Psalms 68:20 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

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.