Psalms 114

Psalms 114:1-8

This psalm is the celebration of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. 1. They were brought out of slavery, ver. 1. 2. God set up his tabernacle among them, ver. 2. 3. The sin and Jordan were divided before them, ver. 3, 5. 4. The earth shall at the giving the law, when God came down on mount times, ver. 4, 6. 7. 5. God gave them water out of the rock, ver. 8. In singing this psalm we must acknowledge God’s power and goodness in what he did

did for Israel, applying it to the much greater work of wonder, our redemption by Christ, and encouraging ourselves and others to trust in God in the greatest Straits.

1. WHEN Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of a strange language; 2. Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion. 3. The sea saw it, and fled; Jordan was driven back. 4. The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs. 5. What afoot then, O thou Sea, that thou fleddelt? thou Jordan, that thou was driven back? 6. Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams; and ye little hills like lambs? 7. Tremble thou earth at the presence of the LORD, at the presence of the God of Jacob. 8. Which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters.

The wonders of former days deserve to be kept in everlasting remembrance, both that God may be glorified for them, and we take encouragement from thence to hope still in his mercy.

1. God brought his Israel from Egypt: They went out, with triumph, wealth, and honour, from a people of a strange language, which they understood not, or barbarous, as they accounted the Egyptian tongue, compared with their own. The people of God are thus brought up out of spiritual Egypt, and called from this strange country the world, to join those who speak the pure language of Canaan.

2. Among them his special presence rested, and he was in a peculiar manner their king. Judah was his sanctuary; his presence rested visibly in the midst of them; and his homely, separated from all nations for his service; and Israel his dominion, among whom he erected a theocracy, himself their law-giver and judge, and exercising the power of civil government among them. Thus doth his presence dwell in his living temples, the souls of his redeemed; holiness is written upon their hearts, and obedient to all his commands and ordinances, they desire to approve themselves his faithful subjects.

3. To open a passage for them, the sea affrighted fled, and Jordan backwards rolled his overflowing streams. How was the mighty miracle effected? why fled the Sea? why skipped the mountains Horeb and Sinai? Why? They felt the present Dinty; the powers of nature stood controuled before him, and earth to its centre shook. Note, (1.) Whatever difficulties are in the way of God’s Israel, from seas of tribulation, and mountains of unbelief and corruption, as easily and certainly shall they be all removed. (2.) Did rocky Horeb tremble before God? and is thy heart, sinner, more obdurate and insensible?

4. He gave them waters out of the rock, and all the desert through rauled the salutary streams to follow them. That rock was Christ; from him still flow, for every believer’s use, full streams of grace and confolation, to cheat them in their passage through this world’s bowling wilderness; nor will he ever have or forsake them, till, from drinking at the stream below, he shall bring them to the fountain-head above, and fill them with eternal confolations and glory in the heavenly Canaan.