Psalms 114 commentary

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.

PSALM 114

This psalm contains a short account of that deliverance by which God, in bringing his people out of Egypt: and conducting them to the promised inheritance, gave a proof of his power and grace which ought to be held in everlasting remembrance. The design of that wonderful deliverance was, that the seed of Abraham might yield themselves wholly to God, who, receiving them by a gracious act of adoption, purposed that they should be to him a holy and peculiar people. “The exodus of Israel from Egypt, with some of its most remarkable accompanying and consequent miracles, are, in this brief psalm, commemorated in the boldest style of poetry, with personifications, indeed, of inanimate nature of the utmost daring and sublimity, in ‘thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.’” — Drake’s Harp of Judah.

Psalm 114:1-4

1. When Israel went out from Egypt, and the house of Jacob from a barbarous people; The word לעז, loez, which Calvin renders, a barbarous people, is translated, in our English Bible, “a people of strange language.” His version is supported by many authorities. The word is frequently found, in the sense he attaches to it, in Rabbinical works, and is so understood here by the Chaldee paraphrast, who has ברבראי, and by the LXX., who have βαρβάρου. The root of these terms, as well as the Latin word for barbarous, is probably the Hebrew בר, out, or without, redoubled; and so it signifies, to a Jew, any man of another nation. According to Parkhurst, the word, instead of signifying a barbarous or foreign language or pronunciation, seems rather to refer to the violence of the Egyptians towards the Israelites, or the barbarity of their behavior, which, he observes, was more to the Psalmist’s purpose than the barbarity of their language, even supposing the reality of the latter in the time of Moses. — See his Lexicon on לעז. Horsley reads, “a tyrannical people.” 2. Judah was for his “There is a peculiar beauty in the conduct of this psalm, in that the author utterly conceals the presence of God in the beginning of it, and rather lets a possessive pronoun (i.e. His) go without a substantive, than he will so much as mention any thing of Divinity there; because, if God had appeared before, there could be no wonder why the mountains should leap, and the sea retire; therefore, that this convulsion of nature may be brought in with due surprise, his name is not mentioned till afterwards, and then, with a very agreeable turn of thought, God is introduced at once with all majesty ” — Spectator, volume 6, No. 461. If, however, the last two words of the preceding psalm, הללו-יה, Halelu-yah, Praise ye Jehovah, are the title to this psalm, the antecedent to his is supplied. holiness, Israel for his dominions. 3. The sea saw, and fled: In the Hebrew there is no pronoun after saw; nor is any inserted in the Septuagint and Arabic versions, or in the Chaldee. In our English Bible, it is inserted, and him in the Syriac version; but the sentence is certainly much more sublime without any such supplement. Jordan was turned backward. 4. The mountains leaped like rams, and the hills as the lambs of the flock.

1 When Israel went out from Egypt That exodus being a remarkable pledge and symbol of God’s love for the children of Abraham, it is not surprising that it should be so frequently called to remembrance. In the beginning of the psalm, the prophet informs us that the people whom God purchased at so great a price are no more their own. The opinion of certain expositors, that at that time the tribe of Judah was consecrated to the service of God, according to what is said in Exodus 19:6, and 1 Peter 2:9, appears to me foreign to the prophet’s design. All doubt about the matter is removed by what is immediately subjoined, God’s taking Israel under his rule, which is simply a repetition of the same sentiment in other words. Judah being the most powerful and numerous of all the tribes, and occupying the chief place among them, here takes the precedency of the rest of the people. At the same time, it is very evident that the honor which is in a peculiar manner ascribed to them, belongs equally to the whole body of the people. “Judah represents here the whole people of Israel, as Joseph does, in Psalm 81:6. The reason assigned by Kimchi for this use of יהודה here is, that at the time of the departure from Egypt, Judah was considered the head or chief of the tribes; see Genesis 49:8-10. This, however, is mere conjecture. If it be necessary to assign reasons for the distinction here conferred on this tribe, I should mention as one:, that the ark was kept in the region occupied by the descendants of Judah, and, as another, that from him the Messiah was to spring.” — Phillips. When God is said to be sanctified, it must be understood that the prophet is speaking after the manner of men, because, in himself, God is incapable of increase or diminution. Judah is called his holiness, God’s holiness being often taken for the keeping his promise sacred or inviolate, as in Psalm 102:9, when, reference being made to the immutability of his covenant, it is added, “holy [as in another respect, reverend] is his name;” some, as Hammond and Cresswell, suppose that the meaning here is, that God’s dealings towards Judah — the people of the Jews, were a demonstration of his faithfulness in performing his promise made to Abraham long before. and Israel his dominion, Hammond reads, “And Israel his power,” by which he understands that Israel was an instance of his power; that God, in his acting for Israel, declared his omnipotence most signally. because his holy majesty, which hitherto had been little known, secured the veneration of all who had witnessed the displays of his incredible power. In delivering his people, God erected a kingdom for himself and procured respect for his sacred name; if then they do not constantly reflect upon such a remarkable instance of his kindness, their insensibility is totally inexcusable.

PSALM 114

Psa 114:1-8. The writer briefly and beautifully celebrates God's former care of His people, to whose benefit nature was miraculously made to contribute.

1-4. of strange language--(compare Psa 81:5).

5-8. The questions place the implied answers in a more striking form.

A people of strange language - This may mean no more than a barbarous people; a people whom they did not know, and who did not worship their God. But it is a fact that the language of the Egyptians in the time of Joseph was so different from that of the Hebrews that they could not understand each other. See Psa 81:5; Gen 42:23.

The Chaldee has here מעמי ברבראי meammey barbarey, which gives reason to believe that the word is Chaldee, or more properly Phoenician. See this word fully explained in the note on Act 28:2 (note). My old Psalter understood the word as referring to the religious state of the Egyptians: In gangyng of Isrel oute of Egipt, of the house of Jocob fra hethen folke.

Judah was his sanctuary - He set up his true worship among the Jews, and took them for his peculiar people.

And Israel his dominion - These words are a proof, were there none other, that this Psalm was composed after the days of David, and after the division of the tribes, for then the distinction of Israel and Judah took place.

The sea saw it, and fled - Mr. Addison has properly observed (see Spect. No. 461) that the author of this Psalm designedly works for effect, in pointing out the miraculous driving back the Red Sea and the river Jordan, and the commotion of the hills and mountains, without mentioning any agent. At last, when the reader sees the sea rapidly retiring from the shore, Jordan retreating to its source, and the mountains and hills running away like a flock of affrighted sheep, that the passage of the Israelites might be every where uninterrupted; then the cause of all is suddenly introduced, and the presence of God in his grandeur solves every difficulty.

What ailed thee, O thou sea - The original is very abrupt; and the prosopopoeia, or personification very fine and expressive: -

What to thee, O sea, that thou fleddest away!

O Jordan, that thou didst roll back!

Ye mountains, that ye leaped like rams!

And ye hills, like the young of the fold!

After these very sublime interrogations, God appears; and the psalmist proceeds as if answering his own questions: -

At the appearance of the Lord, O earth, thou didst tremble;

At the appearance of the strong God of Jacob.

Converting the rock into a pool of waters;

The granite into water springs.

I know the present Hebrew text reads חולי chuli, "tremble thou," in the imperative; but almost all the Versions understood the word in past tense, and read as if the psalmist was answering his own questions, as stated in the translation above. "Tremble thou, O earth." As if he had said, Thou mayest well tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob.

