John Calvin Commentary Psalms 68:19

"Blessed be the Lord, who daily beareth our burden, Even the God who is our salvation. Selah" — Psalms 68:19 (ASV)

Blessed be the Lord, etc. David would have us understand that in recounting the more particular deliverances which God had accomplished, he did not mean to draw our minds away from the fact that the Church is constantly and at all times indebted for its safety to the Divine care and protection.

He adds, Blessed be God daily. And he intimates that deliverances might be expected from him with great abundance of every blessing. Some read, he will load, others, he will carry; but it is of little importance which reading we adopt. He points to the fact that God extends continued proofs of his kindness to his people and is unwearied in renewing the instances of it.

I read this Lord in the second part of the verse, for the letter ה, he, prefixed in the Hebrew, often has the force of a demonstrative pronoun; and he would point out, as it were with the finger, that God in whom their confidence should be placed. So in the next verse, which may be read, this our God is the God of salvation. What is said here coincides with the scope of what immediately precedes and is meant to convey the truth that God protects his Church and people constantly.

In saying this God, he counters the tendency in men to have their minds diverted from the one living and true God. The salvation of God is set before all men without exception, but is very properly represented here as something peculiar to the elect, so that they may recognize themselves as continually indebted to his preserving care, unlike the wicked, who pervert that which might have proved life into destruction, through their ingratitude.

The Hebrew word in the 20th verse is salvations, in the plural number, to convince us that when death may threaten us in so many various forms, God can easily devise the necessary means of preservation, and that we should trust to experience again the same mercy that has been extended to us once.

The latter clause of the verse bears the same meaning, where it is said that to the Lord belong the issues of death. Some read, the issues unto death, supposing that the reference is to the ease with which God can avenge and destroy his enemies; but this appears a constrained interpretation.

The more natural meaning obviously is that God has very singular ways, unknown to us, of delivering his people from destruction. He points to a peculiarity in the manner of the Divine deliverances: that God does not generally avert death from his people altogether, but allows them to fall in some measure under its power, and afterwards unexpectedly rescues them from it.

This is a truth particularly worthy of our notice, as it teaches us to beware of judging by sense in the matter of Divine deliverances. However deep we may have sunk in trouble, we should trust the power of God, who claims it as his special work to open up a way where man can see none.