Psalms 114

Subdivision 2. (Psalms 114:1-8; Psalms 115:1-18; Psalms 116:1-19; Psalms 117:1-2; Psalms 118:1-29; Psalms 119:1-176.) The attaching of the soul to the God of salvation. The second subdivision shows us now these ways of God, which have been already before us, resulting in the attaching of Israel’s heart to Himself in days that are still to come. And here there are two plain sections; the first of which gives the Old Testament argument; the second, the New. In the first the controversy between God and them is regarding idolatry (Psalms 115:1-18). In the second, it is the “Stone” that they have rejected, but who becomes the “head of the corner” (Psalms 118:1-29). Thus the argument is complete. Section 1. (Psalms 114:1-8; Psalms 115:1-18; Psalms 116:1-19; Psalms 117:1-2.)One Jehovah: The Old Testament Lesson. The first section contains four psalms, none of them very long, and one the shortest in the Bible. In them we are first carried back, as in the beginning of the sixty-eighth psalm, to the exodus from Egypt, to see the power and grace of God as shown among them at that time. There had come in, alas, a breach between them and their glorious Leader in consequence of the straying of their hearts from Him; and the setting up of the abominations of the heathen before His eyes in the land from which they should have been rooted out. This is now looked back upon and judged in the light of their present experience of His delivering hand; and in the third psalm here (Psalms 116:1-19) He has displayed Himself to them in the resurrection of the nation, so as to bring back their hearts effectually to Him. The final psalm (Psalms 117:1-2) exhorts the nations of the earth to praise Him therefore for His loving-kindness and faithfulness towards the delivered nation. The rejection or reception of Christ is nowhere in question.

Psalms 114:1-8

The power of Jacob’s God. The first psalm of the series is of the simplest character. It dwells upon the power of God as seen in the deliverance out of Egypt, and upon His gracious identification of Himself with them as His people at that time. It merely describes with emphatic brevity these things: suggesting the questions which formally it does not raise. Its fragmentary character is itself strikingly suggestive. Why should the history of which it speaks be thus exceptional and fragmentary? The covenant-Name, Jehovah, is significant in a very different way.

1. The psalm is in two parts of four verses each. The first speaks of God as Lord, and yet without mentioning Him: there was no need to do so. There is but One who can dry up the sea and make the mountains skip. It was the beginning of their history as a nation: the passover, as we know, rearranged their year for them. Egypt, though so long the place of their abode, is but a place of strange language to those who are now to be the holy people of God. Only with redeemed ones can God dwell; and where He dwells He reigns: “Judah was His sanctuary; Israel His dominion.” The names have their significance otherwise than historically: the “prince with God” is thus ennobled by the yoke he bears; the holy place is one with the place of “praise.” Nature realizes and owns her God: the sea and Jordan alike, at the two ends of the desert journey; Sinai between them no less manifests its awe: “the mountains skipped like rams, and the hills like lambs.”
2. The second part begins with an inquiry as to the cause of this, the answer revealing another character of Him whose sovereignty is thus recognized, and who yet softens the majesty of His presence, to walk in company with the “worm Jacob.” Nay, His glorious power is made but to serve the necessities of His creatures: “turning the rock into a pool, -the flint into a fountain of waters.” Far apart as they may be in time and diverse in Planner, we see that it is the same God who afterwards put on a lowlier, yet more glorious dress in which to serve His people, coming into the wilderness Himself in fashion as a man; to do here the works which no other man did. What altered so for this people, the grace of such a beginning? What has banished from the world the tender presence of the Son of man? The two questions have but one answer. The generations of men; however far apart in time or place, have one fatal resemblance throughout. In the words of the apostle, “they did not like to retain God in their knowledge.”