Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 5 · Psalm 114
The Hundred and Fourteenth Psalm.
The Hundred and fourteenth is a brief recital of the miraculous works of God to his people the Jews, in their redemption out of Aegypt, and journey to Canaan; an emblem of his greater miracles of mercy in the redemption of mankinde by the death of his son.
1. WHen Israel went out of Aegypt, the house of Jacob from a‖barbarous people people ofa. strange language,
2. Judah wasb. his†to or for his holyness sanctuary, and Israel his*power. dominion.
Paraphrase. When God was pleased to deliver his people of Israel out of the servitude they indured in Aegypt, he did in a signal manner demonstrate both the sacred and inviolate nature of all his promises, and the overruling virtue of his power and dominion over all creatures, his fidelity at once, and his omnipotence.
3. The sea saw it and fled, Jordan was‖turned foreign driven back.
At his least command the Red sea departed out of the chanel, and left a dry ground for them to pass in the midst of it; as at another time the river Jordan parted asunder, and the current stopt its course, and went backward, the waters were cut off, Jos. iv. 7. whilst Joshua and the people passed over it.
4. Thec. mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs.
And at the giving the Law to them in the wildernesse, the whole mountain on which it was, Mount Sinai, all the greater and lesser branches of it, did greatly shake, and move out of the place most terribly, Exod. xix. 18.
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 rockd. into a†lake of standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters.
If any man demanded what was the reason of the prodigious ebbe of the Red sea, or of the standing still and parting of Jordan, of the terrible earthquake and commotion that was of the whole mountain and parts of Sinai, the account is evident, God was there pleased by the ministery and guard of Angels to exhibite himselfe in a special manner to that people for their rescue out of Aegypt, and to bring them into Canaan, and to deliver his Law unto them; and that presence of his was the only cause of all these prodigious effects, as at another time it was of bringing such plenty of water out of a rock of flint, that it maintained a current (as if it had been a notable spring) some considerable time after.
Annotations on Psalm CXIV.
V. 1. Of strange language] The Hebrew foreign foreignis by the Chaldee here rendred foreign barbarous, and so by the Greek foreign. The word among the Greeks and Latines comes from the Hebrew foreign extra, redoubled, and so signifies to a Jew any man of any other nation, and so fitly answers to foreign a stranger or alien.
V. 2. His sanctuary] The word foreign will literally be rendred to or for his holiness, foreignand being joyned with foreign was will signify, that Judah, the people of the Jews there spoken of, was made use of by God on, or among, them to demonstrate his holinesse, in the notion wherein oft it is taken for the keeping his promise sacred or inviolate; as when Psal. cxi. 9. speaking of the firmenesse and immutability of his Covenant, it is added, foreign holy (as in another respect, reverend) is his name. The meaning then is, that Judea was a special instance of his holinesse, or performing his promise made to Abraham long before. And then in proportion, that which follows must be understood, foreign Israel was his power, i. e. Israel was an instance of his power, in his acting for Israel he declared his omnipotence most signally; the Lxxii. literally render it foreign his power, but the Syriack foreign his praise or glory, i. e. in dealing with whom he set forth his glory. In this, as in the former verse, the expression is poetical. In the first verse, as Israel and the house of Jacob are the same thing in several names, so is Aegypt and the barbarous people. And here, as Judah and Israel are all one (the separation being not made at that time, which is here respected) so foreign and foreign his holinesse, or to his holinesse, and his power, are joyntly attributed to the same subject, Judah and Israel; not that the holinesse of God was shewed in one, and the power in the other. Another interpretation the words are capable of, that as Judah marcht out of Aegypt, the cloud which went before the host abode upon them, and that presentiating allmighty God, and still consecrating and making holy the place of his abode, may found that speech, that Judah was his sanctuary, or place of his residence. And then, as Psal. cxxxvi. 9. the moon is said to be foreign for a dominion in the night, i. e. in an active sense to rule, and govern; so the meaning of Israels being his dominion here may be, their being impowered as a Prince by God, to goe out with an high hand, executing justice on their enemies.
V. 4. Mountains] Though the earthquake at the giving the Law were so remarkable,foreign that there can be no doubt of the fitness of accommodating this skipping of the mountains to it; yet 'tis not amiss to mention the interpretation of Kimchi, who applies it to the striking the rocks in Rephidim and Cades, which also hath this probability, that Naturalists observe that earthquakes sometimes make eruptions of water.
V. 8. Standing water] The foreign is best rendred a lake of water, foreignto note the abundance of it; accordingly the Chaldee renders it foreign into a river: and so the Psalmist expresly describes the gushing out of the waters from the rock, that they ran in dry places like a river, Psal. cv. 41.