The flint - I have translated חלמיש challamish, Granite; for such is the rock of Horeb, a piece of which now lies before me.

This short and apparently imperfect Psalm, for elegance and sublimity, yields to few in the whole book.

It is so well translated in the old Psalter, that I think I shall gratify the reader by laying it before him. Psa 114:1 In gangyng of Isrel oute of Egipt,Of the house of Jacob fra hethen folke. Psa 114:2 Made is Jude his halawyngIsrel might of hym. Psa 114:3 The se sawe and fled,Jurdan turned is agayne; Psa 114:4 Hawes gladed als wethers,And hilles als lambes of schepe. Psa 114:5 What is to the se, that thou fled?And thou Jordane that thou ert turned agayne? Psa 114:6 Hawes gladded als wethers?And hils als lambs of schepe. Psa 114:7 Fra the face of Lorde styrde is the erth,Fra the face of God of Jabob; Psa 114:8 That turnes the stane in stank of waters,And roche in wels of waters.

And, as a still more ancient specimen of our language, I shall insert the Anglo-Saxon, with a literal reading, line for line, as near to the Saxon as possible, merely to show the affinity of the languages. Psa 114:1 On outgang Israel of Egypt,House Jacob of folk foreigners; Psa 114:2 Made is Jacob holyness his;Israel andweald (government) his. Psa 114:3 Sea saw, and flew!Jordan turned underback! Psa 114:4 Mounts they fain (rejoiced) so (as) rams,And burghs (hillocks) so (as) lamb - sheep. Psa 114:5 What is the sea, that thou flew?And thou river for that thou turned is underback? Psa 114:6 Mounts ye fained (rejoiced) so so rams;And hills so so lambs - sheep. Psa 114:7 From sight Lord's stirred is earth;From sight God of Jacob. Psa 114:8 Who turned stone in mere waters;And cliffs in wells waters.

I have retained some words above in nearly their Saxon form, because they still exist in our old writers; or, with little variation, in those of the present day: - Psa 114:2 Andweald, government. Hence weal and wealth, commonweal or wealth; the general government, that which produces the welfare of the country. Psa 114:4 Faegnodon, fained - desired fervently, felt delight in expectation. Psa 114:4 Burgh, a hill - a mound or heap of earth, such as was raised up over the dead. Hence a barrow; and hence the word bury, to inhume the dead. Psa 114:8 Mere, or meer, a large pool of water, a lake, a lough, still in use in the north of England. Gentlemen's ponds, or large sheets of water so called; and hence Winander-mere, a large lake in Westmoreland. Mere also signifies limit or boundary; hence the Mersey, the river which divides Lancashire from Cheshire, and serves as a boundary to both counties. The mere that spreads itself out to the sea.

Instead of cludas, which signifies rocks, one MS. has clyf, which signifies a craggy mountain or broken rock.

The reader will see from this specimen how much of our ancient language still remains in the present; and perhaps also how much, in his opinion, we have amplified and improved our mother tongue.

Judah - Or Israel, one tribe being put for all. Judah he mentions as the chief of all the tribes.

The mountains - Horeb and Sinai, two tops of one mountain, and other neighbouring mountains.

Tremble - The mountains did more than what was fit at the appearance of the great God.

1 WHen Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language ;

Which was a great aggravation of their captivity and misery. Compare Ier. 5. 15.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word]. 13. 3.

2 Judah was his sanctuary , and Israel his dominion .

Or, Israel, as it is explained in the next clause; one Tribe being put for all; which is a common Synecdoche. Iudah he mentions as the chief of all the Tribes, not onely in number and power, but also in dignity, in which the Kingdom was to be seated, Gen. 49. 10, &c. as at this time it actually was, and from which the Messias was to spring.

i. e. Gods, which is easily understood from the whole context, and from the nature of the thing.

Or, holiness, the people of Gods holiness, as they are called Isa. 63. 18. or, his holy people, as Deut. 26. 29. Dan. 8. 24. sanctified or set apart from all the Nations of the World to be his peculiar people and possession.

In a peculiar manner to be governed by his Laws, and honoured with his special presence and favour.

3 The sea saw it , and fled, Jordan was driven back.

To wit, this glorious work of God in bringing his people out of Egypt.

Marginal references: Exod. 14. 21. [illegible: 1 word] ▪ 77. 16.; Josh. 3. 13. 1[illegible: 1+ letters].

4 The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs.

H[illegible: 1+ letters]rth and Sinai, two tops of one mountain, and other neighbouring hills or mountains. Compare Exod. 19. 18. Psal. 68. 9. Habak. 3. 6, 10.

5 What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest ? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back?

What was the cause of this unusual motion? Such speeches directed to senceless creatures, are very frequent both in Scripture and in other Authors, and especially in Poetical writings, such as this is.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word]. 3. 8.

7 Tremble thou earth at the presence of the LORD , at the presence of the God of Jacob.

But why do I ask these questions? Ye mountains did no more than what was just and fit at the approach and appearance of the great God: yea the whole earth hath reason to tremble and quake upon such occasions.

Commotion of Nature before God the Redeemer out of Egypt

To the side of the general Hallelujah Psa 113:1-9 comes an historical one, which is likewise adorned in Psa 114:8 with the Chirek compaginis, and still further with Cholem compaginis, and is the festival Psalm of the eighth Passover day in the Jewish ritual. The deeds of God at the time of the Exodus are here brought together to form a picture in miniature which is as majestic as it is charming. There are four tetrastichs, which pass by with the swiftness of a bird as it were with four flappings of its wings. The church sings this Psalm in a tonus peregrinus distinct from the eight Psalm-tones.

Psa 114:1-4

Egypt is called עם לעז (from לעז, cogn. לעג, לעה), because the people spoke a language unintelligible to Israel (Psa 81:6), and as it were a stammering language. The lxx, and just so the Targum, renders ἐκ λαοῦ βαρβάρου (from the Sanscrit barbaras, just as onomatopoetic as balbus, cf. Fleischer in Levy’s Chaldäisches Wörterbuch, i. 420). The redeemed nation is called Judah, inasmuch as God made it His sanctuary (קדשׁ) by setting up His sanctuary (מקדּשׁ, Exo 15:17) in the midst of it, for Jerusalem (el ḳuds) as Benjamitish Judaean, and from the time of David was accounted directly as Judaean. In so far, however, as He made this people His kingdom (ממשׁלותיו, an amplificative plural with Mem pathachatum), by placing Himself in the relation of King (Deu 33:5) to the people of possession which by a revealed law He established characteristically as His own, it is called Israel. 1 The predicate takes the form ותּהי, for peoples together with country and city are represented as feminine (cf. Jer 8:5). The foundation of that new beginning in connection with the history of redemption was laid amidst majestic wonders, inasmuch as nature was brought into service, co-operating and sympathizing in the work (cf. Psa 77:15.). The dividing of the sea opens, and the dividing of the Jordan closes, the journey through the desert to Canaan. The sea stood aside, Jordan halted and was dammed up on the north in order that the redeemed people might pass through. And in the middle, between these great wonders of the Exodus from Egypt and the entrance into Canaan, arises the not less mighty wonder of the giving of the Law: the skipping of the mountains like rams, of the ills like בּני־צאן, i.e., lambs (Wisd. 19:9), depicts the quaking of Sinai and its environs (Exo 19:18, cf. supra Psa 68:9, and on the figure Psa 29:6).

