God’s Word for You
Psalm 114:3-8 The sea looked and fled
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Saturday, November 27, 2021
We return to Psalm 114, and praise given to God for the way he cares for his people at all times, and especially during the great crisis of the exodus.
3 The sea looked and fled,
Jordan turned back.
4 The mountains skipped like rams,
the hills like lambs.
5 What ails you, O sea, that you flee?
O Jordan, that you turn back?
6 O mountains, that you skip like rams?
O hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the LORD,
at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 who turns the rock into a pool of water,
the flint into a spring of water. (RSV)
The reference to the sea that “fled” is of course the Red Sea that split in two and stood towering like stone walls while the wind of the Lord blew the sea floor dry (Exodus 14:21). The people walked across in complete safety without so much as a wet footprint. But then, the Lord did it again. He did not need to. But following the death of Moses, the Lord commanded Joshua to lead the people across the Jordan and into the promised land. The river was at flood stage (that is, during the harvest season), and “as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing” (Joshua 3:15-16).
What about the “skipping” of the mountains and hills like rams and lambs? Is this a geological event, like an earthquake, that cause the Jordan River to pile up north of Jericho (Joshua says the water stayed near the village of Adam near Zarethan (Joshua 3:16)? God sometimes works through natural events to bring about his holy will, but the skipping of the hills could perhaps refer to some other famous earthquake, like the one in the days of king Uzziah (Amos 1:1; Zechariah 14:5).
More importantly for Israel is the reminder that God provided for them by bringing water directly from stone, which he did many times throughout the long years of the exodus and the forty years of wandering.
Sometimes God’s most visible blessings can seem ordinary to us after a while. What would Moses have given to have seen something as spectacular as the Lord’s Supper? Here are the body and blood of the Lamb of God, the priest becoming the sacrifice himself! And yet we walk up to take it, remembering the forgiveness, but without a care in the world for all of the ancient bloody slaughtered animals which it replaced. Those things are no longer necessary because Christ came. The exodus itself is merely a picture of the rescue, the salvation we have in Christ. So now it is we who will skip like lambs, and it is the devil who cringes in terror and flees at the mere name of Jesus our Savior. Give Jesus your praise, give the Father his glory, and give the Holy Spirit a place in your heart.
When I tread the verge of Jordan,
Bid my anxious fears subside;
Death of death and hell’s destruction
Land me safe on Canaan’s side.
Song of praise I will ever give to thee!
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.