When we look at a great mountain, we see something that is solid and steadfast. To completely remove a mountain, such as one in the Rocky Mountains of the western U.S., or one in the Alps or the Himalayas, would be an astounding, possibly impossible feat. The oceans of the world, along with large lakes and major rivers are also rather sure and steadfast. We aren’t going to wake up one morning and find the Atlantic or Pacific ocean missing. It would take a mighty and impossibly costly engineering feat to divert or reverse the flow of the Amazon, the Nile, or the Mississippi Rivers. However, what is impossible with man is not impossible with God. As we read this week’s psalm, we see that all of nature is subject to its Creator.
Psalm 114 is a short psalm, only eight verses long, giving a brief account of the exodus from Egypt, but one filled with much poetic imagery. God’s deliverance of His people from slavery in Egypt is perhaps the greatest, and most pivotal event in the Old Testament. It is referenced again and again, both in the Book of Psalms and the prophets. It is also frequently mentioned in the New Testament, as well.
As our psalm opens, the unknown psalmist describes the Israelites coming out of captivity, of slavery to a people of “strange language”, a foreign people. When they had come into Egypt a few hundred years earlier, they were just a very large family - elderly Jacob, his eleven sons (Joseph was already in Egypt), their spouses, and all of their children. Some of Jacob’s grandchildren could already have been old enough to have already had children themselves. When they left at the time of the exodus, they were multiple thousands. They knew that they were God’s chosen people (vs. 2). God was with His people from the beginning of the exodus, when He parted the Red Sea, to the end when they entered the Promised Land, when He parted the Jordan River (Exodus 14:15-31; Joshua 3:1-17).
The parting of the waters of the Red Sea was an extraordinary, miraculous event for God’s people. With the final of the 10 plagues God brought down upon the Egyptians, the death of the firstborn, Pharaoh told the people to leave. Shortly afterwards he changed his mind, and sent his army and chariots after them. There they were, the Red Sea before them, the armies of Egypt behind them. What were they to do? That is when God stepped in and did what man could not do, He parted the waters and allowed the people to cross on dry ground. God performed a similar miracle right prior to the people entering in the Promised Land when He parted the waters of the Jordan River, right at its peak during flooding season.
During the time that they traveled through the wilderness, God also spoke to the people through Moses upon the top of Mt. Sinai, where the mountain shook in an earthquake, with lightning and fire appearing (Exodus 19:16-18). He also provided water for the people from the rock which Moses struck with his rod (vs. 8; Numbers 20:8-11).
The psalmist describes these events in words filled with poetic imagery. The waters seeing God and His people, and fleeing back (vs. 3, 5). The mountains skipped like lambs, trembling at God’s presence (vs. 4, 6). The most fixed of geographical features, the mountains and hills, the oceans, lakes and rivers, cannot resist the power and will of God. To tremble at God’s presence means to recognize God’s complete power and authority, and our frailty by comparison (vs. 7). The mountain at Sinai trembled when God, its Creator, descended upon it. Nature must tremble before the omnipotent God.
The God who delivered His people from bondage, and provided for their needs, is our God today. All people who have put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ are His children, and He will always care and provide for us. As we have seen, all of nature, including the most fixed of geographical features, are under His control and command. He can still unfurl His power any time He chooses. The world needs to take notice and tremble at His presence.
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