Psa 114:5-8

The poet, when he asks, “What aileth thee, O sea, that thou fleest...?” lives and moves in this olden time as a contemporary, or the present and the olden time as it were flow together to his mind; hence the answer he himself gives to the question propounded takes the form of a triumphant mandate. The Lord, the God of Jacob, thus mighty in wondrous works, it is before whom the earth must tremble. אדון does not take the article because it finds its completion in the following יעקב (אלוהּ); it is the same epizeuxis as in Psa 113:8; Psa 94:3; Psa 96:7, Psa 96:13. ההפכי has the constructive ı̂ out of the genitival relation; and in למעינו in this relation we have the constructive ô, which as a rule occurs only in the genitival combination, with the exception of this passage and בּנו באר, Num 24:3, Num 24:15 (not, however, in Pro 13:4, “his, the sluggard’s, soul”), found only in the name for wild animals חיתו־ארץ, which occurs frequently, and first of all in Gen 1:24. The expression calls to mind Psa 107:35. הצּוּר is taken from Exo 17:6; and חלּמישׁ (lxx τὴν ἀκρότομον, that which is rugged, abrupt)One usually compares Arab. chlnbûs , chalnabûs the Karaite lexicographer Abraham ben David writes חלמבוס]; but this obsolete word, as a compound from Arab. chls, to be black-grey, and Arab. chnbs, to be hard, may originally signify a hard black-grey stone, whereas חלמישׁ looks like a mingling of the verbal stems Arab. ḥms, to be hard, and Arab. ḥls, to be black-brown (as Arab. jlmûd, a detached block of rock, is of the verbal stems Arab. jld, to be hard, and Arab. jmd, to be massive). In Hauran the doors of the houses and the window-shutters are called Arab. ḥalasat when they consist of a massive slab of dolerite, probably from their blackish hue. Perhaps חלמישׁ is the ancient name for basalt; and in connection with the hardness of this form of rock, which resembles a mass of cast metal, the breaking through of springs is a great miracle. - Wetzstein. For other views vid., on Isa 49:21; Isa 50:7. stands, according to Deu 8:15, poetically for סלע, Num 20:11, for it is these two histories of the giving of water to which the poet points back. But why to these in particular? The causing of water to gush forth out of the flinty rock is a practical proof of unlimited omnipotence and of the grace which converts death into life. Let the earth then tremble before the Lord, the God of Jacob. It has already trembled before Him, and before Him let it tremble. For that which He has been He still ever is; and as He came once, He will come again.

The Deliverance of Israel Celebrated.

1 When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language; 2 Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion. 3 The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back. 4 The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs. 5 What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back? 6 Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams; and ye little hills, like lambs? 7 Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob; 8 Which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters.

The psalmist is here remembering the days of old, the years of the right hand of the Most High, and the wonders which their fathers told them of (Judg. vi. 13), for time, as it does not wear out the guilt of sin, so it should not wear out the sense of mercy. Let it never be forgotten,

I. That God brought Israel out of the house of bondage with a high hand and a stretched-out arm: Israel went out of Egypt, v. 1. They did not steal out clandestinely, nor were they driven out, but fairly went out, marched out with all the marks of honour; they went out from a barbarous people, that had used them barbarously, from a people of a strange language, Ps. lxxxi. 5. The Israelites, it seems, preserved their own language pure among them, and cared not for learning the language of their oppressors. By this distinction from them they kept up an earnest of their deliverance.

II. That he himself framed their civil and sacred constitution (v. 2): Judah and Israel were his sanctuary, his dominion. When he delivered them out of the hand of their oppressors it was that they might serve him both in holiness and in righteousness, in the duties of religious worship and in obedience to the moral law, in their whole conversation. Let my people go, that they may serve me. In order to this, 1. He set up his sanctuary among them, in which he gave them the special tokens of his presence with them and promised to receive their homage and tribute. Happy are the people that have God's sanctuary among them (see Exod. xxv. 8, Ezek. xxxvii. 26), much more those that, like Judah here, are his sanctuaries, his living temples, on whom Holiness to the Lord is written. 2. He set up his dominion among them, was himself their lawgiver and their judge, and their government was a theocracy: The Lord was their King. All the world is God's dominion, but Israel was so in a peculiar manner. What is God's sanctuary must be his dominion. Those only have the privileges of his house that submit to the laws of it; and for this end Christ has redeemed us that he might bring us into God's service and engage us for ever in it.

III. That the Red Sea was divided before them at their coming out of Egypt, both for their rescue and the ruin of their enemies; and the river Jordan, when they entered into Canaan, for their honour, and the confusion and terror of their enemies (v. 3): The sea saw it, saw there that Judah was God's sanctuary, and Israel his dominion, and therefore fled; for nothing could be more awful. It was this that drove Jordan back, and was an invincible dam to his streams; God was at the head of that people, and therefore they must give way to them, must make room for them, they must retire, contrary to their nature, when God speaks the word. To illustrate this the psalmist asks, in a poetical strain (v. 5), What ailed thee, O thou sea! that thou fleddest? And furnishes the sea with an answer (v. 7); it was at the presence of the Lord. This is designed to express, 1. The reality of the miracle, that it was not by any power of nature, or from any natural cause, but it was at the presence of the Lord, who gave the word. 2. The mercy of the miracle: What ailed thee? Was it in a frolic? Was it only to amuse men? No; it was at the presence of the God of Jacob; it was in kindness to the Israel of God, for the salvation of that chosen people, that God was thus displeased against the rivers, and his wrath was against the sea, as the prophet speaks, Hab. iii. 8-13; Isa. li. 10; lxvi. 11, &c. 3. The wonder and surprise of the miracle. Who would have thought of such a thing? Shall the course of nature be changed, and its fundamental laws dispensed with, to serve a turn for God's Israel? Well may the dukes of Edom be amazed and the mighty men of Moab tremble, Exod. xv. 15. 4. The honour hereby put upon Israel, who are taught to triumph over the sea, and Jordan, as unable to stand before them. Note, There is no sea, no Jordan, so deep, so broad, but, when God's time shall come for the redemption of his people, it shall be divided and driven back if it stand in their way. Apply this, (1.) To the planting of the Christian church in the world. What ailed Satan and the powers of darkness, that they trembled and truckled as they did? Mark i. 34. What ailed the heathen oracles, that they were silenced, struck dumb, struck dead? What ailed their idolatries and witchcrafts, that they died away before the gospel, and melted like snow before the sun? What ailed the persecutors and opposers of the gospel, that they gave up their cause, hid their guilty heads, and called to rocks and mountains for shelter? Rev. vi. 15. It was at the presence of the Lord, and that power which went along with the gospel. (2.) To the work of grace in the heart. What turns the stream in a regenerate soul? What ails the lusts and corruptions, that they fly back, that the prejudices are removed and the whole man has become new? It is at the presence of God's Spirit that imaginations are cast down, 2 Cor. x. 5.

IV. That the earth shook and trembled when God came down on Mount Sinai to give the law (v. 4): The mountains skipped like rams, and then the little hills might well be excused if they skipped like lambs, either when they are frightened or when they sport themselves. The same power that fixed the fluid waters and made them stand still shook the stable mountains and made them tremble for all the powers of nature are under the check of the God of nature. Mountains and hills are, before God, but like rams and lambs; even the bulkiest and the most rocky are as manageable by him as they are by the shepherd. The trembling of the mountains before the Lord may shame the stupidity and obduracy of the children of men, who are not moved at the discoveries of his glory. The psalmist asks the mountains and hills what ailed them to skip thus; and he answers for them, as for the seas, it was at the presence of the Lord, before whom, not only those mountains, but the earth itself, may well tremble (v. 7), since it has lain under a curse for man's sin. See Ps. civ. 32; Isa. lxiv. 3, 4. He that made the hills and mountains to skip thus can, when he pleases, dissipate the strength and spirit of the proudest of his enemies and make them tremble.

