Psalms 49:14 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Like sheep, &c.— Like sheep they shall be laid in the place of the dead; death shall feed on them; their morning-shepherds rule over them, and their flesh is to be consumed: destruction is to them in their folds. So Houbigant, keeping up the metaphor all through from sheep. The Psalmist seems to consider שׁאול sheol as a place where the deceased were penned up like sheep, for the food of death; while, according to the common interpretation, God would raise up the righteous again, as it were in the morning, after a sort of deathlike suffering, to be masters over these rich wicked men. Particularly, he himself speaks with confidence that God would raise him. There is in Psalms 90 somewhat of the same mode of speaking, where the morning is considered as a kind of resurrection for good men after a state of black sufferings. Some think that the phrase, in the morning, signifies only speedily—in a short time. See Psalms 90:14. For my own part, I cannot help preferring Houbigant's interpretation, which, continuing the metaphor, speaks simply of the future punishment of the wicked, when they have departed this life. For those who think otherwise, those passages in the New Testament may well be referred to, where we are assured that the just shall rise and reign with Christ.