Psalm 114:

In the going out [Qal Inf Cons yatsa with b preposition] of Israel from Egypt, The house of Jacob from a people speaking unintelligibly [Qal MS Act Part laaz]. 2 Judah was [became - Qal Perf 3MS hayah] his sanctuary, Israel his dominions. 3 The sea looked [Qal Perf 3MS raah] and fled [Qal Pret 3MS nus with waw cons], The Jordan turned [Qal Pret 3MS sabab] back. 4 The mountains skipped about [Qal Perf 3MPl raqad]1 like rams, The hills like sons-of-sheep [lambs]. 5 What to you [Why], O sea, that you flee [Qal Impf 2MS nus]? O Jordan, that you turn [Qal Impf 2MS sabab] back? 6 O mountains, that you skip about [Qal Impf 2MPl raqad] like rams, O hills, like sons-of-sheep [lambs]. 7 From the presence of Lord [Adon] be anguished [Qal Impv FS chul], O earth, From the presence of the God of Jacob, 8 Turning [who turned Qal Part MS haphak] the rock into a pool of water, The flint into a spring of water.

The skipping here is a picture of dancing (eg., Ecc. 3:4), or of children playing (Piel, Job 21:11).

V. 1: The scene of Psalm 114 opens on the triumphant climax of the exodus of Gods people: When Israel went out from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language. Thus, this psalm is first and foremost about Gods saving work for his people. God saved his people by bringing them out of Egypt, but the ultimate salvation God provided at the cross. V. 2: There are three things that strike me about verse 2: (1) Gods name is not used here, nor anywhere else in this psalm until v. 7; (2) Judah is his sanctuary; and (3) Israel is his dominion. On Gods name not being used here, I like what Spurgeon writes: The pronoun his comes in where we should have looked for the name of God; but the poet is so full of thought concerning the Lord that he forgets to mention his name, like the spouse in the Song, who begins, Let him kiss me, or Magdalene when she cried, Tell me where thou hast laid him.2 Spurgeon later quotes Ewald and Perowne, in Neale and Littledale, who write: [One theory] regards the omission of the Holy [page] Name in this part of the Psalm as a practical artifice to heighten the effect of the answer to the sudden apostrophe in verses five and six. There would be nothing marvelous in the agitation of the sea, and river, and mountains in the presence of God, but it may well appear wonderful till that potent cause is revealed, as it is most forcibly in the dignified words of the seventh verse.3 The overall effect, then, is of heightened drama, as though an outside investigator had come in, with no prior knowledge of the God of Israel, to discover what had happened in this bursting forth of Gods people in their salvation. Next, let us turn to the issue of Judahs becoming his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion. Again, I love a quotation attributed to John Boys in The Treasury of David: This one verse expounds and exemplifies two prime petitions of the Lords Prayer. Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come: for Judah was Gods sanctuary, because hallowing his name; and Israel his dominion, as desiring his kingdom to come. Let every man examine himself by this pattern, whether he be truly the servant of Jesus his Saviour, or the vassal of Satan the destroyer. 4 What this verse teaches, then, is that God took the house of Jacob in order to establish a place for his holiness to dwell on earth (Judah became his sanctuary), and a place where his reign and rule might flourish uninhibitedly (Israel his dominion). This sanctuary and dominion of God, however, were never intended to be ends in themselvesalways, the plan was that God would bless Israel in order that he might bless all the nations of the world. Redeeming the house of Jacob out of Egypt, then, established a beachhead from which God could direct his operations in the world. This is a glimpse into the larger purpose of salvation: God brings his people to salvation in order to begin the work of saving others. But the gospel in v. 2 is this: the ultimate dwelling place of God in Judah, as well as the ultimate throne of Gods kingdom in Israel, is found in the person of Jesus Christ, the King of Israel and the Great High
Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, vol. III (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1963), 41. Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, vol. III (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1963), 45-46. 4 Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, vol. III (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1963), 45.
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Priest from the tribe of Judah after the order of Melchizedek. In Jesus, Gods reign and rule in this world was perfectly modeled, perfectly formed, and perfectly established, for sin, death, and the devil have been vanquished forever. In Jesus, Gods holiness burst into this world and turned back the corruption of the world. V. 3-4: The investigator in this psalm next turns his attention to the reaction of the physical world. The Red Sea saw, and it fled. The Jordan turned back as Joshua led Israel across it. The greatest bodies of water respond in terror to the great salvation accomplished by Jesus. The mountains and the hills, however, respond in the opposite way: they skipped like rams[and] like lambs. The word skipped describes a child playing or of dancingthis is a picture of great joy and celebration. The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery has a couple of helpful notes citing Psalm 114. First is river: Rivers feed into the sea (Eccles 1:7) and partake of the seas ominous quality: like the sea, they can epitomize undisciplined rebels who oppose the establishment of Gods ordered rule. On the one hand, the Bible gives us terrifying images of swollen rivers overflowing their banks and devastating human habitation (Josh 3:15; Is 8:7-8). God is the only figure in the Bible capable of countering the hostile force of rebellious rivers, whose onslaught he repulses with divine weapons (Hab 3:8-15) that send the waters retreating in fright (Ps 114:3-5). Specifically, God splits rivers or drives them up so that they are no longer a threat and can be crossed safely by Gods people (Is 11:15-16; Zech 10:11). When Israel, Elijah and Elisha (Josh 2; 2 Kings 2) each cross the Jordan River, the miracle contains a moral dimension: it is a demonstration of the victory of God over forces of evil that attempt to hinder the movement of Gods people. Any power humans have over rivers derives from God, as an expression of this moral reality: I [God] will set his [the kings] hand on the sea and his right hand on the rivers (Ps 89:25 NRSV; cf. 2 Kings 2:14).5 Not only does God in general send the waters retreating in fright, but specifically he sends the Jordan to turn back. The forces of evil may try to delay Gods people, but Gods mission will prevail. Also, for sea: The cosmic sea, however, also symbolizes the continued threat the forces of chaos pose against God and creation. The sea pushes against the boundaries God established for it (Job 38:8-11; Jer 5:22). The Bible adapts its neighbors creation myths of a primeval battle between a creation god and a sea monster of chaos called Leviathan, Rahab, or the dragon or serpent (Job 41). Unlike the myths of neighboring nations, God creates the chaos monster and places it in the sea (Gen 1:2021; Ps 104:24-26). The monster stirs the cosmic sea but is wounded and subdued by God (Job 26:12; Ps 74:12-14; 89:9-10; Is 51:9) and will ultimately be vanquished in the end times (Is 27:1). As the home of the chaos monster who can be roused, the sea symbolizes the threat of the reemergence of chaos (Job 3:8). In fact, the evil world powers and the antichrist of the last days which oppose God and his people are symbolized as beasts arising from the sea (Dan 7:3; Rev 13:1). As Creator, God controls the sea, both producing and calming its waves (Is 51:15; Jer 31:35), and keeping it within its boundaries (Job 38:8-11; Prov 8:27-29; Jer 5:22). He can dry up the sea at will (Nahum 1:4) or unleash it to judge the world as in the flood (Gen 6-8). Thus the threat of chaos and evil which the sea symbolizes is ultimately hollow. The parting of the Red Sea
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River, in The New Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, ed. Leland Ryken et. al. (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 1998), 731.

