Bible Commentaries
Psalms 114

Verses 1-8

Psalms 114:1-8

Now Psalms 114:1-8 is a little psalm that calls the deliverance of the... recalls the deliverance of the children of Israel out of the bondage of Egypt.

When Israel went out of Egypt, and the house of Jacob from the people of strange language; Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion. The sea saw it, and fled ( Psalms 114:1-3 ):

That is, the Red Sea, which parted for them.

Jordan was driven back ( Psalms 114:3 ).

The waters of Jordan were stopped that they might come in the land.

The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs ( Psalms 114:4 ).

There were earthquakes, actually. The walls of Jericho destroyed by earthquakes and so forth. "The mountains skipping like rams, the little hills like lambs." And then the psalmist now recalling the sea and the Jordan, the mountains, he said,

What ailed you, O thou sea, that you fled? thou Jordan, that you were driven back? Ye mountains, that you skipped like rams; and you little hills, like lambs? Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob; Which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into the fountain of waters ( Psalms 114:5-8 ).

A reference to the flinty rock that Moses struck from which God gave them water in the wilderness. "