I am following a chronological Bible study that was ordered by Skip Andrews. Although this psalm may or may not have been written at this time in chronology, it does speak of the miracle at the Jordan River which was detailed in Joshua 3 in the last post. God dried up the Jordan River for His people to cross over it into their promised land. Continuing with the chronological study:
(Psalm 114:1) When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language, (2) Judah was his sanctuary, Israel His dominion.
The psalmist began by telling of God's people Israel, the house of Jacob, coming out of Egypt, out of a foreign country of people of foreign language and customs, into Judah, or Israel, their promised land, their sanctuary given them by the Lord. Because the King James Version never used capital letters when describing Him, the Lord, it's hard to know whether "his" in verse 2 above means Israel or the Lord. Different translations of the Bible translated it different ways. Certainly their promised land was the Israelites' sanctuary and a country of their own dominion, not under the control of another country. However, it could also be considered the Lord's sanctuary where His temple would stand, and His people Israel were certainly under His dominion.
(3) The sea saw and fled; Jordan was driven back.
Describing the Red Sea as having human characteristics, that it saw the will of God and fled, demonstrated how all things were and are subject to the will of God. The Jordan River was also driven back by the will of God to allow His people to cross over into their promised land.
(4) The mountains skipped like rams, the little hills like lambs.
Even the mountains moved according to God's will and quaked at His presence as Mount Sinai did when the Lord descended upon it to give the law in Exodus 19:18. As the mountains were described as moving greatly like great skipping rams, the smaller hills were described as moving in smaller skips as smaller lambs.
(5) What ailed you, O sea, that you fled? You Jordan, that you were driven back?
The psalmist asked what could have been the matter with the sea that it fled in such haste. What caused the Jordan River to be driven back?
(6) You mountains, that you skipped like rams, you little hills like lambs?
What caused mountains and hills to skip like rams and 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 standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters!
All the people of the earth and the earth itself should tremble at the presence of so almighty a God as the God of Israel! The God who could part the seas and make mountains quake, also turned rocks into fountains of water, a continual supply of water (Exodus 17:6). How awesome and terrible to His enemies, the inhabitants of Canaan, was Israel's God, that even the earth itself quaked at His presence and did as He commanded?
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