and destruction of Pharaoh is a reenactment of the subduing of the sea and chaos monster, once more demonstrating Gods ultimate authority over forces of chaos and evil (Ex 15; Is 51:9-10).6 Finally, for mountains: In addition to their remoteness and ruggedness, hills and mountains are large and impressive. Their inaccessibility makes them unknown and gives them an aura of mystery. Their visible immensity makes them the benchmark for enormity. These are the qualities that impress biblical poets. As recognized standards of immensity, mountains appear in descriptions of Gods divine power. When God appears (in either imagined or theophanic form) in his anger, the foundationsof the mountains trembled and quaked (Ps 18:7 NRSV). When he comes down, he touches the mountains so that they smoke (Ps 144:5 NRSV), and the mountains melt like wax before the LORD (Ps 97:5). Mountains are the standard of ancient existence against which Gods everlasting existence is measured (Ps 90:2). Gods righteousness is likened to mighty mountains (Ps 36:6 NRSV), as is his protection of his people (Ps 125:2). He is more majestic than the everlasting mountains (Ps 76:4 NRSV). And Gods creation even of the mountains attests his strength (Ps 65:6). In Jesus teaching the largeness of mountains becomes a measure of what people can do through faith, as they cast mountains into the sea (Mt 17:20; 21:21). Hills and mountains are also personified in Scripture, usually in passages of celebration. They rejoice (Ps 98:8), leap (Ps 114:4, 6), sing (Is 44:23) and praise Gods name (Ps 89:12). They also gird themselves with joy (Ps 65:12 NRSV).7 V. 5-6: The observations of v. 3-4 become interrogatives: Why, O sea, do you flee? O Jordan, do you turn back? O mountains, that you skip like rams? O hills, like lambs? In the investigation, clearly something is causing all of this to happen, and the investigator wants to know what it is. V. 7-8: Apparently, the investigator finds out the cause of all this phenomena: the God of Jacob. In holy appreciation of the magnificence of Christ, the psalmist urges, Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water. First, although the house of Jacob has been called to be the sanctuary and dominion of God in order to be a light to the nations, the nations are called to account here. Far from leaving God to the Israelites, the psalmist commands all the earth to tremble at the presence of the Lord, who is peculiarly the God of Jacob. Second, turning the rock into a pool of water, and the flint into a spring of water, are not pictures of Gods powerful devastation of his creation. Rather, these are pictures of Gods gracious provision for his people. God turned rocks into water not to put on a magic show, but to give people the water they needed to survive. And accordingly, when Paul writes that the Rock from which they drank was Christ (1 Cor. 10:4), we know the application of this verse. The whole world (ourselves included) must tremble before Christ. Part of the reason for this is that Christ is a righteous judge who will one day destroy his enemies. More importantly to the psalmist, however, is that we are to tremble before Christ because those who submit to
Sea, in The New Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, ed. Leland Ryken et. al. (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 1998), 765. 7 Mountain, in The New Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, ed. Leland Ryken et. al. (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 1998), 573.
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his reign and who embrace his righteousness are supplied with all of their needswe are given Christ himself!