Calvary Road Baptist Church
“TREMBLE AT THE PRESENCE OF THE Lord”
Psalm 114
Previously, we took note of two verses in the Gospel accounts. Matthew 26.30 reads,
“And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.”
Mark 14.26 reads,
“And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.”
You might also recall that we took note of the habitual Passover pattern of Jewish people of that day to sing what are called the Hallel psalms, Psalms 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, and 118. Thus, we have a high level of confidence that the Lord Jesus Christ and His eleven remaining apostles sang hymns in the Upper Room and as they walked toward the Garden of Gethsemane, those hymns likely being these psalms.
Having dealt with the 113th Psalm last week, when you have located the 114th Psalm, please stand for the reading of God’s Word:
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.
Remembering that the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, and most of Job, are poetry, it is obvious that this psalm contains very stylized language. What is the purpose of such stylized language? Not to conceal. If God’s purpose was to conceal the truth, He would not have inspired such passages as this psalm. No, the purpose of stylized language in psalms such as this one is to improve our understanding.
To that end, I proceed by making our way through this psalm twice. First, we will read, and I will comment on the subject matter of the psalm, which is an expanded overview reminiscence and celebration of certain aspects of the Exodus of God’s people from Egypt. Then, we will read, and I will comment from the perspective of the Lord Jesus Christ leading His eleven remaining men to sing this psalm the night before His crucifixion and as He led them to sing the other Egyptian Hallel psalms.
The Exodus, to remind you, was the liberation of the Jewish people after four centuries in Egypt, from bondage as slaves, that occurred almost fifteen centuries before the birth of Christ.
First, CELEBRATING THE DELIVERANCE OF GOD’S PEOPLE AT THE EXODUS
The eight verses that comprise the psalm are paired to show the relationship of the chosen nation to God and to treat them almost like they were alive, the inanimate features mentioned, and their responses to God’s active presence during the Exodus:
First, consider the Exodus of God’s people from Egypt:
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.
There are several observations about the Exodus overview provided by these two verses: First, we note that the Israelite nation is referred to four times in these two verses, like Israel, as the house of Jacob, as Judah, and then again as Israel. Each is a designation for the entirety of the one covenant people known as the children of Israel. Next, we discover a parallelism in the first verse, with the first phrase identifying the nation’s place of departure with the words “went out of Egypt,” and the second phrase reading “from a people of strange language,” with both referring to the same event. Thus, Egypt was a people of strange language to the children of Israel. Third, in verse 2, Judah is referred to as “his sanctuary” in the first phrase, with Israel as “his dominion” in the second phrase. The word “sanctuary” is likely an allusion to the Tabernacle in the wilderness that housed the Ark of the Covenant situated amid the camp, with “his dominion” a nod to God’s rule over the people. Fourth, instead of God’s name that might be expected in verse 2, we see the word “his” used twice, “his sanctuary,” and “his dominion.” This could be because God’s name is written eight times in Psalm 113, with numerous other direct references to God in that closely linked psalm.
Next, consider the personification in the psalm of different inanimate objects:
3 The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back.
4 The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs.
Does the sea, certainly referring here to the Red Sea, actually see anything and flee from it? Only in poetry. Jordan could only refer to the Jordan River, that was stopped at the height of flood season so the Israelites could cross over into the Promised Land dry-shod, Joshua 3.13. But here it is said, “Jordan was driven back.” But the Hebrew word translated “driven” here is translated “turned” in Genesis 42.24 when Joseph turned from his brothers so they would not see him cry.[1] Thus, the psalm describes the action of the Jordan River as being an intelligent response. This is possible only in poetry. Mountains skipping like rams and little hills like lambs likens larger and smaller elevations to acting like flock animals that have been frightened by something. Again, only in poetry. Thus, with both realms of water, mountains, and hills, movements are poetically attributed to those inanimate objects as if they were living things. Such descriptions are obviously poetic license. But to what end? It is our task as students of God’s Word to try and discover why such poetic license was used. What was the psalmist, or the Holy Spirit, seeking to accomplish for the readers by using such phrases?
Third, the psalm proceeds to question the inanimate objects’ responses:
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?
Now these inanimate features are being questioned. The sea is asked why it fled. Really? The river is asked why it was driven back. Again, why? The mountains are questioned for skipping like rams, and the little hills are questioned for behaving like frightened lambs. In verses 3 and 4, the inanimate waters and mountains, and hills are poetically portrayed as living things that reacted to the Exodus. In verses 5 and 6, the inanimate waters and mountains and hills are questioned as if they are capable of answering why they reacted to the Exodus. We know the waters of the Red Sea did part, said in this psalm to flee. But why? Mount Sinai and surrounding features did shake and convulse, described here as skipping like rams and lambs. Why so? And why did the Jordan River completely stop, said in this psalm, to be driven back? Explanations are demanded by these two verses.
