Summary:
Psalm 114 celebrates the exodus of Israel from Egypt, emphasizing God’s power and majesty throughout the event. This psalm personifies nature as responding to God’s presence, with the sea and mountains exhibiting fear and joy. It serves not only as praise for the Israelites’ deliverance but as a reminder of God’s ongoing care. The unknown author connects these historical miracles with spiritual redemption, encouraging believers to rejoice in God’s might and grace and calls us to remember our Lord Jesus Christ, who through His sacrifice and redeeming acts has given us eternal life with Him, the Father and the Holy Spirit…….Bill
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Commentaries:
Charles Spurgeon
This sublime SONG OF THE EXODUS is one and indivisible. True poetry has here reached its climax: no human mind has ever been able to equal, much less to excel, the grandeur of this Psalm. God is spoken of as leading forth his people from Egypt to Canaan and causing the whole earth to be moved at his coming. Things inanimate are represented as imitating the actions of living creatures when the Lord passes by. They are apostrophized and questioned with marvelous force of language, till one seems to look upon the actual scene. The God of Jacob is exalted as having command over river, sea, and mountain, and causing all nature to pay homage and tribute before his glorious majesty.
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Albert Barnes
This psalm, a part of the Hallel (see the notes at the Introduction to Psalms 113:1-9), is occupied in celebrating the praises of God for what he had done in the delivering of his people from Egyptian bondage, and in conducting them to the promised land. It is the language of exultation, joy, and triumph, in view of the gracious interpositions of God in their deliverance. The psalmist sees the mountains and hills seized as it were with consternation, leaping and skipping like sheep; Jordan, as it were, frightened and fleeing back; the very earth trembling – at the presence of God. Everything is personified. Everything is full of life; everything recognizes the presence and the power of the Most High. It would be appropriate to use such a psalm on the great festivals of the Jewish nation, for nothing could be more proper than to keep these events in their history before the minds of the people. The author of the psalm is unknown, and the occasion on which it was composed cannot now be determined. It is a most animated, elevated, cheering psalm, and is proper to be used at all times to make the mind rejoice in God and to impress us with the feeling that it is easy for God to accomplish his purposes.
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John Gill
The title of this psalm in the Arabic version is “hallelujah,” as in some preceding ones; it is part of the great “Hallel” sung at the Passover, and with great propriety; since the subject matter of it is the departure of the children of Israel out of Egypt, typical of our spiritual redemption by Christ; and of the effectual calling of God’s elect out of a state of nature into a state of grace; and particularly of the conversion of the Gentiles, and the bringing of them from Paganism to Christianity: the inscription of the Syriac version is, “a psalm without a name, out of the ancient writing; concerning Moses, who sung praise at the sea; but unto us the calling of the Gospel, by which we become a new people; spiritual to God, who is incarnate; to Jesus Christ, who redeemed us by his blood from the curse of the Scripture (the law), and hath cleansed us from sin by his Spirit.”
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Matthew Henry
The deliverance of Israel out of Egypt gave birth to their church and nation, which were then founded, then formed; that work of wonder ought therefore to be had in everlasting remembrance. God gloried in it, in the preface to the Ten Commandments, and Hos. 11:1, “Out of Egypt have I called my son.” In this psalm it is celebrated in lively strains of praise; it was fitly therefore made a part of the great Hallelujah, or song of praise, which the Jews were wont to sing at the close of the passover-supper. It must never be forgotten,
I. That they were brought out of slavery (v. 1).
II. That God set up his tabernacle among them (v. 2).
III. That the sea and Jordan were divided before them (v. 3, 5).
IV. That the earth shook at the giving of the law when God came down on Mount Sinai (v. 4, 6, 7).
V. That God gave them water out of the rock (v. 8).
In singing this psalm we must acknowledge God’s power and goodness in what he 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.
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Adam Clarke
This Psalm has no title. The word Hallelujah is prefixed in all the Versions except the Chaldee and Syriac. It seems like a fragment or a part of another Psalm. In many MSS. it is only the beginning of the following; both making but one Psalm in all the Versions, except the Chaldee. It is elegantly and energetically composed; but begins and ends very abruptly, if we separate it from the following. As to the author of this Psalm, there have been various opinions; some have given the honor of it to Shadrach, Meshech, and Abed-nego; others to Esther; and others, to Mordecai.
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The Pulpit Commentaries
A PSALM of reminiscence, designed to encourage the exiles on their return from Babylon, during their “day of small things” (Zechariah 4:10; comp. Ezra 3:12). If God had done so much for them when he brought them out of Egypt if such glorious prodigies had marked that epoch, might they not be sure that his hand would be stretched out for them now? Formally, the psalm is more like a modern poem than most. It divides into four stanzas of four lines each, very evenly balanced, and perfect in its metrical arrangement. “The psalm is evidently by a skilled artist” (Cheyne).
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Psalm 114 NKJV
1
When Israel went out of Egypt,
The house of Jacob from a people of strange language,
2
Judah became His sanctuary,
And Israel His dominion.
3
The sea saw it and fled;
Jordan turned back.
4
The mountains skipped like rams,
The little hills like lambs.
5
What ails you, O sea, that you fled?
O Jordan, that you turned back?
6
O mountains, that you skipped like rams?
O little hills, like lambs?
7
Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
At the presence of the God of Jacob,
8
Who turned the rock into a pool of water,
The flint into a fountain of waters.
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Final Thoughts:
They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: “Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints! Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. For all nations shall come and worship before You, For Your judgments have been manifested.” Revelation 15:3-4 NKJV
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