Psalms 114

This short psalm remembers the Exodus and the journey into the promised land. It shows creation itself trembling before the God who rescued His people. The closing lines show His power turning hard stone into life-giving water.

Psalms 114:1

The psalm looks back to the Exodus, when God brought Jacob’s family out of slavery. Egypt’s language was strange to them, and they were foreigners there. The verse points to a decisive rescue: God brought them out and made them His own.

BSA: departed (“went out, came out”): The word pictures a real exit from bondage, not a slow drifting away. foreign (“strange, unintelligible”): Israel lived among a people whose speech made no sense to them, so they were truly outsiders.

Hebrew: לֹעֵז (lo’ez, H3937) — “speaking a strange, barbarous tongue.” This rare Hebrew word suggests babbling, speech that sounds like nonsense to the hearer. It stresses how alien Egypt was to God’s people.

See also: Exodus 12:51.

Psalms 114:2

After the rescue, God made His people His dwelling and His kingdom. Judah and Israel are named together. God did not only free them from Egypt. He came to live among them and to rule them as their King.

BSA: sanctuary (“Holy Place, set-apart area, like the temple”): The people themselves became the place set apart for God’s presence. dominion (“kingdom, having control or power over”): Israel was the realm where God Himself reigned.

See also: Exodus 19:5-6; Exodus 29:45-46.

Psalms 114:3

The sea and the Jordan are described as if they were living witnesses. They saw God’s power at work and gave way. This recalls the Red Sea at the Exodus and the Jordan when Israel entered the land.

BSA: observed (“saw, perceived”): The sea is pictured as seeing God and recognizing its Master. fled (“quickly departed, ran away”): The waters did not merely part. They rushed away in alarm.

See also: Exodus 14:21-22; Joshua 3:14-17.

Psalms 114:4

The mountains and hills leap like rams and lambs. This is poetry about the shaking of the earth at God’s coming, as at Sinai. Even the most solid parts of creation move when He draws near.

BSA: skipped (“jumping with joy, like goats”): The picture is of lively, bounding movement, as if creation were overwhelmed by the moment.

See also: Exodus 19:18; Psalm 29:6.

Psalms 114:5-6

The poet asks the sea, the river and the mountains why they fled and leaped. The questions are playful and make us wonder. The answer comes in the next verse. Nature has no choice but to respond to its Maker.

BSA: Why (“what happened, what was wrong”): The question invites us to look for the cause behind such wonders.

Psalms 114:7

Here is the answer. The earth trembles because the Lord is present. He is called the God of Jacob, the God who keeps His promises to a flawed family. His nearness shakes creation, and it is a comfort to those who belong to Him.

BSA: Tremble (“be afraid, quake with fear”): The earth is told to shake with awe, like someone seized by fear before a king. presence (“face, before”): The Hebrew word means face, so the earth trembles before the very face of God.

Hebrew: חוּלִי (khuli, H2342) — “writhe, tremble, be in labor.” The word can describe the pains of childbirth as well as trembling. It shows the earth shaken to its depths.

See also: Psalm 97:4-5.

Psalms 114:8

The psalm ends with God’s kindness. He turned hard rock into a pool and flint into a spring, as when He gave Israel water in the wilderness. The same power that shakes mountains also meets His people’s thirst and gives them life.

BSA: flint (“a hard rock, unchanging”): The hardest stone becomes a source of water by God’s word, so no need is too hard for Him. fountain (“a spring, source of refreshment”): What was lifeless and dry becomes a spring that keeps on giving.

See also: Exodus 17:6; Numbers 20:11; 1 Corinthians 10:4.