Psalm 114:1

New Catholic Bible

Footnotes

1. Psalm 114:1 By reason of its literary composition and poetic inspiration, this poem constitutes a little masterpiece. Felicitously, the poet personifies, herein, the elements of nature led in a dance by God during the Exodus, to make them keen-eyed witnesses of the Lord’s triumphal march at the head of his people. Israel belongs so strongly to God that it is like his sanctuary and his domain (v. 2). On an epic and triumphal tone, the people underline the time beyond compare when God established this destiny for them: it is the great adventure of their deliverance.
   When the Lord passes by with his people, the sea and waters flee (see Ex 14:15-31; Jos 3:7-17), Sinai thunders and smokes (see Ex 19:16-18), the source springs forth in the desert rocks (see Ex 17:1-7; Num 20:1-13). These remembrances of the Exodus are like the prelude to the upheaval of the universe announcing the coming of God at the end of the earthly ages.
   We can pray this psalm in union with the Church ceaselessly meditating on and celebrating the privileged hour of her beginnings: the Passover of Christ that opens up for humankind a destiny of salvation in a new Exodus. Nature bows down before the divine Pioneer of this Exodus. The waters become calm and peaceful in the Sea of Galilee at a word from him: “Be still!” (Mk 4:39), while the mountains tremble at the moment of his Death and Resurrection (Mt 27:51; 28:2), as well as at the moment of his great interventions in history (see Rev 11:19; 16:18).
2. Psalm 114:1 The deliverance from a foreign country was only a preamble to the greater deeds: the election of the chosen people and the making of the covenant on Sinai. Judah, the province of the tribe of that name, became the sanctuary of God and all Israel his kingdom; it was a theocracy, a priestly kingdom (see Ex 19:3-6; Jer 2:3). This was a grand event prefiguring the redemption to come and the birth of the Church.