He that is our God,.... Or "God for us" (q); is on our side; and is the mighty God, able to save to the uttermost; is the God of salvation; or "God for salvations" (r); 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 had 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" (s); 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" (t). (q) "Deus nobis, vel est nobis", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Piscator. (r) "Deus ad salutes", Pagninus, Montanus, &c. (s) "ad mortem exitus", Pagninus, Montanus; "mille viae laethi", Lucan. (t) Macrob. in Somn. Scip. l. 1. c. 11.