Psalms 114 – The Earth Trembles at the Exodus
A vivid, compact retelling of the Red Sea and Jordan parting before Israel.
Following the temple praise of Psalms 113, this short psalm turns to history, picturing the sea fleeing and the Jordan driven back when Israel came out of Egypt.
When Israel departed from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,
Judah became God’s sanctuary, and Israel His dominion.
The sea observed and fled; the Jordan turned back;
the mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs.
Why was it, O sea, that you fled, O Jordan, that you turned back,
O mountains, that you skipped like rams, O hills, like lambs?
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 flint into a fountain of water!