He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto GOD the Lord belong the issues from death.
Psalm 68 stands marked by triumph and victory, a paean of victory giving thanks for deliverance from trials. The declaration at its heart is that God alone is the God of salvation, and that the issues or outcomes of death belong to Him as Lord. In its context this speaks of resurrection, of God bringing His people back from the depths. By His power He brings the dead back to life, so that death and the grave cannot finally hold His people, and their resurrection is the deliverance the verse assures.
David in this triumph points beyond himself to the greater David whose Spirit inspired the psalm, making the verse prophetic of Christ in His triumph. It belongs to latter-day prophecy especially applicable to the remnant church in the closing work of the third angel's message with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the latter rain. Its fulfillment comes at the same time as the promise that light breaks forth as the morning with healing, with righteousness going before and the glory of the Lord as rereward.
At Sinai it identifies the God who had rescued Israel as the true source of help, in contrast to sun, gold, or silver idols that cannot speak from heaven or save. The plan of salvation is like a government headed by God to whom salvation belongs, in which those who stop rebelling and return to allegiance are forgiven and given full citizenship. Only those who accept His salvation will share it forever, for salvation is given through His Son Jesus, so that through faith in His blood past sins are remitted and God remains just while justifying the one who believes. Whoever believes does not perish but has everlasting life, while whoever does not believe is condemned.
The verse presents one side of the truth about God and must stand together with the truth that God is a consuming fire, so that to deny the second is as much unfaithfulness as to deny the first, for fire shall descend from the presence of God and destroy the wicked. It offers comfort in bereavement through the hope that death does not have the final word. Since the outcomes of life and death belong to Him, what God has revealed in Scripture is true and what He has not revealed can be left waiting, and His predictions should not be forced into fulfillment.
Psalm 68 stands marked by triumph and victory, a paean of victory giving thanks for deliverance from trials. The declaration at its heart is that God alone is the God of salvation, and that the issues or outcomes of death belong to Him as Lord. In its context this speaks of resurrection, of God bringing His people back from the depths. By His power He brings the dead back to life, so that death and the grave cannot finally hold His people, and their resurrection is the deliverance the verse assures.
David in this triumph points beyond himself to the greater David whose Spirit inspired the psalm, making the verse prophetic of Christ in His triumph. It belongs to latter-day prophecy especially applicable to the remnant church in the closing work of the third angel's message with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the latter rain. Its fulfillment comes at the same time as the promise that light breaks forth as the morning with healing, with righteousness going before and the glory of the Lord as rereward.
At Sinai it identifies the God who had rescued Israel as the true source of help, in contrast to sun, gold, or silver idols that cannot speak from heaven or save. The plan of salvation is like a government headed by God to whom salvation belongs, in which those who stop rebelling and return to allegiance are forgiven and given full citizenship. Only those who accept His salvation will share it forever, for salvation is given through His Son Jesus, so that through faith in His blood past sins are remitted and God remains just while justifying the one who believes. Whoever believes does not perish but has everlasting life, while whoever does not believe is condemned.
The verse presents one side of the truth about God and must stand together with the truth that God is a consuming fire, so that to deny the second is as much unfaithfulness as to deny the first, for fire shall descend from the presence of God and destroy the wicked. It offers comfort in bereavement through the hope that death does not have the final word. Since the outcomes of life and death belong to Him, what God has revealed in Scripture is true and what He has not revealed can be left waiting, and His predictions should not be forced into fulfillment.