Finally, the psalm charges these inanimate feature’s proper response:
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.
This is where the psalm gets really interesting. This charge is really an answer to the questions asked. The word “tremble” is an imperative verb, with the earth directed to tremble, as in anguish.[2] But why is the earth directed to “tremble?” “Tremble” at the presence of the Lord, the word Lord being Adonai. Tremble “at the presence of the God of Jacob.” This psalm demands that the earth tremble because that is the appropriate response to the active presence of the Lord. That is the proper response to “the presence of the God of Jacob.” What do you imagine the psalmist is accomplishing? This psalm establishes that the proper reaction to the active presence of the Lord, and the correct response to the active presence of the God of Jacob, particularly when He is engaged in works of redemption, is to tremble. After all, does not verse 8 remind the reader of Moses smiting the rock to bring forth water for the children of Israel to drink?[3] Unintelligent and nonliving physical features, from mountains and hills to a sea and a river, were directed to tremble “at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob,” Whose presence “turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters.” The implication? If mountains and hills and bodies of standing water and running water react in such ways “at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob,” how are you to explain your nonresponse, your nonreaction to God’s activity in redemption?
Now, CONSIDER THE DELIVERANCE OF GOD’S PEOPLE BY THE SAVIOR
Let us now reflect on this psalm, as recited by the Lord Jesus Christ the night before His crucifixion, understanding the Exodus as a deliverance in which the sinner’s salvation from sin by Jesus Christ would be the fulfillment of what was pictured by the Exodus.
First, consider the Savior reflecting on the Exodus of God’s people from Egypt as He recited this psalm that evening in the Upper Room and as they walked to Gethsemane:
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.
There are several considerations applicable to Him as He led His men to rehearse these two verses: Sometimes, what is not declared resonates as loudly in the minds and hearts of informed people as what is declared. No mention is made in verse 1 about how Israel was delivered from Egypt or about how the house of Jacob was able to depart from a people of strange language. But that is because the readers of this psalm down through history have known. Their deliverance came about by God’s strong right hand.[4] Miracle after miracle was wrought by God to deliver His chosen nation from Egypt and into the Promised Land. The Passover they traditionally celebrated before reciting this psalm reminds them of that. As the Savior voiced this psalm, He must have reflected that He delivered them from Egypt. He brought them from a people of strange language. The sanctuary, that Tabernacle in the wilderness, was a type of His humanity. And the covenant people had always been His dominion. He was, after all, the King of the Jews. But they would not own Him as their king that night before His crucifixion, would they?
Next, consider the personification in the psalm of the inanimate things:
3 The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back.
4 The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs.
When this psalm refers to the Red Sea and the Jordan River, did the Lord reflect on the waters of the Sea of Galilee calming at His command and the waters of the Jordan River wetting His body when cousin John baptized Him? During the Exodus, the Lord Jesus Christ exhibited a fearsome display of power that caused the sea to flee, the river to turn back, and the mountains and hills to skip. But when He left heaven’s glory to become the God-Man, He arrived quietly, discreetly, and without fanfare until the angels announced His arrival some hours later to shepherds keeping watch over their flocks. For the most part, His earthly life and later His earthly ministry were very restrained. He walked on the water. He calmed the wind and waves. He healed and cleansed and spoke and raised the dead. But His displays of miracle-working power were always very subdued. Only once did His glory burst forth, and that was on a mountain top with but three of His disciples witnessing the event. For the most part, during His life here on earth before His crucifixion, His was a ministry of words and truth rather than a ministry of power and might. The Jordan River was calm during His earthly ministry. The Sea of Galilee became calm for Him. And during the three and a half years of His itinerant ministry, the mountains and the hills did not skip as rams and lambs.
Third, the psalm questions the inanimate’s responses:
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?
These questions did not pertain to our Lord’s life on earth for the most part or the final years of His earthly ministry leading up to His crucifixion. As He walked to the Garden of Gethsemane, the sea was not questioned for fleeing. The Jordan River was not queried for being driven back. The mountains and hills did not skip like rams and lambs. But that would change in a few hours, and again in a few days. All was quiet as the Savior walked and talked with His men and led them in giving voice to the Hallel psalms ... but that would change. What would the change signal? Redemptive activity.
Finally, the psalm charges the inanimate features’ proper response:
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.
