Commentary - Psalm 68:19-23

Bird's-eye view

This section of Psalm 68 is a dense concentration of high-octane gospel truth. It pivots from celebrating God's past victories and His ascension to declaring His ongoing work of salvation and judgment. The psalmist, having recounted God leading captivity captive (v. 18), now erupts in praise to the God who not only saves His people but bears their daily burdens. This is a God who is not distant or aloof, but intimately involved. Yet, this tender care for His own is the flip side of a fierce and settled opposition to His enemies. The God of our salvation is also the God who crushes the heads of those who persist in rebellion. The passage beautifully marries the concepts of salvation and judgment, showing them to be two sides of the same coin of God's righteousness. It culminates in a graphic, visceral depiction of the final victory of God's people, a victory so complete that it is pictured as wading in the blood of their enemies. This is warrior-poet language, celebrating the absolute and total triumph of God through His people over the forces of darkness.

In short, these verses declare that our God is a God who saves, a God who provides escape from death itself, and a God who will utterly vanquish all who set themselves against Him. The salvation He provides is not a flimsy, ethereal thing; it is a robust, bloody, and final victory over sin, death, and hell. This is the God who bears our burdens and crushes serpent heads.

Outline

Context In Psalm 68

Psalm 68 is a triumphal procession, a victory march in poetic form. It likely celebrates the bringing of the Ark of the Covenant to Mount Zion, but its scope is far grander, recounting the history of God's mighty acts from the Exodus onward. The psalm opens with the ancient war cry of Israel, "Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered" (v. 1), which is the language used when the Ark set out in the wilderness (Num 10:35). The entire psalm is infused with this martial, victorious spirit. It portrays God as a divine warrior who marches before His people, shaking the earth, providing for the needy, and defeating kings. The immediate context for our passage is verse 18, a prophecy of Christ's ascension: "You have ascended on high, You have led captivity captive; You have received gifts among men." Paul quotes this in Ephesians 4 to describe the victory of Christ over sin and death, and His subsequent giving of gifts to the church. Our section, verses 19-23, flows directly from this high point. Because Christ has ascended, because He is victorious, therefore we can say, "Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden." The victory of the past and the triumph of the ascension are the grounds for our present confidence in God's daily salvation and His ultimate judgment.

Key Issues

The God of Our Escapes

We often think of salvation as a one-time event, the great escape from our initial bondage to sin. And it is that, thanks be to God. But the psalmist here broadens our perspective. Our God is not just the God of the salvation, but a God of salvations (the Hebrew is plural). And more than that, to Yahweh the Lord belong "escapes from death." This is not just about being rescued once, but about a pattern of divine deliverance. Life in this fallen world is a series of tight spots, ambushes, and near-misses with death, both spiritual and physical. We are constantly in need of an escape route. The world, the flesh, and the devil are always setting traps, and we are prone to wander right into them.

But the good news is that our Lord is the master of escapes. He knows the way out of the maze. He holds the keys to death and Hades (Rev 1:18). This means that no situation is truly hopeless for the believer. No enemy can hold us when God decides to spring the lock. This was true for Israel in their many battles, it was supremely true for Christ in His resurrection from the tomb, and it is true for us in our daily walk. When we are cornered by temptation, hemmed in by trial, or staring death in the face, we belong to the Lord who specializes in providing a way out. Our confidence is not in our own cleverness or strength, but in the simple fact that our God is the God of escapes.

Verse by Verse Commentary

19 Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, The God who is our salvation. Selah.

The praise here is effusive and constant. It is a response to the ascension victory mentioned in the previous verse. Because God has triumphed, He is now in a position to minister to us in this specific way. And what is the ministry? He daily bears our burden. The verb here means to load up, as one would load a pack animal. God doesn't just give us strength to carry our burdens; He loads our burdens onto His own shoulders. This is a daily reality. Every morning brings with it a fresh set of anxieties, temptations, and troubles, and every morning our God shoulders them for us. This is not a God who helps those who help themselves. This is a God who helps the helpless. He is, emphatically, "The God who is our salvation." Salvation is not something we achieve; it is who He is for us. The Selah invites us to pause and marvel at this staggering truth. The God of the universe, the victorious King, stoops to be our beast of burden every single day.

