January 17
________________________________________
PSALM 114 TREMBLE AT GOD’S PRESENCE
When Israel went out from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,
2 Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion. 3 The sea looked and fled; Jordan turned back.4 The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs. 5 What ails you, O sea, that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back? 6 O mountains, that you skip like rams?
O hills, like lambs? 7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, 8 who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water.
– Psalm 114:1-8
________________________________________
Charles Spurgeon had high praise for this psalm. This is second in the series of psalms known as the Egyptian Hallel and sung as part of Israel’s Passover ceremony. He says that “This sublime SONG OF THE EXODUS is one and indivisible. True poetry has here reached its climax: no human mind has ever been able to equal, much less to excel, the grandeur of this psalm.”
In verse 1, the psalmist poetically wrote the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. “People of strange Language” in this verse would indicate that the Israelites had to speak foreign language since they were captured by the Egyptians for 400 years. Guzik comments on verse 2: “The leading tribe of Israel (Judah) represented the whole nation which became the dwelling place of God (His sanctuary). The godly in Israel always understood that God’s dwelling in the tabernacle or temple was only symbolic of His presence in His people.”
When I read this psalm, I was so amazed at the personification of nature. I am a very visual person and the figures of speech used in this psalm jumped at my creative mind and touched my heart so deeply. Verse 3 describes who the body of water opened up from the Red Sea up to the Jordan in obedience to God’s order to deliver his people. Verse 4 according to some commentary has reference to the strong earthquakes and similar phenomena that happened at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:16-20) when God manifested His presence there. They shook and “skipped” like sheep.
The psalmist ends this wonderful exultation of God’s power with a command to shudder in awe from the power and might and love that God manifests to his beloved people. The God Almighty who created everything would set His eyes on providing, protecting and delivering his own people from slavery and enter into His promised land.
________________________________________
REFLECTION
• How can we remember to tremble at God’s presence at all times?