Reflections on Psalms 114

 Psalms 114(Contemporary English Version)

1. God brought his people out of Egypt, that land with a strange language.
   
2. He made Judah his holy place and ruled over Israel.
   
3. When the sea looked at God, it ran away, and the Jordan River flowed upstream.
   
4. The mountains and the hills skipped around like goats.
   
5. Ask the sea why it ran away or ask the Jordan why it flowed upstream.
   
6. Ask the mountains and the hills why they skipped like goats!
   
7. Earth, you will tremble, when the Lord God of Jacob comes near,
   
8. because he turns solid rock into flowing streams and pools of water.

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Awe and reverence of the Lord, which is expressed as fear of the Lord, is the aim of this psalm. This was the response of nature to God's bidding on behalf of Israel when God took her out of Egypt and delivered her to the land of promise. The Red Sea "fled" before God, certainly not before the Israelites, to allow their passage to the other side, away from the Egyptian army in their escape from Egypt. The Jordan "turned back" before God to allow the Israelite's entry into the promised land. Similarly, the mountains skipped "like rams," and the hills skipped "like lambs" at the Lord's presence. These are thought to be references to the response of the mountains and hills at God's presence on Mount Sinai when God gave Moses the law.

Further reference to God's affect on nature is in verse 8 in which it is remembered how the rock turned "into a pool of water" at God's bidding through Moses. In light of these select events, the psalmist, in verses 7, exhorts the whole earth to tremble "at the presence of the Lord." In all of this is the inference that we, too, should tremble at the Lord's presence. We should not take lightly or ignore the Lord and His instructions as if they were of no consequence. The writer of Hebrews pointed out that while God's voice shook the earth when He delivered the law to Moses, there comes a time when He will "shake not only the earth but also heaven." (Hebrews12:26) At that time, what can be shaken will be removed and He will establish His heavenly kingdom. This transition will be a time of judgement which all should fear except those who accept Jesus, the mediator between God and man. The writer of Hebrews says, "See that you do not reject the One who speaks; for if they did not escape when they rejected Him who warned them on earth, even less will we if we turn away from Him who warns us from heaven." (12:25)