Psalms 68:20

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.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

21. (Psa 68:20). God is for us a God of salvation, and to Jehovah the Lord (belong) issues from death. A more exact translation of the verse, retaining the peculiar idioms, would be this: the Almighty (is) for us an Almighty for salvation, and to Jehovah the Lord (belong), as to death, outgoings or escapes. This is only an amplification of the last clause of the verse preceding, God is our salvation, or according to the other construction, God loads us with salvation.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

In most extreme dangers God hath infinite ways to deliver his.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

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."

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(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 Israel’s enemies. The LXX. and Vulgate apparently take it in the former connection.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 Elôhîm, ‘God,’ was substituted by the Jews in reading, when Adônai, ‘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.).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 20. He that is our God is the God of salvation. The Almighty who has entered into covenant with us is the source of our safety, and the author of our deliverances. As surely as he is our God he will save us. To be his is to be safe. And unto God the Lord belong the issues from death. He has ways and means of rescuing his children from death: when they are at their wit's end, and see no way of escape, he can find a door of deliverance for them. The gates of the grave none can open but himself, we shall only pass into them at his bidding; while on the heavenward side he has set open the doors for all his people, and they shall enjoy triumphant issues from death. Jesus, our God, will save his people from their sins, and from all else besides, whether in life or death.

Ver. 20. Our God is the God of salvation (that is of deliverance, of outward deliverance); and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death, or the goings out from death; that is, God hath all ways that lead out from death in his own keeping, he keepeth the key of the door that lets us out from death. When a man is in the valley of the shadow of death, where shall he issue out? Where shall he have a passage? Nowhere, saith man, he shall not escape. But God keepeth all the passages; when men think they have shut us up in the jaws of death, he can open them, and deliver us. To him belong the issues from death; it is an allusion to one that keepeth a passage or a door: and God is a faithful keeper, and a friendly keeper, who will open the door for the escape of his people, when they cry unto him. Joseph Caryl.

Ver. 20. And unto God the Lord belong the issues from death. Buildings stand by the benefit of their foundations that sustain them, support them; and of their buttresses that comprehend them, embrace them; and of their contignations (a framing together; from contigno, to join together, or lay with beams and rafters), that knit and unite them. The foundation suffers them not to sink; the buttresses suffer them not to swerve; the contignation and knitting suffer them not to cleave. The body of our building is in the former part of this verse; it is this; He that is our God is the God of salvation; ad salutes, of salvations, in the plural, so it is in the original; the God that gives us spiritual and temporal salvation too. But of this building, the foundation, the buttresses, the contignation, are in this part of the verse, which constitutes our text, and in the three diverse acceptations of the words amongst our expositors, Unto God the Lord belong the issues of death. For, first, the foundation of this building (that our God is the God of all salvation) is laid in this, That unto this God the Lord belong the issues of death; that is, it is in his power to give us an issue and deliverance, even then, when we are brought to the jaws and teeth of death, and to the lips of that whirlpool, the grave; and so, in this acceptation, this exitus mortis, the issue of death, is liberatio a morte, a deliverance from death; and this is the most obvious and most ordinary acceptation of these words, and that upon which our translation lays hold: the issues from death. And then, secondly, the buttresses that comprehend and settle this building: that, He that is our God is the God of salvation, are thus raised; Unto God the Lord belong the issues of death, that is, the disposition and manner of our death, what kind of issue and transmigration we shall have out of this world, whether prepared or sudden, whether violent or natural, whether in our perfect senses or shaked or disordered by sickness; there is (no) condemnation to be argued out of that, no judgment to be made upon that; for howsoever they die, precious in his sight is the death of his saints, and with him are the issues of death, the ways of our departing out of this life are in his hands; and so in this sense of the words, this exitus mortis, the issue of death, is liberatio in morte, a deliverance in death; not that God will deliver us from dying, but that he will have a care of us in the hour of death, of what kind soever our passage be; and this sense and acceptation of the words, the natural frame and contexture doth well and pregnantly administer unto us. And then, lastly, the contignation and knitting of this building, that He that is our God, is the God of all salvation, consists in this, Unto this God the Lord belong the issues of death, that is, that this God the Lord, having united and knit both natures in one, and being God, having also come into this world, in our flesh, he could have no other means to save us, he could have no other issue out of this world, no return to his former glory, but by death. And so in this sense, this exitus mortis, the issue of death, is liberatio per mortem, a deliverance by death, by the death of this God our Lord, Christ Jesus; and this, St. Augustine's acceptation of the words, and those many and great persons that have adhered to him. In all these three lines then, we shall look upon these words, first as the God of power, the Almighty Father, rescues his servants from the jaws of death; and then, as the God of mercy, the glorious Son rescues us by taking upon himself the issue of death; and then (between these two), as the God of comfort, the Holy Ghost rescues us from all discomfort, by his blessed impressions before; that what manner of death soever be ordained for us, yet this exitus mortis shall be introitus in vitam, our issue in death shall be an entrance into everlasting life. And these three considerations, our deliverance a morte, in morte, per mortem, from death, in death, and by death, will abundantly do all the offices of the foundation, of the buttresses, of the contignation of this our building, that He that is our God is the God of salvation, because Unto this God the Lord belong the issues of death. John Donne.

Ver. 20. The issues from death. That is, the issue, or escape, from death, both in the resurrection and in the various perils of our present life. Thomas Le Blanc.

Ver. 20. Issue from death. The English version cannot be sustained by the Hebrew; for l has never the force of from, and, therefore, the expression, as Dr. Hammond observes, must signify the several plagues and judgments inflicted by God on impenitent enemies--such as drowning in the sea, killing by the sword, etc.; which were the ways of punishing and destroying the Egyptians and Canaanites. Thus the two members of the verse are "antithetical" the first speaks of God as a deliverer, and the second as a punisher; and in this respect the verse corresponds with the preceding. George Phillips, in "The Psalms... with a Critical, Exegetical, and Philological Commentary." 1846.

Ver. 20. Death in God's hand.

I. Escapes from it.

II. Entrances to it.

III. The exit out of it beyond.

IV. The gate which, when closed, shuts us in it for ever.

Ver. 20.

I. What God has been to his people.

1. Their salvation.

2. Their portion: "Our God." II. What he will be: With them.

1. Until death.

2. In death.

3. After death. G. R.

Psalms 68:21*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He that is our God is the God of salvation; rather, God is to us a God of saving deeds (Kay), or of deliverances (Revised Version); i.e. net of salvation only in the abstract (ver. 19), but of deeds by which we are saved. And unto God the Lord belong the issues from death. It is through God only that, when death threatens, men escape it.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Issues - Escapes or deliverances.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Blessed is the Lord, etc. This is part of the song mentioned above: “Sing to God.”

lavishes upon us He will give us a great salvation, [greater] than any burden, as much as we can carry. (I found: every day...lavishes upon us He always behaves in this manner to us, that for every distress there is a salvation.)

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.