Psalm 114

Introduction.—Ps. 114 is noted for its perfection of form and dramatic vividness. This poem consists of four stanzas of two verses each. In each stanza the dominant note is set forth in terse language.

2. Judah. Here, the land of Judah, as shown by the feminine form of the Hebrew verb. The division of the lines in this verse is rhythmical, not logical. There is no contrast intended between the words “Judah” and “Israel.”

3. The sea saw it. The Red Sea here is personified and is represented as hastening to prepare a path for the children of Israel to march through on dry ground.

Jordan was driven back. The miraculous providences were seen at both the beginning and the ending of Israel’s journey from Egypt to Canaan. We can take courage in the fact that the same God who led us out of the Egyptian bondage of sin will conduct us safely through Jordan’s stormy billows to the Land of Promise on the farther shore.

4. The mountains skipped. Evidently a poetical description of the earthquake that accompanied the giving of the law at Sinai (see Ex. 19:18). Between the two miraculous wonders of the Exodus from Egypt and the entrance into the Holy Land stands the great revelation of God when, with great solemnity, He gave His holy law at Sinai.

5. What ailed thee? The poet is asking nature to explain her strange behavior, to account for the fact that she seems to be turned out of her regular course.

7. Tremble. The answer to the questions raised in the preceding verses. The presence of God has changed the course of nature’s laws.

8. Turned the rock. The God who made water flow from the rock in Rephidim and from the cliff at Kadesh (see Ex. 17:6; Num. 20:8–11) provides streams of living water for His faithful servants (see John 4:14). He who continues to drink of this water will never thirst, but the water will become in him a never-failing spring to refresh both himself and the weary fellow traveler along the heavenly way.