V. That God supplied them with water out of the rock, which followed them through the dry and sandy deserts. Well may the earth and all its inhabitants tremble before that God who turned the rock into a standing water (v. 8), and what cannot he do who did that? The same almighty power that turned waters into a rock to be a wall to Israel (Exod. xiv. 22) turned the rock into waters to be a well to Israel: as they were protected, so they were provided for, by miracles, standing miracles; for such was the standing water, that fountain of waters into which the rock, the flinty rock, was turned, and that rock was Christ, 1 Cor. x. 4. For he is a fountain of living waters to his Israel, from whom they receive grace for grace.

PSAL. CXIV.

WHen Israel went out from Egypt, the house of Iakob from the people of a barbarous speech; Iudah was for his sanctuary, Israel his dominions. The sea saw, and fled: the Iarden turned about backward. The Mountains leaped like Rams: the hills like younglings of the flocke. What alied thee, O sea, that thou fleddest; O Iarden, that thou turnedst about backward? O mountaines, that ye leaped like Rams: ye hils, like younglings of the flocke?

At the presence of the Lord tremble thou earth; at the presence of the God of Iakob. That turneth the rocke to a lake of waters, the flint to a fountaine of waters.

Annotations. BArbarous speech] or, speaking barbarously, of a strange, rude, uncouth language. This word is here onely used, and meaneth all speech that was not understood of Gods people; which hee that speakath, is called of the Apostle, a Barbarian, that is, a stranger, 1 Cor. 14. 11. even as here also the Chaldee turneth it. Spiritually it meaneth such as speake against the faith, the language of Canaan, Isa. 19. 18. Vers. 2. Iudah] that is, the congregation of that tribe, which was most principall, Num. [illegible: 1 word]. 3. and 7. 12. and 10. 14. was] or became; and it is of the feminine gender, to signifie the Congregation, usually named a daughter, as Ps. 9. 15. his sanctuary] sanctity, or sanctification, which God had sanctified to dwell among them, Levit. 19. 2. and 20. 7, 26. and 26. 11, 12. 2 Cor. 6. 16. The Chaldee explaineth it thus, The Church of the house of Iudah was united to his holinesse, Israel to his dominions. dominions] or dominations (seigniories) ruling over the tribes by his lawes and spirit. Vers. 3. The sea] the red sea, thorow which Israel passed, Exod. 14. 21. Psal. 77. 17. and 78. 13. and 66. 6. and 136. 13. the Iarden] the great river in the land of Canaan, Ios. 3. Psal. 66. 6. Vers. 4. The mountaines] Sinai, Horeb, and other hills in the wildernesse quaked, Exod. 19. 18. Hab. 3. 6, 10. Psal. 68. 9. So leaping is used also in Psal. 29. 6. The Chaldee paraphraseth, When hee gave his law to his people, the mountaines leaped, &c. younglings] Hebr. sonnes; meaning Lambs: so vers. 6. Vers. 5. What ailed thee] or, what was to thee? Vers. 7. At the presence] or, At the face, or Before the Lord. For these phrases are used indifferently; as milliphnei, at the presence, 1 Chron. 16. 33. is liphnei, before, Psal. 96. 13. So Milliphnei, before, or from the face, 1 Chro. 19. 18. for which in 2 Sam. 10. 18. is Miphnei, before. tromble thou] with paine as a woman in travell; see Psal. 29. 8. It is an answer to the former question, and therefore may also be turned, the earth trembled, (as the like is observed in Psal. 22. 9.) and so the Greeke here translateth, the earth was shaken. Vers. 8. the flint] that is, hard flinty rocke, as is explained, Deut. 8. 15. Compare Isa. 41. 18.

PSAL. CXIV.

VErſ. 1 When Iſrael went out of Egypt] Emedie gentis, ideſt ex viſcoribus Aegyptiorum, qui [illegible: 2 letters]s quaſi deglutiebant, out of the midſt of that Nation,Mid. Tillim. in Pſa. 114. that is, out of the bowels of the Aegpytians, who had as it were devoured them; thus the Jew-doctors gloſſe upon this Text.

From a people of ſtrange language] And yet more eſtranged affections, jearing them, and their Religion, as the word Lognez (which is of affinity with Logneg a ſcoffer) ſeemeth to ſound. Afterwards it was prophecied that five Cities in the land of Egypt ſhould ſpeak the language (or lip) of Canaan, Iſa. 19.18. viz. when the Lord ſhould turn to them, a pure language, Zeph. 3.9.

Verſ. 2. Judah was his ſanctuary] Or Sanctitie, or Sanctification. This was an happy change for them, from their Egyptian Idolatry, Ezek. 23.19. like as it was from their Egyptian ſervitude, when Iſrael became Gods dominions, dominations and ſigniories.

Verſ. 3. The Sea ſaw it and fled] When God will deliver his people, and perform his promiſes unto them, nothing ſhall hinder, but all Creatures ſhall contribute their helps; for they are all his ſervants, Pſal. 119.91.

Verſ. 4. The Mountains skipped like Rams] ſcil. at the giving of the law, Exod. 19.18. which alſo cauſeth heart-quakes in beleevers; but the unjuſt knoweth no ſhame, Zeph. 3.5. is paſt feeling, Epheſ. 4.19.

Verſ. 5 What ailed thee, O thou Sea] Or, what came to thee? can there any naturall reaſon bee given? or was it Gods powerfull preſence only that cauſed you to run retrograde? Atheiſts and unbleevers will ſearch the Devills ſcull to find out ſomething whereby they may elevate Gods great works, and elude his Arguments; as Pharaoh ſat not down under the miracle, but ſent for the Magicians, and hardened his own heart.

Verſ. 6 Yee Mountains that yee skipped, &c.] Theſe two verſes teach us, ſaith One, that wee may many times ask queſtions, and yet neither doubt of the matters, nor bee ignorant in them.

Verſ. 7 Tremble thou Earth, f] Heb. See in pain as a travelling woman; for if the giving of the law had ſuch dreadfull effects, what ſhould the breaking thereof have?

At the preſence of the God of Jacob] Whom Jacob, that is. Gods covenanted people, knoweth and confideth in a midſt all his auſterities, Iſa. 63.16. and can boldly ſay, as Hab. 1.12. Art not thou from everlaſting O Lord my God mine holy one? wee ſhall not dye.

Verſ. 8 Which turned the rock into a ſtanding water] Set the Rock of Rephidi[illegible: 2 letters] abroach, and made it not only a ſtanding water (ſtagnum, as here) but a running river; for the Rock followed them; and that Rock was Chriſt, 1 Cor. 10.4. with Joh. 4.14. & 7.38.

The Flint into a fountain of Waters] Still God worketh for his people, in oppoſitis mediis (as Luther expreſſeth it) by contrary means, and rather than they ſhall want neceſſaries, hee both can and will work miracles.

