Psalms114
World English Bible · Public Domain
1 When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of foreign language,
2 Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion.
3 The sea saw it, and fled. The Jordan was driven back.
4 The mountains skipped like rams, the little hills like lambs.
5 What was it, you sea, that you fled? You Jordan, that you turned back?
6 You mountains, that you skipped like rams? You little hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, you earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 who turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of waters.
People in this chapter — 3
All people →Study
Psalms 114Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Psalms 114. The full AI study guide (summary, themes, context) has its own page.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: An exhortation to fear God. (1-8).
vv1-8
Let us acknowledge God's power and goodness in what he did for Israel, applying it to that much greater work of wonder, our redemption by Christ; and encourage ourselves and others to trust in God in the greatest straits. When Christ comes for the salvation of his people, he redeems them from the power of sin and Satan, separates them from an ungodly world, forms them to be his people, and becomes their King. There is no sea, no Jordan, so deep, so broad, but, when God's time is come, it shall be divided and driven back. Apply this to the planting the Christian church in the world. What ailed Satan and his idolatries, that they trembled as they did? But especially apply it to the work of grace in the heart. What turns the stream in a regenerate soul? What affects the lusts and corruptions, that they fly back; that prejudices are removed, and the whole man becomes new? It is at the presence of God's Spirit. At the presence of the Lord, not only mountains, but the earth itself may well tremble, since it has lain under a curse for man's sin. As the Israelites were protected, so they were provided for by miracles; such was that fountain of waters into which the flinty rock was turned, and that rock was Christ. The Son of God, the Rock of ages, gave himself to death, to open a fountain to wash away sins, and to supply believers with waters of life and consolation; and they need not fear that any blessing is too great to expect from his love. But let sinners fear before their just and holy Judge. Let us now prepare to meet our God, that we may have boldness before him at his coming.
Key Words
יִשְׂרָאֵל: Jisrael, a symbolical name of Jacob; also (typically) of his posterity
יָצָא: to go (causatively, bring) out, in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively, direct and proxim.
מִן: properly, a part of; hence (prepositionally), from or out of in many senses
מִצְרַיִם: Mitsrajim, i.e. Upper and Lower Egypt
בַּיִת: a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etc.)
יַעֲקֹב: Jaakob, the Israelitish patriarch
עַם: a people (as a congregated unit); specifically, a tribe (as those of Israel); hence (collectively) troops or attendants; figuratively, a flock
לָעַז: to speak in a foreign tongue
יְהוּדָה: Jehudah (or Judah), the name of five Israelites; also of the tribe descended from the first, and of its territory
קֹדֶשׁ: a sacred place or thing; rarely abstract, sanctity
Cross References
Psalms 114The historical account of the Red Sea dividing and fleeing before Israel.
Supported by Matthew Poole, John Calvin, JFB
The historical account of the waters of Jordan being driven back for Israel's crossing.
Supported by Matthew Poole, John Calvin, JFB
Mount Sinai quaked greatly at the presence of the Lord during the giving of the Law.
Supported by Matthew Poole, John Calvin
God bringing water from the smitten rock in Horeb to sustain His people.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole
Parallel reference to hearing a language they understood not in Egypt.
Supported by JFB
Moses recalls God bringing water out of the rock of flint in the wilderness.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Poetic parallel of mountains skipping like calves or wild oxen at God's voice.
Supported by JFB
New Testament typology identifying the rock that followed them in the wilderness as Christ.
Supported by Matthew Henry