Psalm CXIV

1 When Israel went out of 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 fleddcst? 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 oi

waters.

Every tear dropt on the golden altar would appear golden, The topie. because the gold shone through; and common things presented in sanctuary-vessels would become sacred. So it is with events of history referred to in these songs of Zion. Even if they were not wondrous in themselves, still they could not fail to be felt as unlike all other events, because so exquisitely celebrated on the harp of Israel.

This Psalm sings of the past, and of the future too. The The contents past extends from verse 1 to verse 6, the time

“When Israel, of the Lord beloved,
Out of the land of bondage came.’’’’

When we nd in verse 1, as in Psa. lxxxi. 5, Egypt spoken of as a land where the people were of a “strange tongue,” it likely that the reference is to their being a people who Id not sjjeak of God, as Israel could; even as Zeph. iii. 9 tells of the “pure lip,” viz., the lip that calls on the name of the Lord. In verse 2, “Judah” (Sept. ihvhaia) is followed by a feminine verb, both to shew that it was not the land, but the people, and also to remind us of their helplessness at that time. It is, q. d., the “daughter of my people.” And in the same verse, we hear of “His sanctuary,” as in Psa. lxxxvii. 1, without naming the person, because the heart is full of him. God dwelt in the camp, making the hearts of the people his “Holy place,” and taking the tribes as his Kingdom; while the Red Sea and Sinai testified of his presence and power. What a

seems
cou

34)2 PSALM CXIV. — PRAISE TO HIM WHO REDEEMED ISRAEL.

privilege to have such a king! What a blessedness to be dwelt in by the Holy One.

There is a future time when the like shall occur again, and the question be again asked, “What aileth thee, 0 sea, that thou fleest?” For (ver. 7, 8) the closing verses seem to be parallel to Haggai ii. 6, and Heb. xii. 26, when all the earth shall be moved at the presence of him whose presence so affected Sinai, and the Red JSea, and Jordan. Augustine also — “Ilia quoque miracula, cum in illo populo fierent, prsentia quidem, sed non sine futurorum significatione, gerebantur.” And Dr Allix says — “Tis a meditation upon the coming out of Egypt, and upon the several miracles which changed the order of nature; from whence the sacred author lifted up the minds of his people to the thoughts of their redemption, when the Messiah, appearing for their deliverance, will cause the same changes in the world.” See Micah vii. 15-17, Isa. xi. 15. And on that day they shall come forth from the crushing dominion of a power that has trod Jerusalem under foot, “whose tongue thou shalt not understand,” (Deut. xxviii. 49).

Whether in the lips of Jesus at the passover table in the upper room, when using this as part of the great Hallel, or in the lips of any of his members, the song is one of Praise to Him vjho has redeemed, and luill again redeem, his Israel.