When Israel went out of Egypt. 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. The house of Jacob from a people of strange language. They had gone down into Egypt as a single family —"the house of Jacob"; and, though they had multiplied greatly, they were still so united, and were so fully regarded by God as a single unit, that they are rightly spoken of as the house of Jacob. They were as one man in their willingness to leave Goshen; numerous as they were, not a single individual stayed behind. Unanimity is a pleasing token of the divine presence, and one of its sweetest fruits. One of their inconveniences in Egypt was the difference of languages, which was very great. The Israelites appear to have regarded the Egyptians as stammerers and babblers, since they could not understand them, and they very naturally considered the Egyptians to be barbarians, as they would no doubt often beat them because they did not comprehend their orders. The language of foreign taskmasters is never musical in an exile's ear. How sweet it is to a Christian who has been compelled to hear the filthy conversation of the wicked, when at last he is brought out from their midst to dwell among his own people!

Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion. The pronoun "his" comes in where we should have looked for the name of God; but the poet is so full of thought concerning the Lord that he forgets to mention his name, like the spouse in the Song, who begins, "Let him kiss me, "or Magdalene when she cried, "Tell me where thou hast laid him." From the mention of Judah and Israel certain critics have inferred that this Psalm must have been written after the division of the two kingdoms; but this is only another instance of the extremely slender basis upon which an hypothesis is often built up. Before the formation of the two kingdoms David had said, "Go number Israel and Judah, "and this was common parlance, for Uriah the Hittite said, "The ark, and Israel and Judah abide in tents"; so that nothing can be inferred from the use of the two names. No division into two kingdoms can have been intended here, for the poet is speaking of the coming out of Egypt when the people were so united that he has just before called them "the house of Jacob." It would be quite as fair to prove from the first verse that the Psalm was written when the people were in union as to prove from the second that its authorship dates from their separation. Judah was the tribe which led the way in the wilderness march, and it was foreseen in prophecy to be the royal tribe, hence its poetical mention in this place. The meaning of the passage is that the whole people at the coming out of Egypt were separated unto the Lord to be a peculiar people, a nation of priests whose motto should be, "Holiness unto the Lord." Judah was the Lord's "holy thing, "set apart for his special use. The nation was peculiarly Jehovah's dominion, for it was governed by a theocracy in which God alone was King. It was his domain in a sense in which the rest of the world was outside his kingdom. These were the young days of Israel, the time of her espousals, when she went after the Lord into the wilderness, her God leading the way with signs and miracles. The whole people were the shrine of Deity, and their camp was one great temple. What a change there must have been for the godly amongst them from the idolatries and blasphemies of the Egyptians to the holy worship and righteous rule of the great King in Jeshurun. They lived in a world of wonders, where God was seen in the wondrous bread they ate and in the water they drank, as well as in the solemn worship of his holy place. When the Lord is manifestly present in a church, and his gracious rule obediently owned, what a golden age has come, and what honourable privileges his people enjoy! May it be so among us.

The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs. At the coming of the Lord to Mount Sinai, the hills moved; either leaping for joy in the presence of their Creator like young lambs; or, if you will, springing from their places in affright at the terrible majesty of Jehovah, and flying like a flock of sheep when alarmed. Men fear the mountains, but the mountains tremble before the Lord. Sheep and lambs move lightly in the meadows; but the hills, which we are wont to call eternal, were as readily made to move as the most active creatures. Rams in their strength, and lambs in their play, are not more stirred than were the solid hills when Jehovah marched by. Nothing is immovable but God himself: the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but the covenant of his grace abideth fast for ever and ever. Even thus do mountains of sin and hills of trouble move when the Lord comes forth to lead his people to their eternal Canaan. Let us never fear, but rather let our faith say unto this mountain, "Be thou removed hence and cast into the sea, "and it shall be done.

What ailed thee, O thou sea? Wert thou terribly afraid? Did thy strength fail thee? Did thy very heart dry up? What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? Thou wert neighbour to the power of Pharaoh, but thou didst never fear his hosts; stormy wind could never prevail against thee so as to divide thee in twain; but when the way of the Lord was in thy great waters thou was seized with affright, and thou becamest a fugitive from before him. Thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back? What ailed thee, O quick descending river? Thy fountains had not dried up, neither had a chasm opened to engulf thee! The near approach of Israel and her God sufficed to make thee retrace thy steps. What aileth all our enemies that they fly when the Lord is on our side? What aileth hell itself that it is utterly routed when Jesus lifts up a standard against it? "Fear took hold upon them there, "for fear of HIM the stoutest hearted did quake, and became as dead men.

Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams; and ye little hills, like lambs? What ailed ye, that ye were thus moved? There is but one reply: the majesty of God made you to leap. A gracious mind will chide human nature for its strange insensibility, when the sea and the river, the mountains and the hills, are all sensitive to the presence of God. Man is endowed with reason and intelligence, and yet he sees unmoved that which the material creation beholds with fear. God has come nearer to us than ever he did to Sinai, or to Jordan, for he has assumed our nature, and yet the mass of mankind are neither driven back from their sins, nor moved in the paths of obedience.

Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob. Or "from before the Lord, the Adonai, the Master and King." Very fitly does the Psalm call upon all nature again to feel a holy awe because its Ruler is still in its midst.

"Quake when Jehovah walks abroad,

Quake earth, at sight of Israel's God."

Let the believer feel that God is near, and he will serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Awe is not cast out by faith, but the rather it becomes deeper and more profound. The Lord is most reverenced where he is most loved.

Which turned the rock into a standing water, causing a mere or lake to stand at its foot, making the wilderness a pool: so abundant was the supply of water from the rock that it remained like water in a reservoir. The flint into a fountain of waters, which flowed freely in streams, following the tribes in their devious marches. Behold what God can do! It seemed impossible that the flinty rock should become a fountain; but he speaks, and it is done. Not only do mountains move, but rocks yield rivers when the God of Israel wills that it should be so.

"From stone and solid rock he brings

The spreading lake, the gushing springs."

"O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together, " for he it is and he alone who doeth such wonders as these. He supplies our temporal needs from sources of the most unlikely kind, and never suffers the stream of his liberality to fail. As for our spiritual necessities they are all met by the water and the blood which gushed of old from the riven rock, Christ Jesus: therefore let us extol the Lord our God. Our deliverance from under the yoke of sin is strikingly typified in the going up of Israel from Egypt, and so also was the victory of our Lord over the powers of death and hell. The Exodus should therefore be earnestly remembered by Christian hearts. Did not Moses on the mount of transfiguration speak to our Lord of "the exodus" which he should shortly accomplish at Jerusalem; and is it not written of the hosts above that they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and of the Lamb? Do we not ourselves expect another coming of the Lord, when before his face heaven and earth shall flee away and there shall be no more sea? We join then with the singers around the Passover table and make their Hallel ours, for we too have been led out of bondage and guided like a flock through a desert land, wherein the Lord supplies our wants with heavenly manna and water from the Rock of ages. Praise ye the Lord.

Whole Psalm. The 114th psalm appears to me to be an admirable ode, and I began to turn it into our own language. As I was describing the journey of Israel from Egypt, and added the Divine Presence amongst them, I perceived a beauty in this psalm, which was entirely new to me, and which I was going to lose; and that is, that the poet utterly conceals the presence of God in the beginning of it, and rather lets a possessive pronoun go without a substantive, than he will so much as mention anything of divinity there. "Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion" or kingdom. The reason now seems evident, and this conduct necessary; for, if God had appeared before, there could be no wonder why the mountains should leap and the sea retire; therefore, that this convulsion of nature may be brought in with due surprise, his name is not mentioned till afterwards; and then with a very agreeable turn of thought, God is introduced at once in all his majesty. This is what I have attempted to imitate in a translation without paraphrase, and to preserve what I could of the spirit of the sacred author.

