Works Volume 4, 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 mankind by the death of his Son.
1. WHEN Iſrael went out of Aegypt, the houſe of Jacob from a ‖barbarous peoplepeople of ſtrange language,
2. Judah was his †to or for his holineſsſanctuary, and Iſrael his *power.dominion.
Paraphrase. 1, 2. 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 foreigndriven back.
Paraphrase. 3. 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. 4.7. whilſt Joſhua and the people paſſed over it.
4. The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs.
Paraphrase. 4. And at the giving the Law to them in the wilderneſs, 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. 19.18.
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 rock into a †lake ofſtanding water, the flint into a fountain of waters.
Paraphrase. 5, 6, 7, 8. If any man demanded what was the reaſon of the prodigious ebb 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 exhibit himſelf 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 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 Pſal. CXIV.
foreignV. 1. Of ſtrange language] The Hebrew foreign is by the Chaldee here rendred, foreign barbarous, and ſo by the Greek foreign. The word among the Greeks and Latins 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.
foreignV. 2. His ſanctuary] The word foreign will literally be rendred to or for his holineſs, and being joyned with foreign was will ſignifie, that Judah, the people of the Jews there ſpoken of, was made uſe of by God on, or among, them to demonſtrate his holineſs, in the notion wherein oft it is taken for the keeping his promiſe ſacred or inviolate; as when Pſal. 111.9. ſpeaking of the firmneſs and immutability of his Covenant, it is added, foreign holy (as in another reſpect, reverend) is his name. The meaning then is, that Judaea was a ſpecial inſtance of his holineſs, 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 holineſs, or to his holineſs, and his power, are joyntly attributed to the ſame ſubject, Judah and Iſrael; not that the holineſs 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 Almighty 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. 136.9. 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 Iſrael's being his dominion here may be, their being impowered as a Prince by God, to go out with an high hand, executing juſtice on their enemies.
V. 4. foreignMountains] Though the earthquake at the giving the Law were ſo remarkable, 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. foreignStanding water] The foreign is beſt rendred a lake of water, to 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. 105.41.