20 God is to us a God of salvation; And to Yahweh the Lord belong escapes from death.

This verse reinforces and expands the previous one. The Hebrew for "God of salvation" is literally "a God of salvations," plural. He saves us in a thousand different ways from a thousand different threats. He is a specialist in deliverance. The second clause is even more potent. "To Yahweh the Lord belong escapes from death." The phrase "escapes from death" could be translated as "the exits from death." God holds the keys. Death is a realm with boundaries, and God knows all the ways out. This was demonstrated most powerfully when He raised His Son, Jesus, from the dead. The grave could not hold Him. And because we are united to Christ, the grave cannot ultimately hold us either. This provides immense comfort. For the believer, death is not a final destination but a doorway with an exit sign, and our God is the one who holds the door open.

21 Surely God will crush the head of His enemies, The hairy skull of him who goes on in his guilty deeds.

Here the psalm pivots from the comfort of salvation to the violence of judgment. But these are not in conflict; they are two sides of the same reality. The God who saves His people is the same God who destroys His enemies. The language is graphic and intentional. He will crush the head. This is a direct echo of the first gospel promise in Genesis 3:15, where God promised that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head. The ultimate enemy is Satan, and all who align themselves with him share in his fate. The "hairy skull" likely refers to a warrior letting his hair grow long as a sign of a vow, indicating a fierce and determined enemy. This is the man who "goes on in his guilty deeds," the one who persists in his rebellion, unrepentant. God's patience has a limit. For those who refuse to bow the knee, there is nothing left but the crushing blow of judgment. This is not vindictive pettiness; it is holy justice.

22 The Lord said, “I will bring them back from Bashan. I will bring them back from the depths of the sea;

This is a divine promise from the Lord Himself. He is speaking of His enemies. Bashan was a place of pagan power and giant kings, like Og. The depths of the sea represent chaos and the abyss. The point is that there is no place for God's enemies to hide. He will fetch them from the highest mountains and drag them up from the deepest sea. No fortress is too strong, no hiding place too remote. When the time for judgment comes, God will round up every last one of His adversaries. This is also a promise of restoration for His people. He brought them from Bashan and the sea in the Exodus and conquest, and He will do it again in the great, final salvation. He gathers His own and He gathers His enemies, the one for blessing and the other for judgment.

23 That your foot may crush them in blood, The tongue of your dogs may have its portion from your enemies.”

The psalm concludes this section with a startlingly graphic image of total victory. The purpose of God rounding up His enemies is so that His people can participate in the final triumph. "That your foot may crush them in blood" is the language of the ancient victor, who would place his foot on the neck of his defeated foe. Here, the victory is so overwhelming that the battlefield is awash in blood. This is not to be literalized in some grotesque way for the church age, but it communicates the utter and complete finality of the defeat of evil. The enemies of God will be so thoroughly vanquished that even the dogs, scavengers, will get their fill. This is imprecatory language, and it is the language of those who are aligned with God's justice. It is a prayer that God's righteous judgments would be fully executed, and that evil would be decisively and publicly overthrown.

Application

So what do we do with a passage like this? First, we take comfort. We serve a God who daily, personally, and intentionally bears our burdens. We are not left to struggle alone. When you feel the weight of your sin, your job, your family, your future, you must consciously hand that burden over to the Lord who has promised to carry it. He is a God of salvations, plural. He has an escape route planned for the very temptation you are facing right now.

Second, we take warning. The same God who is a loving Father to His children is a terrifying warrior to His enemies. The language of head-crushing and wading in blood should sober us. We must never trifle with sin or make peace with rebellion. Those who persist in their "guilty deeds" are headed for a shattering end. This should motivate our evangelism. We plead with people to flee the wrath to come, to switch sides in this great cosmic war before the final battle is joined.

Finally, we take courage. We are on the winning side. The victory has already been secured by Christ at the cross and in His resurrection and ascension. The final mopping-up operation is guaranteed. The head of the serpent has been dealt a mortal wound. Though he thrashes about in his death throes, his end is certain. Therefore, we can fight against sin in our own lives and in the world with confidence, knowing that our labor is not in vain. Our feet will one day stand on the neck of all that has opposed our King. Until that day, we bless the Lord, our daily burden-bearer, the God of our many escapes.