John Calvin Commentary Psalms 54:6

"With a freewill-offering will I sacrifice unto thee: I will give thanks unto thy name, O Jehovah, for it is good." — Psalms 54:6 (ASV)

I will freely sacrifice unto thee. According to his usual custom, he commits, if deliverance were granted, to be grateful for it; and undoubtedly, he also promises here to thank God formally when he would have an opportunity to do so.

Although God primarily considers the inner disposition of the heart, that would not excuse neglecting the rites prescribed by the Law. He would testify his gratitude for the favor he received by sacrifices, in the way common to all God's people, and thus, by his example, be a means of encouraging others to their duty.

And he would sacrifice freely: by which he is not referring to the fact that thanksgiving sacrifices were optional for worshippers, but rather to the eagerness and cheerfulness with which he would pay his vow once he had escaped his present dangers. Most people make generous promises to God as long as they are under the immediate pressure of affliction, but as soon as they are relieved, they fall back into their natural carelessness and forget the Lord's goodness.

But David commits to sacrificing freely, and in a different way from the hypocrite, whose religion stems from servility and compulsion. The passage teaches us that when we come into God's presence, we cannot expect acceptance unless we bring a willing mind to His service.

The last clause of this verse, and the following verse, clearly refer to the time when the Psalmist had received the deliverance he sought. It is true that the whole psalm must have been written after his deliverance; but up to this point, it should be seen as recording the prayer he used while still exposed to danger.

We should now suppose him relieved from his anxieties and adding a fresh expression of his gratitude. Nor is it unlikely that he refers to mercies he had experienced at other times in his life, mercies recalled to his memory by the deliverance more immediately brought to our attention in the preceding verses. Thus, he is to be understood as declaring, in a more general sense, that the name of God was good, and that he had been delivered out of all trouble.

I have already referred, in a former psalm (Psalms 52:6), to the sense in which the righteous are said to see the destruction of their enemies. It is a view of the event that is accompanied by joy and comfort.

And if anyone should ask whether it is permissible for God's children to feel pleasure in witnessing God's judgments executed on the wicked, the answer is obvious: it all depends on the motive that influences them. If their satisfaction comes in any way from gratifying a depraved feeling, it must be condemned; but there is certainly a pure and blameless delight we may feel in observing such displays of divine justice.