When Israel, freed from Pharaoh's hand,

Left the proud tyrant and his land,

The tribes with cheerful homage own

Their King, and Judah was his throne.

Across the deep their journey lay,

The deep divides to make them way;

The streams of Jordan saw, and fled

With backward current to their head.

The mountains shook like frightened sheep,

Like lambs the little hillocks leap;

Not Sinai on her base could stand,

Conscious of sovereign power at hand.

What power could make the deep divide?

Make Jordan backward roll his tide?

Why did ye leap, ye little hills?

And whence the fright that Sinai feels?

Let every mountain, and every flood,

Retire, and know the approaching God,

The King of Israel! see him here:

Tremble, thou earth, adore and fear.

He thunders —and all nature mourns;

The rock to standing pools he turns;

Flints spring with fountains at his word,

And fires and seas confess their Lord. —Isaac Watts, in "The Spectator," 1712.

When Israel went out of Egypt. Out of the midst of that nation, that is, out of the bowels of the Egyptians, who had, as it were, devoured them; thus the Jew doctors gloss upon this text. —John Trapp.

Israel went out of Egypt. This was an emblem of the Lord's people in effectual vocation, coming out of bondage into liberty, out of darkness into light, out of superstition, and idolatry, and profaneness, to the service of the true God in righteousness and true holiness; and from a people of strange language to those that speak the language of Canaan, a pure language, in which they can understand one another when they converse together, either about experience or doctrine; and the manner of their coming out is much the same, by strength of hand, by the power of divine grace, yet willingly and cheerfully, with great riches, the riches of grace, and a title to the riches of glory, and with much spiritual strength; for though weak in themselves, yet they are strong in Christ. —John Gill.

The house of Jacob. The Israelites though they were a great number when they went forth from Egypt, nevertheless formed one house or family; thus the church at the present time dispersed throughout the whole world is called one house: 1 Ti 3:15 Heb 3:6; 1Pe 2:5: and that because of one faith, one God, one Father, one baptism, Eph 4:5. —Marloratus.

A people of strange language. When we find in verse 1, as in Psalm 81:5, Egypt spoken of as a land where the people were of a "strange tongue, "it seems likely that the reference is to their being a people who could not speak of God, as Israel could; even as Zep 3:9 tells of the "pure lip, "viz., the lip that calls on the name of the Lord. —Andrew A. Bonar.

A people of strange tongue. Mant translates this "tyrant land, "and has the following note: The Hebrew word here rendered "tyrant, "has been supposed to signify "barbarous"; that is, "using a barbarous or foreign language or pronunciation." But, says Parkhurst, the word seems rather to refer to the "violence" of the Egyptians towards the Israelites, or "the barbarity of their behaviour, "which was more to the Psalmist's purpose than "the barbarity of their language"; even supposing the reality of the latter in the time of Moses. The epithet "barbarous" would leave the same ambiguity as Parkhurst supposes to belong to the text. Bishop Horsley renders "a tyrannical people."

A people of strange language. The strange language is evidently an annoyance. Israel could not feel at home in Egypt. —Justus Olshausen.

Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion. These people were God's sanctification and dominion, that is, witnesses of his holy majesty in adopting them, and of his mighty power in delivering them: or, his sanctification, as having his holy priests to govern them in the points of piety; and dominion, as having godly magistrates ordained from above to rule them in matters of policy: or, his sanctuary, both actually, because sanctifying him; and passively, because sanctified of him...This one verse expounds and exemplifies two prime petitions of the Lord's Prayer. "Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come": for Judah was God's sanctuary, because hallowing his name;and Israel his dominion, as desiring his kingdom to come. Let every man examine himself by this pattern, whether he be truly the servant of Jesus his Saviour, or the vassal of Satan the destroyer. If any man submit himself willingly to the domineering of the devil, and suffer sin to reign in his mortal members, obeying the lusts thereof, and working all uncleanness even with greediness; assuredly that man is yet a chapel of Satan, and a slave to sin. On the contrary, whosoever unfeignedly desires that God's kingdom may come, being ever ready to be ruled according to his holy word, acknowledging it a lantern to his feet, and a guide to his paths; admitting obediently his laws, and submitting himself alway to the same; what is he, but a citizen of heaven, a subject of God, a saint, a sanctuary? —John Boys.

Judah was his sanctuary, etc. Reader, do not fail to remark, when Israel was brought out of Egypt the Lord set up his tabernacle among them, and manifested his presence to them. And what is it now, when the Lord Jesus brings out his people from the Egypt of the world? Doth he not fulfil that sweet promise, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world"? Is it not the privilege of his people, to live to him, to live with him, and to live upon him? Doth he not in every act declare, "I will say, it is my people; and they shall say, the Lord is my God"? Mt 28:20; Zec 13:9. —Robert Hawker.

Judah was his sanctuary. Meaning not the tribe of Judah only, though they in many things had the preeminence; the kingdom belonged to it, the chief ruler being out of it, especially the Messiah; its standard was pitched and moved first; it offered first to the service of the Lord; and the Jews have a tradition, mentioned by Jarchi and Kimchi, that this tribe with its prince at the head of it, went into the Red Sea first: the others fearing, but afterwards followed, encouraged by their example. In this place all the tribes are meant, the whole body of the people. —John Gill.

One peculiarity of the second verse requires attention. It twice uses the word "his", without naming any one. There are two theories to account for this circumstance. One is that Psalm 114 was always sung in immediate connection with 113, in which the name of God occurs no less than six times, so that the continuance of the train of thought made a fresh repetition of it here unnecessary. But this view, to be fully consistent with itself, must assume that the two Psalms are really one, with a merely arbitrary division, which does not, on the face of the matter, seem by any means probable, as the scope of thought in the two is perfectly distinct. The other, which is more satisfactory, regards the omission of the Holy Name in this part of the Psalm as a practical artifice to heighten the effect of the answer to the sudden apostrophe in verses five and six. There would be nothing marvellous in the agitation of the sea, and river, and mountains in the presence of God, but it may well appear wonderful till that potent cause is revealed, as it is most forcibly in the dignified words of the seventh verse. —Ewald and Perowne, in Neale and Littledale.

The sea saw it: to wit this glorious work of God in bringing his people out of Egypt. —Matthew Pool.

The sea saw it. Saw there that "Judah" was "God's sanctuary, ""and Israel his dominion, "and therefore "fled"; for nothing could be more awful. It was this that drove Jordan back, and was an invincible dam to his streams; God was at the head of that people, and therefore they must give way to them, must make room for them, they must retire, contrary to their nature, when God speaks the word. —Matthew Henry.

The sea saw it, and fled.

The waves on either side

Unloose their close embraces, and divide,

And backwards press, as in some solemn show

The crowding people do, (Though just before no space was seen,)

To let the admired triumph pass between.

The wondering army saw on either hand,

The no less wondering waves like rocks of crystal stand.

They marched betwixt, and boldly trod

The secret paths of God. Abraham Cowley, 1618-1667.

