and that we should not live for this as the main object of life. The possessor of the most ample fortune must soon be laid in the grave. All that he has acquired will pass into other hands and will be his no more. But he has a higher nature. He may live in a manner different from the brute that perishes.

He may act with reference to a higher—an eternal—state of existence; and, when he dies, he may leave his earthly inheritance, whether great or small, only to enter on an inheritance that shall be permanent and eternal. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? (Mark 8:36).