John Gill Commentary Psalms 68:20

"God is unto us a God of deliverances; And unto Jehovah the Lord belongeth escape from death." — Psalms 68:20 (ASV)

[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 has 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.