Psalm 114: When Israel came out of Egypt
When Israel came out of Egypt,
O the house of Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,
When Israel came out of Egypt,
O the house of Jacob from a people of foreign tongue.
Judah became God's sanctuary,
And Israel his dominion.
The sea looked and fled,
And the Jordan turned back;
The mountains skipped like rams,
And the hills like lambs.
O why was it, O sea, that you fled,
And why was O Jordan, that you turned back.
The sea looked and fled,
And the Jordan turned back;
The mountains skipped like rams,
And the hills like lambs.
O why was it O mountains, that you skipped like rams,
And why was it O hills, you skipped like like lambs?
Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
At the presence of the God of Jacob,
Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
At the presence of the God of Jacob.
Who turned the rock into a pool,
The hard rock into springs of water.
He turned the rock into a pool,
And the hard rock into springs of water.
He turned the rock into a pool,
And the hard rock into springs of water.
He turned the rock into a pool,
And the hard rock into springs of water.
Tremble O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
At the presence of the God of Jacob,
Tremble O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
At the presence of the God of Jacob.
Jeff Lowe: Lead vocal, guitar
Comments
In what has been called “the Exodus Psalm par excellence”, these eight verses paint several vivid pictures – a people made to serve God; the Red Sea waters, (and the Jordan) held back to enable God’s people to escape their enslavement and death; the earthquake at Mount Sinai when the Lord descended on it; and the world which will one day tremble at the awesome creative power of a God who turns hard rock into springs of water.
Writer Phil Moore urged those reading Psalms 113 and 114 not to miss the significance of Jesus singing these two psalms before he ate the Passover meal with his disciples, writing, “He celebrated the fact that his imminent death and resurrection were about to work an even better Exodus for all mankind.”