Psalm 114
When Israel went out from Egypt,
the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,
2 Judah became his sanctuary,
Israel his dominion.
3 The sea looked and fled;
Jordan turned back.
4 The mountains skipped like rams,
the hills like lambs.
5 What ails you, O sea, that you flee?
O Jordan, that you turn back?
6 O mountains, that you skip like rams?
O hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 who turns the rock into a pool of water,
the flint into a spring of water.
Sermon quotes and references
The song begins with a burst, as if the poetic fury could not be restrained, but overleaped all bounds. The soul elevated and filled with a sense of divine glory cannot wait to fashion a preface, but springs at once into the middle of its theme. Israel emphatically came out of Egypt, out of the population among whom they had been scattered, from under the yoke of bondage, and from under the personal grasp of the king who had made the people into national slaves. Israel came out with a high hand and a stretched out arm, defying all the power of the empire, and making the whole of Egypt to travail with sore anguish, as the chosen nation was as it were born out of its midst. Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David
At the beginning and end of this epoch, the personified Red Sea & Jordan River are routed, respectively, an allusion to pagan myths in which the sea & river are deities resisting creation. Within the wilderness, the mountains, the oldest & most enduring parts of the earth, and symbols of Egypt & Babylon, are shaken to their core. In the light of this theophany, all nations, from the conquest to the present, should writhe in anguish before him; that is to say, to fear him. Bruce Waltke, A Study of Psalms
The psalm ends on the note of God’s quiet creativity and care. He is powerful, but His power is directed to the point of need, transforming what is least promising into a place of plenty and a source of joy. Derek Kidner, Psalms