Jordan was driven back. And now the glorious day was come when, by a stupendous miracle, Jehovah had determined to show how able he was to remove every obstacle in the way of his people, and to subdue every enemy before their face. By his appointment, the host, amounting probably to two millions and a half of persons (about the same number as had crossed the Red Sea on foot), had removed to the banks of the river three days before, and now in marching array awaited the signal to cross the stream. At any time the passage of the river by such a multitude, with their women and children, their flocks and herds, and all their baggage, would have presented formidable difficulties; but now the channel was filled with a deep and impetuous torrent, which overflowed its banks and spread widely on each side, probably extending nearly a mile in width; while in the very sight of the scene were the Canaanitish hosts, who might be expected to pour out from their gates, and exterminate the invading multitude before they could reach the shore. Yet these difficulties were nothing to Almighty power, and only served to heighten the effect of the stupendous miracle about to be wrought.

By the command of Jehovah, the priests, bearing the ark of the covenant, the sacred symbol of the Divine presence, marched more than half a mile in front of the people, who were forbidden to come any nearer to it. Thus it was manifest that Jehovah needed not protection from Israel, but was their guard and guide, since the unarmed priests feared not to separate themselves from the host, and to venture with the ark into the river in the face of their enemies. And thus the army, standing aloof, had a better opportunity of seeing the wondrous results, and of admiring the mighty power of God exerted on their behalf; for no sooner had the feet of the priests touched the brim of the overflowing river, than the swelling waters receded from them; and not only the broad lower valley, but even the deep bed of the stream was presently emptied of water, and its pebbly bottom became dry. The waters which had been in the channel speedily ran off, and were lost in the Dead Sea; whilst those which would naturally have replaced them from above, were miraculously suspended, and accumulated in a glassy heap far above the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan. These places are supposed to have been at least forty miles above the Dead Sea, and may possibly have been much more; so that nearly the whole channel of the Lower Jordan, from a little below the Lake of Tiberias to the Dead Sea, was dry...What a glorious termination of the long pilgrimage of Israel was this! and how worthy of the power, wisdom, and goodness of their Divine Protector! "The passage of this deep and rapid river, " remarks Dr. Hales, "at the most unfavourable season, was more manifestly miraculous, if possible, than that of the Red Sea; because here was no natural agency whatever employed; no mighty wind to sweep a passage, as in the former case; no reflux of the tide, on which minute philosophers might fasten to depreciate the miracle. It seems, therefore, to have been providentially designed to silence cavils respecting the former; and it was done at noonday, in the face of the sun, and in the presence, we may be sure, of the neighbouring inhabitants, and struck terror into the kings of the Canaanites and Amorites westward of the river." —Philip Henry Gosse, in "Sacred Streams, "1877.

Jordan was driven back. The waters know their Maker: that Jordan which flowed with full streams when Christ went into it to be baptized, now gives way when the same God must pass through it in state: then there was use of his water, now of his sand. I hear no more news of any rod to strike the waters; the presence of the ark of the Lord God, Lord of all the world, is sign enough to these waves, which now, as if a sinew were broken, run back to their issues, and dare not so much as wet the feet of the priests that bare it. How subservient are all the creatures to the God that made them! How glorious a God do we serve; whom all the powers of the heavens and elements are willingly subject unto, and gladly take that nature which he pleaseth to give them. —Abraham Wright.

Jordan was driven back. It was probably at the point near the present southern fords, crossed at the time of the Christian era by a bridge. The river was at its usual state of flood at the spring of the year, so as to fill the whole of the bed, up to the margin of the jungle with which the river banks are lined. On the broken edge of the swollen stream, the band of priests stood with the ark on their shoulders. At the distance of nearly a mile in the rear was the mass of the army. Suddenly the full bed of the Jordan was dried before them. High up the river, "far, far away, ""in Adam, the city which is beside Zaretan, ""as far as the parts of Kirjathjearim" (Jos 3:16), that is, at a distance of thirty miles from the place of the Israelite encampment, the waters there stood which "descended" "from the heights above, " —stood and rose up, as if gathered into a water skin; as if in a barrier or heap, as if congealed; and those that "descended" towards the sea of "the desert, "the Salt Sea, "failed and were cut off." Thus the scene presented is of the "descending stream" (the words employed seem to have a special reference to that peculiar and most significant name of the "Jordan"), not parted asunder, as we generally fancy, but, as the Psalm expresses it, "turned backwards"; the whole bed of the river left dry from north to south, through its long windings; the huge stones lying bare here and there, imbedded in the soft bottom; or the shingly pebbles drifted along the course of the channel. —Arthur Penrhyn Stanly, in "The History of the Jewish Church, "1870.

The mountains skipped like rams, etc. The figure drawn from the lambs and rams would appear to be inferior to the magnitude of the subject. But it was the prophet's intention to express in the homeliest way the incredible manner in which God, on these occasions, displayed his power. The stability of the earth being, as it were, founded on the mountains, what connection can they have with rams and lambs, that they should be agitated, skipping hither and thither? In speaking in this homely style, he does not mean to detract from the greatness of the miracle, but more forcibly to engrave these extraordinary tokens of God's power on the illiterate. —John Calvin.

Skipped. A poetic description of the concussion caused by the thunder and lightning that accompanied the divine presence. —James G. Murphy.

At the giving of the law at Sinai, Horeb and the mountains around, both great and small, shook with a sudden and mighty earthquake, like rams leaping in a grassy plain, with the young sheep frisking round them. —Plain Commentary.

Verses 4-6. When Christ descends upon the soul in the work of conversion, what strength doth he put forth! The strongholds of sin are battered down, every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ is brought into captivity to the obedience of his sceptre, 2Co 10:4-5. Devils are cast out of the possession which they have kept for many years without the least disturbance. Strong lusts are mortified and the very constitution of the soul is changed. What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back? ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams?, etc. The prophet speaks those words of the powerful entrance of the children of Israel into Canaan. The like is done by Christ in the conversion of a sinner. Jordan is driven back, the whole course of the soul is altered, the mountains skip like rams. There are many mountains in the soul of a sinner, as pride, unbelief, self conceitedness, atheism, profaneness, etc. These mountains are plucked up by the roots in a moment when Christ begins the work of conversion. —Ralph Robinson.

Fly where thou wilt, O Sea!

And Jordan's current cease!

Jordan, there is no need of thee,

For at God's word, whenever he please,

The rocks shall weep new waters forth instead of these. —Abraham Cowley.

Verses 5-6. A singular animation and an almost dramatic force are given to the poem by the beautiful apostrophe in verses 5, 6, and the effect of this is heightened in a remarkable degree by the use of the present tenses. The awe and the trembling of nature are a spectacle on which the poet is looking. The parted sea through which Israel walks as on dry land, the rushing Jordan arrested in its course, the granite cliffs of Sinai shaken to their base —he sees it all, and asks in wonder what it means? —J. J. Stewart Perowne.

Verses 5-6. This questioning teaches us that we should ourselves consider and inquire concerning the reason of those things, which we see to have been done in a wondrous way, out of the course of nature. There are signs in the sun, moon, stars, heaven, etc., concerning which Christ has spoken. Let us inquire the reason why they are, that we be not stupid and inaccurate spectators. The things which are done miraculously do speak: and they can give answer why they are done. Nay, rather, portents, signs, earthquakes, extraordinary appearances are loud speaking, and they declare from themselves what they are: namely, that they are prophetic of the anger and future vengeance of God. Such inquiry as this is not prying curiosity, but is pious and useful, working to this end, that we become observant of the judgments of God, with which he visits this world, and yield ourselves to his grace, and so we escape the coming vengeance. —Wolfgang Musculus.

