Psalm 114 comments; God's sovereignty over the material world

 

Psalm 114:1 ¶  When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of 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 ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast 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 people Israel left Egypt, a place of a foreign language. Jewish tradition, according to John Gill, was that the tribe of Judah marched into the Red Sea first. Prophetically, we can see this as a reference to Christ, the Saviour of the world, the Lion of the tribe of Juda.

 

Revelation 5:5  And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.

 

Which, while God rules the whole earth, He had a particular interest in the people He chose in early days, the people of Israel, whereas now He has a particular dominion over His people, the Israel of God, Jewish and Gentile followers of Christ.

 

Galatians 6:14  But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. 15  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. 16  And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

 

This is not to say that He is done with the people of Israel.

 

Romans 11:25  For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

 

Perhaps, as in the episode in Genesis between Joseph and his brothers Christ will reveal Himself to the Jews in the period of a great tribulation at the end of human history. Whether you agree with that idea or not I found this verse interesting.

 

Zechariah 12:10  And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see in verse 3 references to the Red Sea crossing, the Exodus, and the crossing of the Jordan River.

 

Exodus 14:21  And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. 22  And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.

 

Joshua 3:14 ¶  And it came to pass, when the people removed from their tents, to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people; 15  And as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, (for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest,) 16  That the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap very far from the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan: and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed, and were cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho. 17  And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.

 

Verse 4 suggests an earthquake or tremors of some sort accompanying these miracles.

 

Exodus 19:18  And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.

 

Psalm 68:8  The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.

 

In this Psalm glorifying God’s miraculous signs and wonders for the Israelites fleeing Egypt and entering the Promised Land we can see God’s sovereign power over all things of the physical world. Certainly it is reported in a way that would have appealed to the sensibilities of people of all ages before the modern one. But even a person steeped in the last 250 years of The Enlightenment, Modernism, Postmodernism, and Marxism in this revolutionary age can be amazed at the power of God if they see natural forces in light of the Bible’s clear statements.

 

Are you in awe of God’s power? Or are you one of those poor, blighted souls who only sees randomness and chance in every event and makes no god higher than your own will and reason apparent or real? Are our eyes open or are we dulled by our worship of Self? This Psalm makes declarations that can’t be denied, only rejected by a jaded mind. What about you?