Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 68:20

[He that is] our God [is] the God of salvation; and unto GOD the Lord [belong] the issues from death.

20. God is unto us a God of deliverances;

And unto JEHOVAH the Lord belong the issues from death.

The plural denotes mighty and manifold deliverances. Cp. Psa 44:4. God is printed in capital letters in the A.V. because it represents the sacred Name, for which Elhm, ‘God,’ was substituted by the Jews in reading, when Adnai, ‘Lord’ (the regular substitute) is joined with it. Even in regard to death God can provide ways of escape (cp. 1Co 10:13). In the uttermost extremity of peril, when death seems inevitable, He can devise means of deliverance. Nay, though Israel as a nation seems to lie dead in exile, He can bring it forth from that grave and give it new life (1Sa 2:6; Hos 6:2; Eze 37:1 ff.).

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

He that is our God is the God of salvation – literally, God is for us a God of salvation. That is, The God whom we worship is the God from whom salvation comes, and who brings salvation to us. It is not a vain thing that we serve him, for he is the only being who can save us, and he will save us.

And unto God the Lord belong the issues from death – The outgoings or escapes from death. That is, He only can save from death. The Hebrew word means, properly, a going forth, a deliverance; then, a place of going forth as a gate, Eze 48:30; a fountain, Pro 4:23. Probably the only idea intended here by the psalmist was, that safety or deliverance from death proceeds solely from God. The sentiment, however, is true in a larger sense. All that pertains to deliverance from death, all that prepares for it, all that makes it easy to be borne, all that constitutes a rescue from its pains and horrors, all that follows death in a higher and more blessed world, all that makes death final, and places us in a condition where death is no more to be dreaded – all this belongs to God. All this is under his control. He only can enable us to bear death; he only can conduct us from a bed of death to a world where we shall never die.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 20. The issues frown death.] The going out or exodus from death – from the land of Egypt and house of bondage. Or the expression may mean, Life and death are in the hand of God. “He can create, and he destroy.”

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Belong, i.e. they are only in his hand and power to dispose them as he pleaseth.

The issues, Heb. the outgoings or evasions, escapes or deliverances, as a Greek word of the same signification is used, 1Co 10:13. From death; or, in (as the Hebrew lamed is used, Psa 16:10; 31:17) death, i.e. the most deadly dangers, yea, even death itself, in and from which God through Christ delivers his people.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

[He that is] our God,…. Or “God for us” q; is on our side; and is the mighty God, able to save to the uttermost;

[is] the God of salvation; or “God for salvations” r; 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” s; 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” t.

q “Deus nobis, vel est nobis”, Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Piscator. r “Deus ad salutes”, Pagninus, Montanus, c. s “ad mortem exitus”, Pagninus, Montanus “mille viae laethi”, Lucan. t Macrob. in Somn. Scip. l. 1. c. 11.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(20) He that is.The insertion is unnecessary. Render, God unto us (i.e., our God) is a God of salvation.

Issues from death.Literally, for death goings out. The same word rendered issues in Pro. 4:23, there means sources. Here it will mean sources of death, or escapes from death as we connect the clause with what precedes or follows; Jehovah would provide an issue out of death for Israel, but a source of death to Israels enemies. The LXX. and Vulgate apparently take it in the former connection.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

20. Suddenly the psalmist leaves the triumphal procession at Zion, to celebrate the martial power of God over Israel’s enemies.

Issues from death Goings forth, or escapes from death. In his hands are the methods leading to and from death. See Ecc 7:18

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Psa 68:20. Unto God the Lord belong the issues from death The original words may certainly be rendered, The goings forth of Jehovah the Lord are unto death; or, the goings forth of death belong to the Lord Jehovah. In the first part of this verse the Psalmist declares, that God is to us a God of salvations, all our deliverances come from God; and in the next verse he says, God will wound the head of his enemies; and the outgoings to death, or of death, may include both. It is He that directs them, suffers them not to approach his people, but ordains them to reach his restless and implacable adversaries: the one he redeems from, the other he condemns to death. Death seems to be here represented poetically, as a person going forth and marching in various ways, and by different methods, to spread destruction amongst mankind; but as under the restraint of God, and in all his marches directed by his pleasure.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Psa 68:20 [He that is] our God [is] the God of salvation; and unto GOD the Lord [belong] the issues from death.

Ver. 20. He that is our God, is the God of salvation ] Or, This God is unto us a God of salvation, in the plural, so that he can save us, and doth, from a thousand deaths and dangers; and when he hath delivered us today, he both can and will do it again tomorrow; he hath for his people omnimodam salutem.

And unto God the Lord belong the issues from death ] When we think there is no way but one for us, he appeareth as out of an engine, and pulleth us out of death’s jaws. The Lord knoweth how to deliver his, 2Pe 2:9 , from the most desperate and deadly dangers. Peter might well say it, for he had the experience of it, Act 12:7-11 ; Christ hath the keys of death, Rev 1:18 , the sole dominion and disposal of it. Servat nos a morte, sicut ipse primus exibat e manu mortis.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)