Verses 5-6.

What ails thee, sea, to part,

Thee Jordan, back to start?

Ye mountains, like the rams to leap,

Ye little hills, like sheep? —John Keble.

Tremble, thou earth. Hebrew, Be in pain, as a travailing woman: for if the giving of the law had such dreadful effects, what should the breaking thereof have? —John Trapp.

"At the presence of the Lord be in pangs, O earth." "Lord, "Adon, the Sovereign Ruler. "Pangs, "Chuli: Mic 4:10. The convulsions of nature, which accompanied the Exodus, were as the birth throes of the Israelite people. "A nation was born in a day." But the deliverance out of Babylon was the prelude to a far more wondrous truth; that of him, in whom human nature was to be regenerated. —William Kay.

Verses 7-8. Tremble, etc. This is an answer to the preceding question: as if he had said, It is no wonder that Sinai, and Horeb, and a few adjoining hills should thus tremble at the majestic presence of God; for the whole earth must do so, whenever he pleases. —Thomas Fenton.

Which turned the rock into a standing water. Into a pool. The divine poet represents the very substance of the rock as being converted into water, not literally, but poetically; thus ornamenting his sketch of the wondrous power displayed on this occasion. —William Walford.

The remarkable rock in Sinai which tradition regards as the one which Moses smote, is at least well chosen in regard to its situation, whatever opinion we may form of the truth of that tradition, which it seems to be the disposition of late travellers to regard with more respect than was formerly entertained. It is an isolated mass of granite, nearly twenty feet square and high, with its base concealed in the earth —we are left to conjecture to what depth. In the face of the rock are a number of horizontal fissures, at unequal distances from each other; some near the top, and others at a little distance from the surface of the ground. An American traveller (Dr. Olin) says: "The colour and whole appearance of the rock are such that, if seen elsewhere, and disconnected from all traditions, no one would hesitate to believe that they had been produced by water flowing from these fissures. I think it would be extremely difficult to form these fissures or produce these appearances by art. It is not less difficult to believe that a natural fountain should flow at the height of a dozen feet out of the face of an isolated rock. Believing, as I do, that the water was brought out of a rock belonging to this mountain, I can see nothing incredible in the opinion that this is the identical rock, and that these fissures, and the other appearances, should be regarded as evidences of the fact." —John Kitto.

Shall the hard rock be turned into a standing water, and the flint stone into a springing well? and shall not our hard and flinty hearts, in consideration of our own miseries, and God's unspeakable mercies in delivering us from evil, (if not gush forth into fountains of tears) express so much as a little standing water in our eyes? It is our hard heart indeed, quod nec compunctione scinditur, nec pietate mollitur, nec movetur precibus, minis non cedit, flagellis duratur, etc. (Bernard). O Lord, touch thou the mountains and they shall smoke, touch our lips with a coal from thine altar, and our mouth shall show forth thy praise. Smite, Lord, our flinty hearts as hard as the nether millstone, with the hammer of thy word, and mollify them also with the drops of thy mercies and dew of thy Spirit; make them humble, fleshy, flexible, circumcised, soft, obedient, new, clean, broken, and then "a broken and a contrite heart, O God, shalt thou not despise." Ps 51:17. "O Lord my God, give me grace from the very bottom of my heart to desire thee; in desiring, to seek thee; in seeking, to find; in finding, to love thee; in loving, utterly to loathe my former wickedness; "that living in thy fear, and dying in thy favour, when I have passed through this Egypt and wilderness of this world, I may possess the heavenly Canaan and happy land of promise, prepared for all such as love thy coming, even for every Christian one, which is thy dominion, and sanctuary. (Augustine). —John Boys.

The same almighty power that turned waters into a rock to be a wall to Israel (Ex 14:22), turned the rock into waters to be a well to Israel. As they were protected, so they were provided for, by miracles, standing miracles; for such was the standing water, that fountain of waters, into which the rock, the flinty rock, was turned, "and that rock was Christ, "1Co 10:4. For he is a fountain of living waters to his Israel, from whom they receive grace for grace. —Matthew Henry.

The flint into a fountain of waters. The causing of water to gush forth out of the flinty rock is a practical proof of unlimited omnipotence and of the grace which converts death into life. Let the earth then tremble before the Lord, the God of Jacob. It has already trembled before him, and before him let it tremble. For that which he has been he still ever is; and as he came once he will come again. —Franz Delitzsch.

Verses 1-2. The time of first delivery from sin a season notable for the peculiar presence of God.

Verses 1-2. The Lord was to his people —

1. A deliverer.

2. A priest —"his sanctuary."

3. A king —"his dominion."

"The house of Jacob" and "the God of Jacob," the relation between the two.

Verses 1-2. The time of first delivery from sin a season notable for the peculiar presence of God.

Verses 1-2. The Lord was to his people —

1. A deliverer.

2. A priest —"his sanctuary."

3. A king —"his dominion."

"The house of Jacob" and "the God of Jacob," the relation between the two.

The church the temple of sanctity and the domain of obedience.

Verse 3. The sea saw it, and fled; or rather, "The sea saw and fled" —it saw God and all his people following his lead, and it was struck with awe and fled away. A bold figure! The Red Sea mirrored the hosts which had come down to its shore, and reflected the cloud which towered high over all, as the symbol of the presence of the Lord: never had such a scene been imaged upon the surface of the Red Sea, or any other sea, before. It could not endure the unusual and astounding sight, and fleeing to the right and to the left, opened a passage for the elect people. A like miracle happened at the end of the great march of Israel, for "Jordan, was driven back." This was a swiftly flowing river, pouring itself down a steep decline, and it was not merely divided, but its current was driven back so that the rapid torrent, contrary to nature, flowed uphill. This was God's work: the poet does not sing of the suspension of natural laws, or of a singular phenomenon not readily to be explained; but to him the presence of God with his people is everything, and in his lofty song he tells how the river was driven back because the Lord was there. In this case poetry is nothing but the literal fact, and the fiction lies on the side of the atheistic critics who will suggest any explanation of the miracle rather than admit that the Lord made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all his people. The division of the sea and the drying up of the river are placed together though forty years intervened, because they were the opening and closing scenes of one great event. We may thus unite by faith our new birth and our departure out of the world into the promised inheritance, for the God who led us out of the Egypt of our bondage under sin will also conduct us through the Jordan of death out of our wilderness wanderings in the desert of this tried and changeful life. It is all one and the same deliverance, and the beginning ensures the end.

The impenitence of sinners rebuked by the inanimate creation.

Jordan was driven back, or death overcome.

The movableness of things which appear to be fixed and settled. God's power of creating a stir in lethargic minds, among ancient systems, and prejudiced persons of the highest rank.

Verses 7-8. Holy awe.

1. Should be caused by the fact of the divine presence.

2. Should be increased by his covenant character —"the God of Jacob."

3. Should culminate when we see displays of his grace towards his people —"which turned, "etc.

4. Should become universal.

Wonders akin to the miracle at the rock.

1. Christ's death the source of life.

2. Adversity a means of prosperity.

3. Hard hearts made penitent.

4. Barrenness of soul turned into abundance.

Divine supplies.

1. Sure —for he will fetch them even from a rock.

2. Plentiful —"a mere or standing water."

3. Continual "fountain of waters."

4. Instructive. Should create in us holy awe at the power, etc., of the Lord.