Psalm 68:20

20 Our God is the ·God of salvation; and with Jehovah, the Lord, are the goings forth [even] from death.

Psalm 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.

Psalm 68:20 In-Context

18 Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts in Man, and even [for] the rebellious, for the dwelling [there] of Jah Elohim.

19 Blessed be the Lord: day by day doth he load us [with good], the God who is our salvation. Selah.

20 Our God is the ·God of salvation; and with Jehovah, the Lord, are the goings forth [even] from death.

21 Verily God will smite the head of his enemies, the hairy scalp of him that goeth on still in his trespasses.

22 The Lord said, I will bring again from Bashan, I will bring [them] again from the depth of the sea;

Footnotes

• [a] Or 'God is for us a God of salvations.'