John Calvin Commentary Psalms 78:58

"For they provoked him to anger with their high places, And moved him to jealousy with their graven images." — Psalms 78:58 (ASV)

And they provoked him to anger with their high places. Here we identify the specific kind of apostasy by which the Israelites provided undeniable proof that they refused to be faithful to God and to be loyal to him.

They had been warned more than sufficiently that the worship of God would be distorted and defiled unless every part of it was regulated by God’s Word. And yet, ignoring his entire law, they recklessly followed their own inventions. The fruits that consistently arise from contempt for the law are that people who prefer to follow their own understanding, rather than submit to the authority of God, become deeply attached to blatant superstitions.

The Psalmist complains that they corrupted the worship of God in two ways: first, by defacing God’s glory by setting up idols and graven images for themselves; and second, by inventing strange and forbidden ceremonies to appease God’s anger.