John Calvin Commentary Psalms 66:15

"I will offer unto thee burnt-offerings of fatlings, With the incense of rams; I will offer bullocks with goats. Selah" — Psalms 66:15 (ASV)

I will offer unto thee burnt-sacrifices of fatlings. We must suppose the speaker to be either David or one of the more prominent men of the nation, for no one in more modest circumstances could have offered rich sacrifices of this kind. It is probable that David was the author of the psalm, and here he indicates his intention to show kingly generosity in his offerings.

The reason why God ordered victims to be offered as an expression of thanksgiving was, as is well known, to teach the people that their praises were polluted by sin and needed to be sanctified from without. However we might propose to praise the name of God, we could only profane it with our impure lips, if Christ had not once offered himself up as a sacrifice to sanctify both us and our services.

It is through him, as we learn from the apostle (Hebrews 10:7), that our praises are accepted.

The Psalmist, in commending his burnt-offering, speaks of its incense or sweet savor. For although in themselves vile and loathsome, yet the rams and other victims, insofar as they were figures of Christ, sent up a sweet savor to God.

Now that the shadows of the Law have been abolished, attention is called to the true spiritual service. What this consists in is more clearly brought to our attention in the verse that follows, where the Psalmist tells us that he would proclaim widely the benefits he had received from God.

Such was the intended purpose, even in the external ceremonies under the Law, without which they could only be considered as an empty show. It was this—the fact that they proclaimed the praises of divine goodness—that formed the very seasoning of the sacrifices, preserving them from insipidity. In calling, as he does, upon all the fearers of the Lord, the Psalmist teaches us that if we properly appreciate the goodness of God, we will be filled with a desire to proclaim it widely, so that others may have their faith and hope confirmed by what they hear about it, as well as join us in a unified song of praise. He addresses only those who feared the Lord, for only they could appreciate what he had to say, and it would have been wasted effort to communicate it to the hypocritical and ungodly.