John Calvin Commentary Psalms 68:34

"Ascribe ye strength unto God: His excellency is over Israel, And his strength is in the skies." — Psalms 68:34 (ASV)

Give strength to God over Israel. The expression alludes to the preceding sentence, in which God was said to send forth a strong or mighty voice. It is not that, properly speaking, we can give anything to Him; but, since we are inclined to withhold the honor that is his due, David adds to what he had said of his thundering with a mighty voice an instruction that we, on our part, should be ready to proclaim his praises.

To guard the Gentile nations against those false ideas about religion that they customarily indulged in, he brings them back to the doctrine of the Law, in which God had specially revealed himself. He suggests that, to avoid losing themselves in error, they must advance by necessary steps from the creation and government of the world to that doctrine in which God had condescended to make an intimate revelation of himself to people.

So much is included when God is spoken of here as the God of Israel. But he is not content with instructing them to celebrate the power of God with vocal praises. He exhorts them to exercise faith, for in reality, we cannot better ascribe strength to God than by resting in his all-sufficient protection.

Thus, after having said that his strength is in the clouds; he adds, that he is terrible out of his holy places, meaning that he exerts a power in his temple sufficient to confound his enemies. Some understand heaven and earth to be the holy places intended, but this does not agree with the context, for it is immediately added, that the God of Israel would give strength to his people.

It is evident, therefore, that the Psalmist speaks of God’s protection of his Church. The plural number is used in speaking of the sanctuary, here as in other places, because the tabernacle was divided into three parts. In short, he points to the ark of the covenant, which the believing people of God should recognize as a symbol of confidence, remembering the promise, I will dwell in the midst of you, and thus resting securely under the wings of the Divine protection and confidently calling upon his name.

Any distinct right Israel might have had, compared to others, to trust in the guardianship of God, rested entirely on that covenant of free grace by which they had been chosen to be God’s treasured heritage. Let it be remembered, however, that God still exerts on behalf of his Church these terrible displays of his power of which the Psalmist speaks.