Verse 7 provides instruction to the earth beneath our feet. I am not suggesting anything like the pantheistic nonsense that supposes any intelligence to our physical universe. But the universe was created by the Savior to uplift and glorify God, and it will do that. Recall the occasion only four days earlier, during the Savior’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the foal of an ass, when the Pharisees complained about the disciples rejoicing and praising God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen. The people said,
“Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.”[5]
The Pharisees did not appreciate that, and complained to the Lord. But the Lord said to their demand that He stop the people from praising Him,
“I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.”[6]
Creation is not always and in every case passive in the presence of the Creator, especially when He is bringing to bear His astonishing power and might in connection with works of redemption. Therefore, let us consider verses 7 and 8 in that light. The Lord is of such majesty and might that He turned rock into standing water and the flint into a fountain of waters. With that in mind, consider what happened the next day when the Lord Jesus Christ cried out and gave up the ghost, and three days after that when He rose from the dead.
We advance about nineteen hours. It is 3:00 PM and the Savior has been on the cross for upwards of six hours. He will momentarily choose to die on the cross an atonement for my sins. As I read from Matthew 27.50, take particular note of the inanimate world’s response to the saving work of God in Christ Jesus, and some related events:
50 Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.
51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,
53 And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.
54 Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.
When the eternal Son of the living God departed through the gateway of physical death to the eternal realm the veil of the temple was rent from top to bottom, the earth quaked, rocks rent (from the Greek word scizw), graves opened, and many believers rose from the dead and appeared to people. The centurion and other soldiers with him who were watching Jesus on the cross saw the earthquake, witnessed other phenomena, and feared greatly. Then they said,
“Truly this was the Son of God.”
For three days and nights, all was quiet. The Savior’s human body was in Joseph of Arimathaea’s tomb. His spirit was outside the physical universe He had created and dwelt in for 33½. When He dramatically, suddenly, openly left time and space and matter, things happened, and some of those things were recorded for us. Three days later, we read in Matthew 28.1-4,
1 In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.
2 And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.
3 His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:
4 And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.
Another earthquake. Is that not interesting? Why, do you suppose? We know that most earthquakes occur when tectonic plates on the earth’s surface suddenly shift to relieve stress. Not so with the events of the Exodus. Not so with the death of Christ on the cross of Calvary. And not so with the resurrection of Christ three days and nights later. There was disruption when He left His physical body. There was disruption when He was reunited with His now glorified physical body. I am persuaded Psalm 114.7 informs us why such events take place:
“Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob.”
When the Exodus took place, beginning with the removal of the children of Israel from Egyptian slavery, with the parting of the waters of the Red Sea, followed by a year at the foot of the rumbling Mount Sinai, and concluding with their crossing over Jordan forty years later, we saw dramatic responses by inanimate objects to divine activity associated with redemption. Almost fifteen hundred years later, we read of dramatic responses by inanimate objects to divine activity associated with redemption again. When the Lord Jesus Christ suddenly departed from this realm by giving up the ghost a number of things happened, including earthquakes, graves opening, people rising from the dead, as well as other things. As during the Exodus, those things were terrifying.
Three days later, another terrifying event erupted with yet another earthquake to signal the Savior’s resurrection from the dead, His reentry into our realm by reuniting with His now glorified human body. And both the guards assigned to the tomb and the women who had come to the tomb were terrified. Four days earlier, the Lord had led His remaining men after celebrating the Passover, which was a type of His future deliverance remember. On that occasion, He led them in reciting the Hallel psalms, including this 114th Psalm, that looked back on the Exodus fifteen centuries earlier. Physical features such as the Red Sea, the Jordan River, mountains, and hills reacted
“at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob.”
Fifteen centuries later, we see similar activity for the same reasons, “the presence of the Lord” and “the presence of the God of Jacob.” At His crucifixion and His resurrection. This suggests to me that the entrance and exit of the Son of God into and out His creation in dramatic fashion accomplish redemptive work produces detectable reactions.
One of the takeaways from Psalm 114? Senseless creation has enough sense to respond to the presence of the Lord. Senseless creation has enough sense to respond to the presence of the God of Jacob. Do you? If not, why not?
Does it bother you that God does not bother you? Does it bother you that the Lord does not bother you? Would you not agree that His presence ought to bother you and that if you are not bothered by His presence, the fault lies with you and not Him?
I recommend you consider your need for the new birth, so your spiritual death will be replaced by spiritual life. Insensitivity and dullness to spiritual things are not an advantage, and a relationship with Jesus Christ is your only remedy.
__________
[1] Francis Brown, S. R. Driver & Charles A. Briggs, The New Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew And English Lexicon, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1979), page 685.
[2] Ibid., page 297.
[3] Exodus 17.6; Psalm 107.35
[4] Exodus 6.1; 15.6, 12; 13.9
[5] Luke 19.38
[6] Luke 19.40
Question? Comment?
Would you like to contact Dr. Waldrip about this sermon? Fill out the form below to send him an email. Thank you.