Psalms
Summary
Psalm 114 is a short, vivid, and poetic celebration of Israel’s Exodus from Egypt and their entry into the Promised Land. It personifies nature, depicting the sea fleeing and the Jordan River turning back in awe as God led His people out of bondage. The mountains and hills skip like rams and lambs at the presence of the LORD, who turned the rock into a pool of water and the flint into a fountain. This psalm powerfully reminds the reader that the entire natural order is subject to the presence of the God of Jacob, who established Judah as His sanctuary and Israel as His dominion.
When Israel came out of Egypt, Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,
Judah became God’s sanctuary, Israel his dominion.
The sea looked and fled, the Jordan turned back;
the mountains leaped like rams, the hills like lambs.
Why was it, sea, that you fled? Why, Jordan, did you turn back?
Why, mountains, did you leap like rams, you hills, like lambs?
Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob,
who turned the rock into a pool of water, the hard rock into springs of water.