John Calvin Commentary Psalms 68:15

"A mountain of God is the mountain of Bashan; A high mountain is the mountain of Bashan." — Psalms 68:15 (ASV)

The hill of God, the hill of Bashan. Here he refers to the spring and source of all the kindness which God had shown, this being the fact that He had chosen Mount Zion as the place of His palace and temple, from where all blessings should go out to the nation.

A divine declaration to that effect had been made to David, and this preeminence and dignity conferred upon Mount Zion is very properly brought forward as a proof of his being king, lawfully and by divine appointment; for there was an inseparable connection between God’s dwelling upon that mountain and David’s sitting upon the throne to govern the people.

The words of the verse admit of two senses. We may suppose that the mountain of God is compared to Mount Bashan as being like it, or we may understand that it is opposed to it. The first is the sense adopted by almost all interpreters: that while Bashan was famed for its fertility, Zion excelled it.

It is of little importance which we prefer; but perhaps the distinction would be brought out just as well if we interpret the words the hill of God separately and consider that Bashan, with its boasted height, is afterwards ordered to yield precedence.

This would be as if David would say that there was only one mountain which God had consecrated to Himself by an irrevocable decree, and that though Bashan was renowned for height and fertility, it must rank with other mountains, which might in vain exalt themselves to an equality with Zion, honored as the chosen residence of God.

If we read the verse differently and consider it as applying to Mount Zion throughout, then the Psalmist extols it as high and illustrious, and this because there emanated from it the divine favor, which distinguished the Jews from every other nation.