John Calvin Commentary Psalms 50:9

"I will take no bullock out of thy house, Nor he-goats out of thy folds." — Psalms 50:9 (ASV)

I will take no calf out your house. Two reasons are given in this and the following verses to prove that he cannot set any value on sacrifices. The first is that, supposing him to depend on these, he does not need to be indebted to man for them, having all the fullness of the earth at his command. The second is that he requires neither food nor drink as we do for the support of our weak natures.

He insists on the first of these in the ninth and three following verses, where he refers to his own boundless possessions, so that he may show his absolute independence from human offerings. He then points out the wide distinction between himself and man, the latter being dependent for a frail subsistence on meat and drink, while he is the self-existent One and communicates life to all others.

There may be nothing new in the truths laid down here by the Psalmist. However, considering the strong natural inclination we have to estimate God based on ourselves and to degenerate into a carnal worship, they convey a very necessary lesson, which contains profound wisdom: that man can never benefit God by any of his services, as we have seen in Psalm 16:2, My goodness extends not to you.

In the second place, God says that he does not require anything for his own use but that, as he is sufficient in his own perfection, he has considered the good of man in all that he has commanded. We have a passage in Isaiah to a similar effect:

The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that you build to me, and where is the place of my rest? For all these things has my hand made. (Isaiah 66:1–2).

In these words, God asserts his absolute independence; for while the world had a beginning, he himself was from eternity. From this it follows that as he existed when there was nothing outside of him that could contribute to his fullness, he must have in himself a glorious all-sufficiency.