Psalms 68:20

20 Our God is for us a God of salvation; his are the ways out of death.

Psalms 68:20 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 68:20

[He that is] our God
Or "God for us" ^F17; is on our side; and is the mighty God, able to save to the uttermost;

[is] the God of salvation;
or "God for salvations" ^F18; for the obtaining of them for his people, and giving them to them, even of every kind;

and unto God the Lord [belong] the issues from death;
deliverance from it; Christ has abolished it, and him that had the power of it; has delivered himself from it, and will deliver all his people from it, though they become subject to it, as well as from eternal death; for he has the keys of hell and death in his hands. Some render the words, "to God the Lord belong the issues", or "ways unto death" ^F19; he has various ways of bringing persons to death, of destroying his and his people's enemies; and so Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and Kimchi interpret it; though the following words seem to be opposed to these: the Heathens had a notion that the power of death belonged to God; hence they had a deity called the god of death, "Dites" ^F20.

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FOOTNOTES:

F17 (wnl lah) "Deus nobis, vel est nobis", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Piscator.
F18 (twevwml la) "Deus ad salutes", Pagninus, Montanus
F19 (twauwt twml) "ad mortem exitus", Pagninus, Montanus; "mille viae laethi", Lucan.
F20 Macrob. in Somn. Scip. l. 1. c. 11.

Psalms 68:20 In-Context

18 You have gone up on high, taking your prisoners with you; you have taken offerings from men; the Lord God has taken his place on the seat of his power.

19 Praise be to the Lord, who is our support day by day, even the God of our salvation. (Selah.)

20 Our God is for us a God of salvation; his are the ways out of death.

21 The heads of the haters of God will be crushed; even the head of him who still goes on in his evil ways.

22 The Lord said, I will make them come back from Bashan, and from the deep parts of the sea;